this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2025
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[–] QuietCupcake@hexbear.net 25 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

For anyone reading this who might be scratching their head as to what "tankie" means, you can find descrriptions of its history a number of places, but for all intents and purposes here on the fediverse, it simply refers to the people who have the most education in history and socioeconomics. Since reality is in direct contradiction with most of the prevailing narratives pushed by the powerful beneficiaries of the dominant systems (the most obvious of these systems being capitalism), there will always be a contingent of true believers in the dominant narrative who are shocked to find that there are others who openly reject those narratives. The former will clutch their pearls, aghast that the propaganda they've believed all their lives is being questioned by these... these... muckrakers! And so a pejorative is used (hence the word "tankies") to otherize and sequester the individuals best able to challenge those narratives, individuals whose presence tends to trigger the uncomfortable feeling of cognitive dissonance in those who aren't yet ready or able to put their beliefs to honest questioning.

In short, if you have no problem with seeing and reading perspectives that might make you question your own perspective, then you should have no problem with the "tankies." And as for those who would actively defederate from those vile tankie instances so as to avoid having to confront even the possibility that their own beliefs are riddled throughout with deep misconceptions, well that should tell you something about the priorities of those tankie-fearing communities.

[–] wolfinthewoods@lemmy.ml 16 points 3 weeks ago

Thank you friend. That is the most succinct explaination of 'tankies' I ever read.

[–] ThirdConsul@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 weeks ago

The former will clutch their pearls, aghast that the propaganda they’ve believed all their lives is being questioned by these… these… muckrakers

Well, to be fair, you should add that this definition matches also crazies on hexbear or ml who will defend EVERYTHING done by AES or Russia or China, because since Europe and USA are bad, then surely not those are always good.

(Population of crazies is significantly smaller than 100%, but they tend to be remembered by the people throwing "tankies" at them).