Good. I went to the lemmygrad instance once and saw it was completely filled with tankies spouting Chinese and Russian propaganda. I guess it’s good they’ve isolated themselves, like with exploding-heads being an r/the_donald cesspool.
This is what I enjoy about Lemmy. Back on reddit you sometimes ~~stepped into shit~~ came across fucking nazis, here you sometimes run into tankies. It's kinda familiar yet different.
I absolutely love seeing Trump Nazis and Tankies both spouting Russian propaganda.
It's a refreshing reminder that politics isn't a spectrum - it's a circle. If you go too far left or too far right, you loop right back around. Another way to view it - if you add hate and intolerance into your politics, you end up a piece of shit no matter which side you're on.
Be careful with this line of thought. It's called Horseshoe theory and is usually parroted by right wing authoritarians to falsely discredit leftist points of view. Ironic that they are using some of their own beliefs to do it, isn't it?
More information here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory
That being said, there surely are authoritarian leftists and they do not deserve any of your time. However, their authoritarianism usually is not born out of hatred like right wingers but out of impotence against the hierarchies that dominate our lives. Of course, as in everything, YMMV.
Edit to add: it's important to mention that a lot of pro China and pro Russia discourse is astroturfing so it's not really people declaring earnest beliefs.
Interesting post, thanks for sharing it. I hadn't heard of horseshoe theory.
I don't have a lot of empathy for hardcore right-wingers generally, but when I do try to think about them empathetically, I actually think their worldview and hatred comes from the same thing you described about Tankies - a feeling of impotence against the powers that be and an inability to change an unjust world.
A lot of the Trumpers I meet are just so scared of everything. They look back nostalgically on America's more successful and comfortable years. In their minds, it was the hippies and liberals who changed everything for the worse. In their mind, the liberals are the ones destroying the family unit, moving jobs overseas, etc. They look at their dead towns and see evidence of a place that used to be thriving. I think they just feel hopeless and angry.
Obviously they are misguided, but I can at least follow the train of thought.
The thing is, there's nothing leftism in tankies
What’s a tankie?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankie
Just go to lemmygrad and you’ll see on their front page. Check the comments. It’s a weird place.
Why did you necro this thread from a year ago?
Weird, it was in my hot feed, I didn’t even look at the date. Had no idea lemmy was even a year old!
Yeah, it's happening to me as well. Went a few pages into all/hot and the links are all from 1-3 years ago. Must be some kind of bug with the feed algorithm. Lemmy seems to be full of fun surprises. :)
Lemmy is 4 years old
Old enough to get a fucking job
Only in red states.
Just because it’s contrary to American propaganda doesn’t make it Russian/Chinese propaganda.
The thing about tankies is that they idolise China and the USSR explicitly. That’s what earned the term tankies. They like to call their selves communists/leftists, but it’s a blatantly right wing authoritarian ideology.
Meh, I'm very anti-american propaganda and there definitely is propaganda there
The origin of the label ‘Tankies’ is from British communists supporting the USSR’s party line and specifically to defend the use of tanks to suppress dissent in the Hungarian revolution of 1956.
It’s a self-applied label and it’s in fact very explicitly and by definition Pro-Russian propaganda and more recently Pro-Chinese as well.
On lemmygrad I’ve just seen socialists mostly, idk how many there self-label as tankie. It just feels like something derogatory people say about those to the left of them.
Why is a 11 months old post showing up on the feed?
I just had a 3 year old post appear in hot
I’ve also been seeing some 3 year old posts on my feed. Not sure why, but some of them are really cool so I can’t complain.
Chronicle the life and tale of the fediverse (+ matrix)
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