I asked several, like why do ya’ll seem to hate these tankie fellas more than usual? Like they seem to be jus other commies, but we really really hate them or smth.
Im not speakin german, jus answer the title question an thats good enough
again every time I ask a question about this everyone gets very hostile that im not just in the know or smth
Tankies are fascists dressed in red. Idiots who see Stalin’s SSSR and Pooh Bear’s China, and lately, Swollen Baldy’s Russia as utopias and human rights violations, systemic oppression, genocide, torture and rape of ethnic groups, as necessary acts to be celebrated. The term originates from the famous Tiananmen Square photo of the guy standing in front of tanks – tankies would be the people in the tanks.
Tankies are so far off the deep end that it’s impossible to reason with them. The only thing you can do is excise them.
Tankies are fascists dressed in red. Idiots who see Stalin’s SSSR and Pooh Bear’s China, and lately, Swollen Baldy’s Russia as utopias and human rights violations, systemic oppression, genocide, torture and rape of ethnic groups, as necessary acts to be celebrated.
Dayum I didn’t know that. That seems to be weird, russia aint commie no more. But is being a really mean commie the same as a fash? And rape? I get the rest tho
The term originates from the famous Tiananmen Square photo of the guy standing in front of tanks – tankies would be the people in the tanks.
now I saw another comment that it was from that hungary thing or something, but its from this too?
Tankies are so far off the deep end that it’s impossible to reason with them. The only thing you can do is excise them.
Now this is what I run into every time, isn’t that the same thing you get angry at tankies for? Like ruling everyone else as bad and eliminating them for the revolution?
I never said they were communists. They are simply fascists who think they’re communists, or that their values align with communism. That’s why I’ve included present-day Russia. And yes, murder, rape, and pillage is exactly what the Russian invaders are doing to Ukrainians, and what the Chinese government’s military is doing to Uyghurs.
hungary thing
I guess that’s also fitting. It was the failed revolution of 1956 october 23rd, when organized rebels almost toppled the communist government in Budapest, but soviet tanks arrived and drove them back. It’s not nearly as well-known as Tiananmen Square, though.
isn’t that the same thing you get angry at tankies for?
This is what really pisses me off. You haven’t lived the reality that tankies want to restore and propagate. My great-grandfather fought against them and lost. My grandparents and parents lived under Stalinist rule. I was lucky enough to be born after its collapse.
Tankies are not an ethnicity, religion, or nationality. Nobody’s born a tankie, they pick up stupid and dangerous ideas that get reinforced in their online echo chamber, but without the reality check of having to live in the world they want to create.
Ah I see, more of a follow the flag type you say? Shame, I wanted to see if any of those big guns were still around.
Yeah, its all good, just sayin bout where I heard it.
My great-grandfather fought against them and lost.
now wait a second
unless he fought in vietnam and korea, I don’t think they were fighting for us. Soviets were brutal bad guys, but they only fought one war that long ago, and if your grandfather fought against them in it Im sorry but I think he should have followed his leader. The nazis aren’t good guys, you can’t criticize communism as fascism and then talk about your grand dad who fought for fascism
unless there was some other war more than 40 years ago that the soviets fought against someone and won.
I mean that just sounds like a red dont it, that last sentence?
He fought in world war 2 against the enemy that had attacked his country, which happened to be the enemy of the Axis Powers. If you think the complex geopolitical situation of '40s Europe can be resolved by “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” or other reductionisms, you are beyond help.
It sounds like you think history ought to be simple and it sounds like you think people’s political views ought to be simple. The reality is that everything is more nuanced, and it takes time and energy to understand. A lot of people, probably people similar to you, don’t want to spend that time and energy. But here you are, so perhaps you are willing to give it a whirl.
To begin with, the enemy of your enemy might not be your friend. Just because the USSR fought against Nazi Germany doesn’t mean that the USSR was run by people that we’d like to have lunch with.
And then it’s important not to think that the USSR in the early 40s is the same as what it was in the late 80s. Countries change over time.
It looks like you want people to hold very strong positions. “Communism is entirely good/bad.” “The US loves freedom.” “Marx is bad.” … In reality, political leaders are smart, and they’re very good at manipulating people who have simplistic absolutist views such as these. It is necessary to pay attention to the details.
And finally, even if I have some very strong belief, if I tried to push it dogmatically on to other people on the internet then they will just block me. It’s often a better strategy to try to discuss things and assume or hope that the other person is going to use their brain, just as you are willing to use yours.
Of course there’s no reaching some folks, and some people are just here to troll, but that’s nothing new and nothing to write home about.
The reality is that everything is more nuanced, and it takes time and energy to understand
I feel like whenever someone says the word ‘nuance’ its usually just an excuse to not have a position on somethin. But yeah I know you gotta know your way around the shovel, but at the end of the day its a decision between making a new shovel or finishing the job.
To begin with, the enemy of your enemy might not be your friend. Just because the USSR fought against Nazi Germany doesn’t mean that the USSR was run by people that we’d like to have lunch with.
I mean, yeah I don’t think many people would like to dine with stalin, but does that make them not communist anymore?
And then it’s important not to think that the USSR in the early 40s is the same as what it was in the late 80s
I mean in the 40s they took berlin an in the 80s they kinda ker splat, seems like they just got weaker, not like any different
and that last part I guess its strange to be absolutist, but someone needs to just pick a side, and yeah there’s many sides, but just keep picking yours until youve found your niche. Maybe thats bad, but I don’t wanna jus spend my time going over the menu options when I could’ve been eating a nice steak the whole time. And everyone else seems to have decided too, even though they have opinions on it that don’t match.
ha I guess I did jus kinda say my piece and not consider yours all too well, but ill keep it in mind to think over when I get a nice smoke.
Thank you for giving a clarification. Im just trying to wade my way through this storm.
I mean yeah but aren’t yall supposed to team up at least when the goin get rough? But yeahhhhh I get what you getting at. Im jus all kinda new to this whole show.
I mean I thought I got a vibe, and Im figuring out this whole federation lemmy thing, so I may have gotten it wrong. I mean several nice folks who answered my questions are leftists. Like Democratic Socialists that one dude was.
"left" is an encompassing umbrella term. You can't complain when you ask where the lemon squares are and people say "we didn't bring lemon squares" and your reply is "but you said you were bringing dessert!" Dessert=left in this analogy and lemon squares=tankie/communist.
I often remind people, also, that politics is an entire sphere of ideologies, and if you are only looking Left and Right you are missing and incredible amount of viewpoints and information.
In another comment, you compared coming up a viewing and fitting into a niche like looking over a menu when you could have had steak the whole time. You've forgotten that steak isn't everyone's favorite meal. And even for those that it is, there are still infinite ways to enjoy it: marinated and grilled, sauteed with mushrooms and gravy, seared with goat cheese and spinach, and so many more. Additionally, what sides, what appetizer, what dessert, what wine pairing..... All the different combinations you can think of are how many different combinations of viewpoints there are. There's no one-size-fits-all, even for people that call themselves the same thing.
And just because you have one perfect "meal" at one time in your life doesn't mean that you won't have a chance of taste later on, either as you learn new things, world events change, a New life stage in your personal life changes what you feel is important, or anything else, and that's OK.
@CatradoraSomething I mean no one else does that, so I don't see why you expect they would.
Catholics and Protestants and Westboro Baptists and Eastern Orthodox and Mormons aren't all teamed up together just because they're all basically Christian. Neither are the Sunnis and Shiites just because they're Muslim.
Any country that has a system that allows more than 2 political parties has a whole spectrum of them, both in terms of the left to right axis and the authoritarian to libertarian axis.
Nevermind, just saw this comment. Feel embarrassed I fell for this troll now.
Neither are the Sunnis and Shiites just because they’re Muslim.
I mean they all seem to team up when the yankees come knockin, and christians teamed up for the crusades I think. I mean Im not saying hold hands but fighting the big bad seems like the priority.
and this is why i made an account. Ya’ll act like its some fuckin spy shit, this is a computer for christ’s sake. Learn to get over yourself. Ya’ll haven’t even actually told me what one is, all of you keep saying different things!
I edited nothing (or Lemmy would have shown it), and I only inferred that from the first sentence of your post. You can’t deny anything, you’re paranoid too.
doesn’t fucking change your goddamn transphobia, i get the comments about me being crazy or posting in the wrong place, but what the fuck does being trans have to do with anything? Im not even a fucking red!
then why the fuck did you mention me being trans, I never said I was a commie, I stated multiple times that im just interested. You’re avoiding the question you freak. Tell me why being trans has fucking anything to do with it or im taking this to the admins you fuck.
The Soviet Union and later Russia and China excel at the making people suffer part. But tankies seem to ignore or flat out deny that.
The USA isn’t much better. See their prison system or healthcare.
I think the most successful countries are Norway and Iceland. But they have a free market so they might be called capitalist. But it’s heavily regulated and they have very good social security services. But that might be called socialist or communist. In Germany we call it social market economy.
I hold it like Obi-Wan Kenobi: Only a Sith deals in absolutes. Look beyond labels and see what is actually working the best for everyone.
Not to nitpick but did you just say china and russia are bad because they make people suffer, then say never to deal in absolutes?
Norway and Iceland are alright, i’ve got a girl who wants to go to iceland actually. Very pretty. But aren’t those not commie? like I know having that cheap housin and good unions is a commie thing, but they don’t exactly got the bigwigs out don’t they? Isn’t that the whole point?
Social market seems to be what china has too, but their economy is bad (governments aside I think we both know the difference between those two in decision making). I guess I can see, but I guess I thought there was more to it.
Not to nitpick but did you just say china and russia are bad because they make people suffer, then say never to deal in absolutes?
Absolutes in the sense of “they’re communist, they can’t be bad”. Ends don’t justify the means. America isn’t good because it’s “free” and “capitalist”. Russia isn’t good because it’s “strong” and “communist”.
People are assholes. Especially when they get the power to be assholes. A dogmatic easy system alone will not prevent that. This is a hard problem going all throughout human history.
You should read Animal Farm. It tackles the topic quite well.
I mean my names from a lesbian ship from the show She-Ra, but I aint using that as a lense to view billions of people and an economic system through. I meant like book books or somethin
I mean I just heard that cuba was being all nice from another comment here
but just to be fair to your argument, I don’t think anybody is nice to gays. Like name another country nice to gays at the same time. Seems like more of a world homophobia issue than branding all reds one forever.
The problem with Tankies is their authoritarianism and their “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” mentality. I could never support a movement that supports horrid dictatorships of any kind. Even as a socialist, I’d always defend a capitalist democracy against a communist dictatorship. If NATO defends a small democratic country against an invasion from its large and powerful neighbor, I’m all for it, even if I’d rather have a European military alliance instead of NATO.
It’s also absurd how they defend countries like China, which has perhaps one of the worst forms of capitalism, because they’re nominally communist.
Even as a socialist, I’d always defend a capitalist democracy against a communist dictatorship.
Now im not one to nitpick, but I don’t think thats something a commie would do right? I mean capitalists winning is supposed to be worse right? Am I thinking of this correctly? I mean thats one of my questions, like yall hate bigwigs but bigwigs are good when they fight the evil commies? Not defending the USSR, but if it was anyone else that seems to be a bad thing happening.
It’s also absurd how they defend countries like China, which has perhaps one of the worst forms of capitalism, because they’re nominally communist.
okay now im nitpicking but didn’t you say youd defend a capitalist country against a communist one, but critique when someone else defended a capitalist one?
Now im not one to nitpick, but I don’t think thats something a commie would do right? I mean capitalists winning is supposed to be worse right? Am I thinking of this correctly? I mean thats one of my questions, like yall hate bigwigs but bigwigs are good when they fight the evil commies?
I’m a Democratic Socialist and I hold the “Democratic” part higher than the “Socialist” bit. A Socialist economy is not worth it, if the price for it is oppression and genocide. Socialism must come from the will of the people, not conquest and murder.
okay now im nitpicking but didn’t you say youd defend a capitalist country against a communist one, but critique when someone else defended a capitalist one?
I’m saying it’s even worse when people calling themselves communist defend not only communist dictatorships, but also capitalist ones. It means they’re just in favor of dictatorships, period. Or they’re just incapable of any critical thinking and defend anything as soon as they see a hammer and sickle.
but isn’t socialism its own democracy? Like unions are cool I like having more money. Would suck more to live in a democracy without food or a house than a dictatorship with food or a house, even if they are like concrete blocks and blocks of bread. I mean I don’t control jack anyway, nothing changes. I mean thats one way to look at it, but theres always more to the story i guess.
isn’t that what capitalism is doing right now? I mean if im going to have capitalism hurt everyone a lot, but socialism hurt everyone a bit, isn’t that more okay?
Ya got any books for this? or like a video or smth, I guess, to learn on my breaks.
Yeah I guess so, but it all seems so strange. I mean its a fight for freedom from capitalism and everything for everyone, but it was all just bullshit the whole time? I just guess its depressing that the only thing we got is the same thing we’ve always had.
Name a single boycott that ever managed to take down an international corporation that didn’t end up making them more famous then they where before that. Being “boycotted” is even a marketing tool companies like nike have used before.
Did you think this through or did you just want to be contrarian for no actual reason?
I think what you’re getting at is that the publicity generated by flashy boycott activism only generates free advertising for the companies. Which it certainly can! But that’s also dependent on what is being boycotted and the social and political beliefs behind it. If one group boycotts a product because the company is homophobic, another group buys more of that product because they agree with the company. That sort of thing.
But it isn’t as two dimensional as “boycotting has the opposite effect”. Here are some examples of effective boycotting. Though you did get me interested in how effective boycotting really is, but I couldn’t find any efficacy studies that weren’t behind a paywall…
We both know that you actually don’t think it’s that simple. You just wanted to be contrarian.
I’m actually so correct in what I said that getting targeted with hate campaigns is something companies try to do. As I told another one of you NPCs before, Nike did that exact thing. They intentionally did something that upset a target demographic, those people burned nike products and tried to “boycott” them and it ended up making their sales go up because everyone was talking about them now.
This is such a well known thing that I’m surprised you people got mad at me for saying it. Redditors will get mad at everything for no reason I guess.
They intentionally did something that upset a target demographic, those people burned nike products and tried to “boycott” them and it ended up making their sales go up because everyone was talking about them now.
I bet if you were specific, it was something about supporting a progressive cause that most people support and rightwingers got mad and “protested” by buying Nike products to destroy…
Just because rightwing extremists are the minority and don’t understand how boycotts work, doesn’t mean boycotts don’t work.
As you’re discovering, Leftism isn’t a universal thing, there are sub-groups ranging from (US) Democrat/ (UK) Labour all the way through to individualistic anarchism. There are a lot of stopping points on the journey, none of which are the same as the others - socialism, communism etc and even within those sub groups there are sub-sub groups.
So the the word you’re questioning ‘tankie’ is a term applied to communists who deny that communist regimes are capable of, or indeed have, committed acts of violence on individuals, groups or entire ethnic groups/populations. The word originates from the Tiananmen Square massacre, where the ruling communist party murdered protesting people using tanks. ‘Tankies’ deny that this happened, or if it did happen it wasn’t as bad as the West claim, or if it was, that it was a justified act. They say the whole thing was made up/exaggerated by Western media. They do this because they’re living in denial.
Most of the Lemmy (and Reddit) based tankies I’ve encountered seem to belong to a youngish American, probably middle-class population. Possibly they’re rebelling against some element of their upbringing or are seeking some kind of group identity or validation. Believing in something that extreme is also an easy thing for someone to do - if you support a political system that is never ever going to assume power where you live, that abdicates you from any responsibility of engaging with the political system in your country to try and make the reality you actually live in any better.
Its very nice to have a choice, but also annoying that there are so many, i’d just like one communism please or something, would be easier. But I kinda knew that there was probably going to be more to look into.
Crazy shit, yeah
I guess that makes sense, but I mean aren’t they all for the soviets and chinese? What about the people who did that? Aren’t they commies, they aren’t americans? I get theres some dumbasses goin around using a stalin pfp to cover for their own weird shit, but what about the people who like actually built shit?
They support communism - so China, Cuba, the old USSR and the modern Russia that is slowly reverting back to communism. So they are supportive primarily of the system no matter how it affects actual chinese, russian or cuban people. The people are of far, far less importance than the system and the more extreme their belief the more they’ll deny the reality of how these regimes treat their people.
That’s not to say it’s all bad - Cuba has some very progressive laws for example but sadly for most of these regimes, dissent amongst the population is not tolerated.
They’re most certainly not Russian or Chinese communists on Lemmy or Reddit as those people wouldn’t be able to access these communities without breaking the law in their countries. That said, my interpretation of who they are as a group is only my opinion based on interacting with some of them.
woah woah woah, russias becoming communist now? I guess that makes sense
I mean I didn’t know that about cuba, but I think every country on earth jails people they don’t like, just how the way the world works.
I swear I saw someone talking about being russian the other day, but I guess I can’t trust that. Also someone told me the chinese folks just use a VPN, cause I see them on the social medias other places sometimes. Although they may be from Taiwan, that could be it.
Its very nice to have a choice, but also annoying that there are so many, i’d just like one communism please or something
At some point, you have to decide if your fundamental goal is to figure out what kind of world you want to live in or if you're just bored and looking for an aesthetic to adopt.
Because it sounds like you're kind of just looking for a group of cool kids to fit yourself into, and thus it's annoying that there are so many various little factions.
i guess you can have fun with that crystal ball you looking at there, but im just someone who’d like people to have their things figured out. Im fine with trying to navigate it, but give me a break for wanting the sign up sheet to be a straightforward so people can start getting things done.
Stands for One Rich Asshole Called Larry Ellison, not officially but I like to think it is. It’s a corporation built around a database engine.
They have a well deserved terrible reputation based on their commercial practices, including but not exhaustive, shipping full fledged software with functionality locked behind paywalls, buying and demolishing established open source companies/projects, suing the shit out of their customers for license violation (see above), price gouging their customers who often have no other choice than to run their products.
The engine itself is nice and reliable but the business practices of Oracle drives a lot of companies to settle for the competition, at least, those who can afford to leave.
Oracle hires more lawyers than they do developers then they do things like “oh? You’re using this product in the cloud with the license you purchased? But you didn’t purchase the cloud license”
They also buy technology and proceed to violate whatever license it has, like ZFS.
Autism Speaks. It has a pro-eugenics mindset, so you’d think everyone would be boycotting it, right? Nope, in fact it’s partnered with the Jim Henson company.
It’s founded and ran by two boomers who have an autistic grandson and were very very upset he had autism. That’s the generation that would actively try to avoid diagnosis and help because they thought the label was worse than the disease, preventing an entire generation from getting assistance.
So its less about empowering people with autism, and more fearmongering how bad it is and that someone with autism shouldn’t have any agency or choice in their lives.
I didn’t dig very deep, but yeah, I could see how that organization does a bunch of problematic shit
Vanguard, BlackRock, The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, Nestlé, Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, Twitter/X, any company owned by Elon Musk, pretty much every Big Tech company, Disney, almost any media company, as well as every major bank.
Why Vanguard? They primarily offer passive index fund investments at very low costs and are owned by people that have invested in any of their mutual funds. Before Vanguard, the average investor would get screwed by financial advisors who would skim a large portion of investments.
Yeah, my guess is OP is mad they they are the major shareholders of a bunch of awful companies. But when you’re the largest index fund and retirement investment provider in the world you end up owning most of everything.
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