“Tankie” was originally a British slang term from the 50s.
In 1956, when the Soviet Union invaded Hungary, the British Communist movement was split over whether this action was cool, or sucked.
The people who thought it sucked derided their opponents who thought its cool, as “Tankies”, because the images in the newspapers featured lots of photos of Soviet tanks rolling into Budapest.
After this, it stops being used for the most part, until it started being reclaimed by socialists online as a tongue-in-cheeck insult to throw at each other. Because, let’s be real, it’s a silly sounding word that’s fun to say, and silly words are among the UK’s biggest cultural exports.
Eventually though, Tankie breached containment and started to be used by people who had zero connection to any kind of socialist movement or history, and its meaning began to warp.
I’ve seen Marxists, even those think the Soviet invasion of Hungary was bad, called tankies. I’ve seen Anarchists called Tankies, I’ve seen right wing guys who love trad russian Orthodox Christianity called Tankies.
It’s a word that doesn’t mean much anymore. It’s like when your grandpa calls Joe Biden “Pinko Scum”
So people are “tankies” if they define “tankie” as slur meaning “left of poster”? That once again sounds like the way MAGA use “woke” about stuff they don’t like.
Not at all, and you’re not the first that tries to denaturate or change the definition of the word tankie.
A tankie is pro authoritarian, but instead of being pro fascism its being pro those who called themselves left like stalin lenin etc
So it describes the “left” Maga if you want.
I sure do understand why tankies would want to make believe the “tankie” is just like “woke” but it isn’t, it’s calling them out, showing that they are not leftists but authoritarians (so again, basically fascists).
“Tankie” was originally a British slang term from the 50s.
In 1956, when the Soviet Union invaded Hungary, the British Communist movement was split over whether this action was cool, or sucked.
The people who thought it sucked derided their opponents who thought its cool, as “Tankies”, because the images in the newspapers featured lots of photos of Soviet tanks rolling into Budapest.
After this, it stops being used for the most part, until it started being reclaimed by socialists online as a tongue-in-cheeck insult to throw at each other. Because, let’s be real, it’s a silly sounding word that’s fun to say, and silly words are among the UK’s biggest cultural exports.
Eventually though, Tankie breached containment and started to be used by people who had zero connection to any kind of socialist movement or history, and its meaning began to warp.
I’ve seen Marxists, even those think the Soviet invasion of Hungary was bad, called tankies. I’ve seen Anarchists called Tankies, I’ve seen right wing guys who love trad russian Orthodox Christianity called Tankies.
It’s a word that doesn’t mean much anymore. It’s like when your grandpa calls Joe Biden “Pinko Scum”
Thank you. I had an idea, that it was something like that. It seems that on lemmy it means everyone left of poster (or OP), the poster disagree with.
That’s usually how the tankies try to convey it, but otherwise I haven’t seen that argument.
So people are “tankies” if they define “tankie” as slur meaning “left of poster”? That once again sounds like the way MAGA use “woke” about stuff they don’t like.
Not at all, and you’re not the first that tries to denaturate or change the definition of the word tankie.
A tankie is pro authoritarian, but instead of being pro fascism its being pro those who called themselves left like stalin lenin etc
So it describes the “left” Maga if you want.
I sure do understand why tankies would want to make believe the “tankie” is just like “woke” but it isn’t, it’s calling them out, showing that they are not leftists but authoritarians (so again, basically fascists).
You have a child’s understanding of the world