• @[email protected]
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    252 years ago

    As someone who’s wondered this myself but only now found the enthusiasm to look it up because I can’t be arsed to do anything for myself but this is what Wikipedia says:

    “Tankie is a pejorative label generally applied to communists who express support for one-party communist states that are associated with Marxism–Leninism, whether contemporary or historical.”

    Take it with a grain of salt tho people misuse labels like this all the time

    • @[email protected]
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      182 years ago

      I think that definition is pretty accurate about almost everybody I’ve seen being called a Tankie on lemmy.

      The term was originated in the UK in the 60s by leftists who opposed the USSR’s tank-led occupations of Prague and Budapest. In that context “tankie” kinda makes sense.

    • archomrade [he/him]
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      92 years ago

      I think this is actually pretty fair, but one thing I’ll add is that the implication of the word (being a reference to the use of tanks to put down revolts) is that tankies support the use of state violence against opposition

      I have not found that to be true about many who are accused of being a tankie