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.

tldr

There is a conversation happening, here, and historically

Any attempt to start with a clean slate is gonna be a bad time

Trying to make things simple hasn’t worked, because the most simplistic ideologies tend to be the most violently authoritarian

So we’re squabbling and splitting hairs, because it’s better than getting run over

By, for instance, a tank

I dont even get half of what youre trying to say. Maybe ask an actual question?

So I have been reading around in the comments here and I get the distinct impression that you are trolling, or at least attempting to.

You display a weird mix of ignorance and laziness in not reading up on the basics, while you also often try to dumb down or nitpick an answer given to you.

That isn’t how this works, there are no simple answers. Often there are a dozen answers to the same question, depending on who you ask. As a starting point, you could read up (or listen to an audiobook or something) on Marx and his writings. Virtually all leftist movements and ideologies make reference to or are derived from his.

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.

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.

I will try to make it easy to understand:

• Having social security for everyone: good
• Making people suffer or die: bad

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.

Maybe it’s because I just woke up after only a few hours of sleep, but I have no idea what you just said.

To all taking this person seriously, she seems to be an alt of https://hexbear.net/u/Catradora_Stalinism, a hexbear/lemmygrad user

There has been a lot of debate over the last ~200 years of history of socialism. Not everyone is in agreement on everything.