No, shilling for Russia will get you labeled as a tankie. Not wanting police to have what is essentially a light tank, will not get you labeled as a tankie. Don’t try to dilute the term.
It’s like when you see a post about punching Nazis, and concern trolls show up to complain about people misusing and overusing the term. They don’t offer a correction, and they’re not defending anyone because no specific person or group of people was called out. They just saw a negative post about Nazis and fascists, got defensive, and tried to muddy the waters. A hit dog will holler.
Also, obviously any term will be misused and overused, and I don’t know every context people are talking about. But, for my part, I see complaints about people being called “tankies” way more often than people being called tankies, and in situations like the above. And it’s usually accompanied by complaints that right-wingers are calling people tankies, something I don’t actually see all that often. What I see more often than that is the terminally online, gatekeeping left. So, is the problem coming more from actual conservatives, or from leftists that other ostensible leftists want to dismiss out of hand?
I don’t know what’s in anyone’s heart, the specific people they’re talking about, or the contexts and personal experiences they’re talking about. I’m not going to assume bad faith. But, when I see people jump in to say “tankie” is a meaningless phrase, it just sounds like the same rhetorical game when people try to say “Nazi” and “fascist” have become meaningless.
shilling for Russia will get you labeled as a tankie
I’ve heard it aimed at anyone who is anti-cop. I’ve heard it aimed at folks advocating a general strike. I’ve heard it hurled at Palestine protesters. I’ve heard it aimed at people who won’t vote for Joe Biden.
That’s just some stuff that you claim that you’ve heard. For the rest of us those are not the definitions. Tankie does not mean anti-cop at all, it’s a pro-authoritarian label for authoritarian communists.
Tankie does not mean anti-cop at all, it’s a pro-authoritarian label
It’s a “pro-Russia/China” label. You can be as authoritarian as you like without being a tankie. You just need to couch it as pro-NATO or pro-American.
But any suggestion that Western censorship, trade sanctions, or militant policing is bad can get you tagged as a Russian Bot or Chinese Wumao.
Nope, your last sentence is just plain wrong. Anywhere on Lemmy or Reddit or similar sites you look, it is a mainstream acceptable position to criticize any of those.
I would love to believe you. But I’ve been called a tankie too many times in the last few months for the brave position of… “We shouldn’t be funding a genocide”.
No, shilling for Russia will get you labeled as a tankie. Not wanting police to have what is essentially a light tank, will not get you labeled as a tankie. Don’t try to dilute the term.
Seriously.
It’s like when you see a post about punching Nazis, and concern trolls show up to complain about people misusing and overusing the term. They don’t offer a correction, and they’re not defending anyone because no specific person or group of people was called out. They just saw a negative post about Nazis and fascists, got defensive, and tried to muddy the waters. A hit dog will holler.
Also, obviously any term will be misused and overused, and I don’t know every context people are talking about. But, for my part, I see complaints about people being called “tankies” way more often than people being called tankies, and in situations like the above. And it’s usually accompanied by complaints that right-wingers are calling people tankies, something I don’t actually see all that often. What I see more often than that is the terminally online, gatekeeping left. So, is the problem coming more from actual conservatives, or from leftists that other ostensible leftists want to dismiss out of hand?
I don’t know what’s in anyone’s heart, the specific people they’re talking about, or the contexts and personal experiences they’re talking about. I’m not going to assume bad faith. But, when I see people jump in to say “tankie” is a meaningless phrase, it just sounds like the same rhetorical game when people try to say “Nazi” and “fascist” have become meaningless.
I’ve heard it aimed at anyone who is anti-cop. I’ve heard it aimed at folks advocating a general strike. I’ve heard it hurled at Palestine protesters. I’ve heard it aimed at people who won’t vote for Joe Biden.
Way too late for that.
I’m going to need you to stop being so online.
Someone that thinks “tankies” are a thing that most people talk about or have even heard of outside of “online” needs to go listen to the bees buzz.
That’s just some stuff that you claim that you’ve heard. For the rest of us those are not the definitions. Tankie does not mean anti-cop at all, it’s a pro-authoritarian label for authoritarian communists.
It’s a “pro-Russia/China” label. You can be as authoritarian as you like without being a tankie. You just need to couch it as pro-NATO or pro-American.
But any suggestion that Western censorship, trade sanctions, or militant policing is bad can get you tagged as a Russian Bot or Chinese Wumao.
Nope, your last sentence is just plain wrong. Anywhere on Lemmy or Reddit or similar sites you look, it is a mainstream acceptable position to criticize any of those.
Wish that were true.
This is literally a thread on an anti-communist instance complaining that militant policing is bad…
I would love to believe you. But I’ve been called a tankie too many times in the last few months for the brave position of… “We shouldn’t be funding a genocide”.
Who the fuck cares if some random person calls you a tankie?
I don’t particularly care. But it does show how diluted it is already when Biden stans are using it to “other” anyone who won’t fall in line.