Trying to get a better understanding on the whole tankie thing, found this study that seems unbiased. It looks at their online behavior. I would appreciate others review of the study, even if just bullshit or facts.
Jeebus these people are exhausting, they also spray so much disinformation. They remind me of MAGAts.
I don’t yet have a feel for the dynamics like I do with MAGAts. How much of it is organized with handlers and such vs. organic true believers?
Almost all true believers, I would say. People have an incredible capacity for consuming and regurgitating bullshit, as anyone who’s been a part of a conservative community and escaped can tell you.
Who needs handlers when the useful idiots eat from your trough willingly?
They’re not much different than the pseudointellectuals on the American right, the kind of college kids who publicly idolized William F. Buckley Jr and read serious theology, but in private and anonymously were as 4channed as any open “Replacement Theory” twat.
Tankies share more in common with the right wing fascist movements than any leftist movements
They’re not leftists, they’re just authoritarian boot lickers with an anti U.S. theme.
I mean, yeah, ish. They’re classified as leftist, as was the USSR and China still is. Which makes sense given the origin. I don’t think it really matters as they’re already lumped in with us.
I guess a similar example would be Southern Baptists supporting abortion for rape/incest/mother’s health where it was affirmed in convention, 60s-70s. (Fuzzy on the particulars but I’m close). From what I understand, it extended to an unspoken acceptance of abortion being a women’s thing and the men didn’t involve themselves. It was also in opposition to Catholicsm.
Even with that stance, they were right/conservative back then.
Southern strategy was implemented and now they’ve morphed into MAGAts and fascists.
If the shoe fits, tankies are leftists. Just transformed into something that is not rational and is emotion based.
interesting
Tankies are left? My understanding is that they’re pro authoritarianism. Also I miss when US politics didn’t polarise other countries. Left and right is stupid, it’s a range of goals. Life is a spectrum, a scattergraph.
left/right are one axis, auth/lib are another axis, they’re not mutually exclusive
left/right are always the axises. There’s anti-capitalist/capitalist which is the common European one and liberal/auth which is common elsewhere.
I guess authoritarians or fascists cosplaying as leftists. Don’t think I really care about the labeling. Stethoscope theory and all that.
They’re generally associated with the left and even more closely associated with the radical left. I figure that’s probably according to plan as it helps neuter the left voices that oppose China and Russia.
Per Robert Evans, the guy that did the Israeli Embassy shooting was a Tankie.
This is a real fucking problem given what happened to the right. Hopefully, left groups are more immune to this sort of thing. They seem to struggle to get traction.
Sadly, we’re all human and just as susceptible.
You’re probably correct.
This kind of comment always reeks to me of “No True Scotsman”. Communists and radicals are literally defined as being on the extreme left. People on Lemmy have no problem considering MAGAts rightwing (and they are) but I’m sure there are anti-Trump pure fiscal conservatives who claim that they aren’t. But you don’t see people defending the “right” in such a way on Lemmy.
Can’t we just admit that the extreme left or extreme right are both similarly bad?
Tankies aren’t meaningfully left in the same way conservatives and magats aren’t meaningfully right. They completely eschew concepts of left and right that challenge their authority. They are authoritarian first. Left of right is a cosplay.
Literally the US is becoming like China and vice versa. As they both consolidate power among smaller and smaller groups.
It’s almost like the political spectrum is a false dichotomy that only feeds into the us vs them narrative that is fueling conflicts all over the world.
It’s a major red flag when they are described as leftist. Being for the working class, minorities, and against hierarchies does not align with supporting totalitarian regimes. Those people may pretend otherwise, but that would be like voting for Trump while claiming to be for trans rights. Pure lip service.
They are leftists if we use a Anti-capitalist vs capitalist system.
The left is defined as putting the collective state first, while the right is defined by individualism before all else. The extreme right eventually advocates for leadership and control by the “superior” individuals that rise through that individualism, which is essentially the belief that it’s the strong’s right to rule, regardless of whether you define strength to be wealth, intelligence, social clout or otherwise. The extreme left eventually advocates for the total supremecy of the state, seeing any level of social deviancy as damaging to their collective society. These are tankies: the “states can do no wrong” crowd.
Unfortunately, both binaries of the political spectrum are prone to authoritarianism once you go far enough. It’s almost like the real issue is extreme ideals that leave no room for nuance and understanding.
I used to consider myself extremely radically left, before I stumbled across the absurdity of the Tankies that permeate certain areas of Lemmy. And I mean, as far as Western politics is concerned I am absurdly leftist. Just not that kind of leftist
