Also how do we not have any Kissinger emojis

  • reaper_cushions [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Guys… what is a tankie? My understanding was “anyone to the left of Pete Buttigieg” but Kissinger really does not fit that bill so… what the fuck is a tankie at this point?

    • Awoo [she/her]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      A tankie is anything that serves the goals of anticommunism, it changes with the context. It could be an ML, it could be a socdem if they're saying anything remotely anti-imperialist, it could be a liberal saying something that is not establishment narrative.

      A tankie is an ill-defined monster that is conjured for the purposes of slandering anything and everything left of western imperialist interests. Invoking the term tankie is an invocation of "do not listen to anything this person says". It is one of the clearest forms of liberal social programming and tactics that calls on liberal audiences to performatively leap to their pre-programmed tankie response programming whenever the word is spoken.


      Originally it was a slur for Marxist-Leninists. It has evolved.

    • BelieveRevolt [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Tankies love Russia because Russia = the Soviet Union, so anyone who's pro-Russia is a tankie. This includes anyone who criticizes Ukraine or the war, because being anti-Ukraine is being pro-Russia. Republicans are pro-Russia because the KGB got Trump elected, so they're also basically the same thing as tankies. HoRsEsHoE tHeOrY cOnFiRmEd :maybe-later-honey:

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Some Australian no shit told me that the current "division" between the Democrats and the GOP was a genius master plan by the Soviets, who have been quietly sowing division in the US this entire time.

        Which, like... jesus christ.

    • ssjmarx [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I think it's evolved into "anyone who likes the people we've decided are ontologically evil".

      I'm wondering how Kissinger is a tankie though, since he has no love lost for America's enemies. Maybe because he was a significant figure in getting Nixon to visit China in 72?

      • reaper_cushions [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        He argued that the Ukraine war should be resolved through negotiations and not nuclear annihilation of all life on Earth. I guess that’s the standard for evil gomulist red-fash tankie now.

      • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Maybe because he was a significant figure in getting Nixon to visit China in 72?

        tankies and their famous love of people organising to destroy the soviet union

    • GarbageShoot [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Genuinely it's "people who like or even just discourage war with geopolitical enemies of the US"

    • SoyViking [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      A tankie is any real or imagined person who likes or who you imagine could possibly like Stalin more than you do yourself.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      It doesn't mean anything. Its' a thought terminating cliche that people who think they're on the left use to attack anyone they dislike for any reason, real or imagined. It's mostly just libs screaming.

    • TheLepidopterists [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      At this point it's anyone opposed to American foreign policy.

      Communists oppose NATO meddling because NATO is evil.

      In this one specific case Kissinger opposed the particular meddling NATO was doing for strategic reasons (not moral or ideological reasons) and therefore is identical to a communist who hates and desires the failure of the US government.