I'm an anarchist, I don't think Sankara was a "tankie". Maybe that's because I literally live in Africa and I'm out of sync with the "western left". He was, as you said, a ML that was heavily inspired by the Cuban Revolution and other Marxist/Maoist projects. And he upheld those values himself, he owned almost no material possessions and did practically nothing wrong, and admitted to any mistakes he made (such as the show trails going overboard). Like if western leftists (liberals) can't even critically support someone like him thats not my problem
Sankara's only mistake was refusing to get material assistance and military protection from the existing socialist states (predominantly the USSR, but also to a lesser extent Cuba and Libya could have given some help) so as to keep political independence.
On a serious note, I've always wondered how come all the gains of the revolutionary program got reversed so quickly once Compaoré expected his coup - how come people didn't rise up and push back?
I don't think he had much of a communist movement behind him. His situation was weird - almost Blanquist - in that his revolution was more of a coup with a relatively small cadre of leftist supporters. The people loved him but he didn't manage to establish much of a political education among the populace. So when he died I think they mostly just figured it was back to business as usual. Probably helps that the military and foreign powers supported it.
However, they did rise up and overthrow him in a mass protest literally last year and now he's in exile.
Ah I see. I knew it was a coup (one of the few good ones, like Ghadaffi and the Carnation Revolution) but thought he used it as a springboard to establish an actual popular democratic movement, too bad he never got around to it. Shows how crucial it is to create proper self-perpetuating meritocratic structures, otherwise any gains are fleeting. This is for example my biggest critique of Stalin (as well as his comrades in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War), since even if we assume, for arguments sake, that Stalin was the most dedicated communist ever ultimately it all got dismantled pretty quickly because there was nothing to safeguard all the gains.
The word is meaningless. I wish people would stop trying to create a false dichotomy between the "good MLs" and "tankies". The only difference is how many layers of propaganda the one doing the differentiating has internalized.
The distinction so many non-MLs try to make is really incoherent; Sankara, Che, and the Black Panthers were all Stalin-loving MLs, but they're considered the good ones, whereas Mao, the Kims, and Stalin himself are the fake socialist red fascist authoritarians or whatever. It has nothing to do with ideology and everything to do with how successfully slandered they've been by capitalist propaganda.
If anything, the Reddit OP is just being more consistent.
I mean tankie has just become a meaningless word now. It's used for basically "anyone I disagree with" online. Anyone that uses it unironically is probably some form of liberal or radlib.
Sankara wasn't even a tankie lmao, what is this person trying to get at. This r*dditor is a liberal, simple as
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I'm an anarchist, I don't think Sankara was a "tankie". Maybe that's because I literally live in Africa and I'm out of sync with the "western left". He was, as you said, a ML that was heavily inspired by the Cuban Revolution and other Marxist/Maoist projects. And he upheld those values himself, he owned almost no material possessions and did practically nothing wrong, and admitted to any mistakes he made (such as the show trails going overboard). Like if western leftists (liberals) can't even critically support someone like him thats not my problem
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Teaching libs about the word tankie was the biggest mistake of the terminally online left, change my view.
spoiler
This is an obvious joke
Sankara's only mistake was refusing to get material assistance and military protection from the existing socialist states (predominantly the USSR, but also to a lesser extent Cuba and Libya could have given some help) so as to keep political independence.
He was also warned that Blaise Compaoré was plotting to kill him and did nothing about it because he felt that he would be betraying his friend.
Literally too good for this world.
Real Bernie Sanders hours :P
On a serious note, I've always wondered how come all the gains of the revolutionary program got reversed so quickly once Compaoré expected his coup - how come people didn't rise up and push back?
I don't think he had much of a communist movement behind him. His situation was weird - almost Blanquist - in that his revolution was more of a coup with a relatively small cadre of leftist supporters. The people loved him but he didn't manage to establish much of a political education among the populace. So when he died I think they mostly just figured it was back to business as usual. Probably helps that the military and foreign powers supported it.
However, they did rise up and overthrow him in a mass protest literally last year and now he's in exile.
Ah I see. I knew it was a coup (one of the few good ones, like Ghadaffi and the Carnation Revolution) but thought he used it as a springboard to establish an actual popular democratic movement, too bad he never got around to it. Shows how crucial it is to create proper self-perpetuating meritocratic structures, otherwise any gains are fleeting. This is for example my biggest critique of Stalin (as well as his comrades in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War), since even if we assume, for arguments sake, that Stalin was the most dedicated communist ever ultimately it all got dismantled pretty quickly because there was nothing to safeguard all the gains.
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These kind of people are going to unironically call Nelson Mandela a tankie in the future because the ANC became corrupt
Travel back in time and give Nelson Mandela a tank division.
:tank:
The word is meaningless. I wish people would stop trying to create a false dichotomy between the "good MLs" and "tankies". The only difference is how many layers of propaganda the one doing the differentiating has internalized.
The distinction so many non-MLs try to make is really incoherent; Sankara, Che, and the Black Panthers were all Stalin-loving MLs, but they're considered the good ones, whereas Mao, the Kims, and Stalin himself are the fake socialist red fascist authoritarians or whatever. It has nothing to do with ideology and everything to do with how successfully slandered they've been by capitalist propaganda.
If anything, the Reddit OP is just being more consistent.
I mean tankie has just become a meaningless word now. It's used for basically "anyone I disagree with" online. Anyone that uses it unironically is probably some form of liberal or radlib.