Tankies are people who identify as communist or socialist, but want a state where the ruler cannot be switched out through elections, or a comparable peaceful process. Such as the Soviet Union. In fact, the term “tankie” was first coined to describe people who supported the Soviet Union sending tanks to crush the Hungarian Revolution.
Authoritarianism and communism are incompatible. Under communism, the means of production are publicly owned. Ownership over a thing means that either a) you control the thing, and owe no accountability to anybody. Or b) the person controlling the thing is accountable to you. If the person who claims to control the means of production as the representative of the people is not accountable to the people, then he is actually the owner of the means of production. For example, Stalin effectively owned the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union wasn’t communism, it was the end state of capitalism, the complete enslavement of the working class to the owner class.
And for some reason, people who think Stalin was great like Russia, even though modern Russia doesn’t even claim to be communist.
Not supporting the “dictatorship of the proletariat” types, but the reason tankies support Russia isn’t because they think modern Russia is Communist. It’s because Russia is fighting Ukraine, which they see as a proxy war against the United States and its puppets in NATO.
In the authoritarian Communist worldview, the United States is the vanguard of capitalism and the most dangerous threat to global communism. That’s why they think Communist nations need authoritarian governments and powerful militaries: to protect themselves from the United States and its client states.
So tankies support anyone fighting the United States or its allies, no matter who they are or how bad their governments are. Because they think anything that weakens the United States is good for the world.
People are using tankie for Russia supporters?
Tankies are people who identify as communist or socialist, but want a state where the ruler cannot be switched out through elections, or a comparable peaceful process. Such as the Soviet Union. In fact, the term “tankie” was first coined to describe people who supported the Soviet Union sending tanks to crush the Hungarian Revolution.
Authoritarianism and communism are incompatible. Under communism, the means of production are publicly owned. Ownership over a thing means that either a) you control the thing, and owe no accountability to anybody. Or b) the person controlling the thing is accountable to you. If the person who claims to control the means of production as the representative of the people is not accountable to the people, then he is actually the owner of the means of production. For example, Stalin effectively owned the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union wasn’t communism, it was the end state of capitalism, the complete enslavement of the working class to the owner class.
And for some reason, people who think Stalin was great like Russia, even though modern Russia doesn’t even claim to be communist.
Not supporting the “dictatorship of the proletariat” types, but the reason tankies support Russia isn’t because they think modern Russia is Communist. It’s because Russia is fighting Ukraine, which they see as a proxy war against the United States and its puppets in NATO.
In the authoritarian Communist worldview, the United States is the vanguard of capitalism and the most dangerous threat to global communism. That’s why they think Communist nations need authoritarian governments and powerful militaries: to protect themselves from the United States and its client states.
So tankies support anyone fighting the United States or its allies, no matter who they are or how bad their governments are. Because they think anything that weakens the United States is good for the world.
in the end, all they’ve done is make another oligarchy to replace the US with.
eh, there’s some stuff in what you said that’s not quite right, but you are getting the gist of it.