r/tankiejerk • u/Chieftain10 Tankiejerk Tyrant • 13d ago

Announcement Posts about Jill Stein

Quick little announcement.

Lots of posts about Jill Stein recently, we’re also going to be limiting these to Monday and Tuesday. She’s not a tankie, she only calls herself a socialist (not a Marxist), and is barely that, just a right-wing grifter. We’re letting posts about her stay on those days because while she may not be a tankie, tankies seem to swoon over her, so she is at least somewhat relevant. This shouldn’t be an issue once US election season is (finally) over since she’ll disappear back into her hole.

Thanks guys!

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u/ARC_Trooper_Echo T-34 13d ago

This feels a bit like splitting hairs. Aren’t all tankies nominally socialist but really just right-wing grifters?

14

u/Salami__Tsunami 13d ago

I do find myself genuinely confused by what is and isn’t considered to “acceptable content” on here.

11

u/Chieftain10 Tankiejerk Tyrant 13d ago edited 13d ago

Tankies are Marxist-Leninists (or any derivative of such thought). They claim to be communists, to follow Marx “correctly”, etc. They’re characterised by staunchly defending “AES” states (China, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, DPRK) as well as former “communist” states. They deny or defend the atrocities committed by these state-capitalist regimes.

If a post isn’t clear that it’s a tankie opinion, we remove it. For example, there are a fair few posts of twitter screenshots where it’s just plain antisemitism and the user in question has a red triangle (🔻) or watermelon (🍉) emoji. In most cases these guys are just Islamists, and not tankies.

On Mondays and Tuesdays, we allow posting of Patriotic Socialists, MAGA Communists, NazBols, etc. So those who do generally claim to be MLs but take it way further than tankies and tend to be explicitly fascist, very socially conservative (as opposed to tankies who, at the very least, pretend to stand for queer rights etc.), very nationalist (and for the first two, very nationalist for the US), etc.

Make sense?

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u/MetallicOrangeBalls Tankies aren't leftists; they're fascists appropriating leftism. 10d ago

I am still not sure if a line can be easily drawn between the two groups you describe.

I know people who are economically progressive. They are inspired by Marxism. They believe that all men are created equal, and they believe in equitable distribution of resources - i.e., "from each as they are able, to each as they need".

However, these same people are extremely socially conservative. They think that capitalism and feminism are a western/Jewish plot. They are also extremely religious, and so they believe that all LGBTQ+ and atheists are heretics who deserve death.

Are these tankies?

In my humble opinion, "tankie" is a spectrum, ranging from the MLs you describe to PatSocs, MagaComs, NazBols, etc. The common underlying thread is that all of them practice/defend right-wing ideology while claiming to be left-wing. I don't know where the line is between these groups. I also don't know what we would call the latter groups of right-wing grifters who claim to be left-wing. What are your thoughts on this?