ARE TANKIES CONSPIRING TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BAD TIME ON LEMMY.ML? (2025 edition)
ARE TANKIES CONSPIRING TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BAD TIME ON LEMMY.ML? (2025 edition)
!asklemmy@lemmy.ml - ARE YOU A TANKIE? - informal poll results ~ 2025
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This process was undertaken to determine if so-called "tankies" are conspiring to make you (yes, you) have a bad time on the internet!
vague or informal answers were interpreted by the central authority (me). Only top level comments were counted. I did not provide further instructions or clarifications.
Image description: various pie charts and text, indicating the results of an informal poll from lemmy.ml, full results in spoiler
thanks for playing, see you next time 😎
What's a tankie? Is that someone who plays World of Tanks? Because I play that game sometimes. Or is it fans of the comic Tank Girl? Or...just tanks in general? Think tanks, aquarium tanks etc?
It's essentially a pejorative for "communist." I recommend the Prolewiki article on "Tankies," as well as Nia Frome's essay "Tankies."
For those that want an introduction to Marxism-Leninism, I made an introductory Marxist-Leninist reading list, check it out!
So originally it was used to refer to hardline communists by the critics of the USSRs suppression of the Hungarian revolution in the 50s. It’s now used to refer to more authoritarian sects of communism, and has been adopted by some of these authoritarian communists to refer to themselves. You can read more here.
we also can’t ignore that it’s being used as a pejorative by (some) liberals to mean anyone to the left of joe biden
like ffs ive seen anarchists be called tankies
Ignoring the origins of the term, ie putting down the fascist counter-revolution where nazis were let out of jail and they were lynching communist officials and jewish people, marking their doors, etc, it's now used for all strains of communist.
The idea that there are "non-authoritarian" communists is a bit silly. All Marxists believe the state is nothing more than the tool of class oppression, and that it should be the workers in charge of it until it withers away after full collectivization of production and distribution. The question with states isn't if they are authoritarian, but which class is wielding its authority. Marxists support the working class wielding its authority.
Even the British communists that took the incorrect line by opposing the USSR's crushing of the fascist counter-revolution in Hungary would be considered authoritarian, and called "tankies" today. They still supported a working class state, which can only be authoritarian as all states are means by which one class asserts its authority over others.
I recommend the Prolewiki article on "Tankies," as well as Nia Frome's essay "Tankies." Wikipedia's article on "tankies" is going to give a non-Marxist view, moreover a historical usage, without actually delving into what it means in practice.
Finally, there's no such thing as "tankie" ideology. It's all Marxism of some branch, communists often call themselves "tankies" in the same way we call ourselves "commies," absorbing the pejorative to weaken its effect.
As recently declassified CIA documents show, Hungarian 'revolution' was a CIA regime change op all along. It's the OG attempt at a color revolution.
https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2025/0318/104-10110-10525.pdf
I never got into comics but I fucking loved the Tank Girl movie. It might still be on prime video - i just watched it again like a week or two ago