mim

I'm in the US and "lefty" might mean something different for me than it does for you. Where I live and the sites I go on - have leftys on there but no, they never use the term tankie.

As I mentioned, it's used in discussion circles with leftists beyond center left (i.e. someone who's more left than Bernie Sanders): Anarchists, Marxists, Maoists, etc. Lemmy might be the only site you go to that has a sizable proportion of these.

On Reddit, if you go to places like r/anarchism, r/socialism, r/stupidpol, you get to see it being used.

Annoying is an opinion yes, but I'm saying its annoying because of how often it is brought up.

It's brought up a lot here because there are a lot of them on lemmy. You'd never hear people around your neighborhood complain about something that doesn't happen in your neighborhood.

Maybe you are not seeing as many because your instance might block them. But I see them all the time is news articles about Ukraine or North Korea.

I see that there's a discussion thread that goes on about this, not gonna get involved on that.

It's a very common word in leftist circles. So if Lemmy is your first contact with leftists (beyond center left), then that explains it.

Being annoying is your opinion, but it's not a buzzword that someone from gen z invented recently.

The term goes back to the 50s and 60s, hardly a buzzword.

Sorry to tell you, but you've been living under a rock.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankie

Have a look at comments in any news article regarding Ukraine. They will simp for Russia just because they are not US allies.

A tankie is commonly used to refer to someone who blindly defends the actions of the USSR, China, North Korea, etc. Going as far as denying human rights abuses and genocide.

It's not the same thing as woke.

Tankies.

You can't have a discussion about anything without some tankie blaming it on Ukrainians / the west / capitalism, etc.

"Oh you stubbed your toe on the table? See, tables are oppressive furniture of the bourgeoisie. The Chinese government wanted to make all tables toe-stubbing resistent, but that would affect IKEA's bottom line and the pharmaceutical industry's profits. I have a source from tankiepeoplesmagazine to back this up."

And yet, tankies still defend this corrupt capitalist state just because it's not the US.

Nevermind political persecution, assassinations, repression of LGBT people, invasion of neighbouring countries, etc. As long as it's not the US, it's all good.

You seem to be ignoring the fact that after the fall of the USSR, Russia didn't want their assets to be sold or leased to western companies (understandably), so they let corrupt officials take them for pennies of what they were actually worth. Those officials became the oligarchs.

Russians cannibalised Russia.

So, what you're saying is that the countries that sided with the West got a better deal than the ones that became Russian puppets?

Eastern European countries that opened to western trade and diplomatic relationships improved significantly.

Eastern European countries that became Russian puppets didn't.

Explain that.

Because the Black Sea Fleet is station in Sevastopol and Sevastopol is a vital strategic resource? Are we speaking the same language?

So if the US has a fleet statinoned in another contry's territory, should they just be allowed to take it?

Non-sequitor?

What don't you follow?

Do you also support US-backed countries to take territory as they see fit? Or does that only apply to countries you like?

Okay so you know that UA was shelling Donbass and killing people for years, and the Rada was very openly hostile to the Russian speaking Ukrainian minority, right?

A Russian-backed separatist group starts a conflict and Ukraine responds.

Does Ukraine not have the right to defend their territory?

Could I get a sticker instead?

You can get some crayons to munch on.

I don't have the time for the classic tankie "reply with a wall of text and deflections", I actually have a real job to attend to. But some main points.

Do you know that the Russian Black Sea Fleet is based in Sevastopol? Did you know that it’s an incredibly important strategic asset? What do nation states do when an incredibly important strategic asset is threatened? Do they defend it?

Do you also know that Russia took Sevastopol from Ukraine back in 2014?

Tell me, do you also support Israel's claims on Palestinian territory?

Do you know what the Russian Federation’s stated causus belli for the invasion is?

Yes.

Do you know what the causis belli for the US's invasion of Iraq was? Are you stupid enough to believe that one as well? Or does believing causus belli only applies to whatever country is not an ally of the US?

What do you know?

I know you should get a gold medal on mental gymnastics and double standards.

So, why didn't Belarus improve at the same rate as the Baltic countries?

They both started from the bottom, right?