Okay, so if I’m understanding correctly, it was a term coined by communist pacifists as a dig against more militant communists. However, now it has now evolved so that center leaning liberals are just chucking it towards both right and left so long as either is slightly militant?
Hope I have that right. Thank you very much for the explanation!
The people who initially coined it weren’t necessarily pacifists, they just disagreed with how the Soviets conducted themselves in Eastern Europe. But otherwise yeah, you’ve got it.
Tankie mostly gets used by centrist liberal types to punch left, but I’ve seen Tucker Carlson’s weird Russia sycophancy get called Tankie once or twice also ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Essentially, in its modern context, it’s used against anti-imperialists and those who support existing socialist countries. Those using it as a pejorative have a different view of these countries and thus see “tankies” as defending the indefensible, while “tankies” tend to have more depth of knowledge going against the hegemonic grain.
Okay, so if I’m understanding correctly, it was a term coined by communist pacifists as a dig against more militant communists. However, now it has now evolved so that center leaning liberals are just chucking it towards both right and left so long as either is slightly militant?
Hope I have that right. Thank you very much for the explanation!
The people who initially coined it weren’t necessarily pacifists, they just disagreed with how the Soviets conducted themselves in Eastern Europe. But otherwise yeah, you’ve got it.
Tankie mostly gets used by centrist liberal types to punch left, but I’ve seen Tucker Carlson’s weird Russia sycophancy get called Tankie once or twice also ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Essentially, in its modern context, it’s used against anti-imperialists and those who support existing socialist countries. Those using it as a pejorative have a different view of these countries and thus see “tankies” as defending the indefensible, while “tankies” tend to have more depth of knowledge going against the hegemonic grain.