this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2024
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Political Memes

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago (6 children)

Is "Tankies" a new term? I've never heard it before a week or two ago.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 9 months ago (2 children)

It's decades old. Refers to people who support communist regimes regardless of what they do. Originally because the Soviet Union used tanks to quell rebellion and some people in the west still cheered for them.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I believe it was coined by the British left when the USSR quashed the Hungarian revolution by driving tanks through their streets. Anyone still in support of them is deemed a "tankie." Nowadays it was meant to criticize authoritarian communists.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

when the USSR quashed the Hungarian revolution

quashed the Hungarian communist (democratic worker) revolution; lowercase.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Right, right, they were like "you're not doing it right!"

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Was it from the Soviet Union? I always assumed it was a reference to justifying Tianamen Square.

I guess that more you know.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago

Yup, it even predates Tiananmen Square by a few decades IIRC

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (1 children)

you being funny? It's 68 years old this autumn.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I apologize I'm only up to 's' in my quest to memoriz3 every fucking word ever used in the English language. 🙄 The fuckin word, "meme" is like a million years old. It doesn't mean it was as regularly used in conversation before social media. On a different note, for how many other languages use Lemy how would you know English is my primary language?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The current use of it to mean "people I disagree with" is.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

I started to see the term around the time of the Russian invasion of ukraine

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Is that when you joined Lemmy? Because Lemmy is infested with Tankies, and you'll hear someone calling them out before long

edit: Spelling Errors

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

No, but considering Lemmy overall has grown 5800% in active monthly users in the first month the Reddit protests began, it's safe to assume most people haven't been here much longer than that lol. How long have you b3en using Lemy? 20 years? 50 years? Lol /s

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I joined during the Reddit migration and ended up dealing with Tankies almost immediately. Before Lemmy I always thought most Communists would claim that true communism hasnt happened yet, I was NOT expecting people who aggressively protected safe spaces and didnt allow any level of words that could be considered slurs to think that Russia and China have done nothing wrong and are super great countries

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I have been hearing the word "tankies" thrown around since joining during the great migration, too. I still don't understand what the term means lol

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Its a communist who thinks Russia and China are ideals to follow, easy enough to understand.