As a leftist its also important to keep in mind we do differentiate between leftists who hold some opinions we disagree with compared to a Liberal who disagrees with us on nearly everything. Especially when said Liberals demand to be treated like leftists yet support imperalism, genocide, apartheid, capitalism, bigotry, and yet constantly call people "fake leftists" or "tankies".

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 35 points 1 month ago (12 children)

You had me until "tankies". Tankies are scum and don't need defending.

[–] InquisitiveApathy@lemm.ee 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What's a tankie?

[–] Forester@pawb.social 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

It's a political slang word. It refers to those who support leftist authoritarian regimes such as communist, China. Regimes where the state can do no wrong and the people do all the wrong so the state must step in to crush the people and "protect them" from dangerous, Western and capitalist ideas. Pretty sure the name derives from the 1989 tiananmen square incident.

[–] InquisitiveApathy@lemm.ee 24 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The term has nothing to do with Tiananmen square and it's usage actually predates the massacre by almost 40 years.

[–] Forester@pawb.social 15 points 1 month ago

Yeah you're right. I was for some reason conflating the USSR invading Hungary

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