It really just comes off as 100% online-thought when I see anyone talking about tankies, I’ve never heard someone say it IRL. When I got more specific knowledge about socialism growing up I started calling myself an anarchist, and then when actually engaging in activity with leftists I found the MLs and ‘tankies’ were more serious(revising this because the anarchists I’ve known irl are plenty serious and do good work like help feed people with impromptu kitchens etc) and had a more rigorous ideology that truly supported anti-imperialist action and groups. I think whatever type of leftist you are we need to start with dismantling the current state, so at this stage it just seems like a waste of energy to worry about whether the other leftsts are too left or not left enough, as long as they aren’t libs.
Anyone calling out ‘tankies’ really needs to evaluate their positions and whether or not they are unconsciously parroting the imperialist’s view of ‘authoritarian socialists’.
(revising this because the anarchists I’ve known irl are plenty serious and do good work like help feed people with impromptu kitchens etc)
Those Actually Existing Anarchists are also called “tankies” by anarkiddies, because it is authoritarian to make them feel bad about their lack of action in the real world.
I had a DSA member tell me to watch out for tankies irl. Many of them might know better than to say it out loud, but plenty of real organizers believe tankies exist and need to be purged
Correct. I would even go further to say there is not even a shared goal or purpose, so organizing that way leads to infighting and a lack of cohesion inevitably.
It really is far out seeing extremely online arch-liberals explain to normies what a “Tankie” is by citing the Wikipedia article and talking about fucking 1956 Hungary like anybody GIVES A SHIT about the Hungary today, let alone 70 years ago lmao.
It really just comes off as 100% online-thought when I see anyone talking about tankies, I’ve never heard someone say it IRL. When I got more specific knowledge about socialism growing up I started calling myself an anarchist, and then when actually engaging in activity with leftists I found the MLs and ‘tankies’
were more serious(revising this because the anarchists I’ve known irl are plenty serious and do good work like help feed people with impromptu kitchens etc) and had a more rigorous ideology that truly supported anti-imperialist action and groups. I think whatever type of leftist you are we need to start with dismantling the current state, so at this stage it just seems like a waste of energy to worry about whether the other leftsts are too left or not left enough, as long as they aren’t libs.Anyone calling out ‘tankies’ really needs to evaluate their positions and whether or not they are unconsciously parroting the imperialist’s view of ‘authoritarian socialists’.
Those Actually Existing Anarchists are also called “tankies” by anarkiddies, because it is authoritarian to make them feel bad about their lack of action in the real world.
I had a DSA member tell me to watch out for tankies irl. Many of them might know better than to say it out loud, but plenty of real organizers believe tankies exist and need to be purged
It doesn’t help that the tankies they spend so much time raging about are 10x funnier than them.
DSA told me they coordinated with the police for all of their protests as if it was a good thing lol
Each chapter functions differently
true, the lack of consistency and cohesive principles is baked into it
What even is this comment
The DSA isn’t demcent, by design, so there’s more infighting and variance between chapters than demcent orgs.
Correct. I would even go further to say there is not even a shared goal or purpose, so organizing that way leads to infighting and a lack of cohesion inevitably.
It really is far out seeing extremely online arch-liberals explain to normies what a “Tankie” is by citing the Wikipedia article and talking about fucking 1956 Hungary like anybody GIVES A SHIT about the Hungary today, let alone 70 years ago lmao.
They do seem to hate it for not getting on the Ukraine bandwagon