Nyarlathotep
Active member
This thread is on another forum I hang out on, and I think this might be a good place for one. Credit to a certain Silver2195 for most of this OP.
What is a tankie?
A Tankie is an apologist for the violence and crimes against humanity perpetrated by twentieth-century Marxist-Leninist regimes, particularly the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin (1924 - 1953). More broadly, the term may refer to any leftist who is perceived to support or defend authoritarian regimes on the basis that they are enemies of the United States. This can include regimes that are not and do not claim to be communist such as those of Vladimir Putin in Russia and Bashir al-Assad in Syria (as well as Nicholas Maduro in Venezuela more recently).
What is an authoritarian moonbat?
This is a category for the anti-democratic far-left, and most either embrace or heavily sympathize with authoritarian variants of communism. While they are all on the authoritarian far-left, most are at odds with each other, for instance Stalinists and Maoists.
Where can I find good material for this thread?
Twitter and Reddit are both low hanging fruits, but you can also find this sort of stuff on any sufficiently left-aligned website.
Thread guidelines:
Now on to the quotes!
The Stalin thread on RevLeft has some amusing bits.
Then there's the American Herald Tribune, where the headlines say it all. It was actually what inspired the original version of this thread in the first place.
One of the section headings is "Neoliberalism- a gay science."
It's the "Part 13" that really makes this one.
Twitter has some good stuff too!
What is a tankie?
A Tankie is an apologist for the violence and crimes against humanity perpetrated by twentieth-century Marxist-Leninist regimes, particularly the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin (1924 - 1953). More broadly, the term may refer to any leftist who is perceived to support or defend authoritarian regimes on the basis that they are enemies of the United States. This can include regimes that are not and do not claim to be communist such as those of Vladimir Putin in Russia and Bashir al-Assad in Syria (as well as Nicholas Maduro in Venezuela more recently).
What is an authoritarian moonbat?
This is a category for the anti-democratic far-left, and most either embrace or heavily sympathize with authoritarian variants of communism. While they are all on the authoritarian far-left, most are at odds with each other, for instance Stalinists and Maoists.
Where can I find good material for this thread?
Twitter and Reddit are both low hanging fruits, but you can also find this sort of stuff on any sufficiently left-aligned website.
Thread guidelines:
- The scope of this thread is intentionally somewhat vague, but try to stick to people who are apologists for dictators, advocate violent revolution to create a dictatorship of the proletariat with a straight face, espouse bigoted views such as homophobia from a "left-wing" perspective, or are at least vaguely Old Left. People you simply consider overly "woke" or "Tumblr-y" are a completely different category and should be avoided as outside the scope of this thread.
There will be some overlap in the form of "Maoism-Third-Worldism" and similar ideologies, but those should be OK to post, because I think pretty much everyone here can agree that they are silly. - There's no hard rule that you have to post a quote in every post or anything like that, but some amount of finding quotes instead of just discussion helps keep mock threads from dying.
- On the other hand, try to keep quotes to a reasonable length.
Now on to the quotes!
The Stalin thread on RevLeft has some amusing bits.
That Stalin "made a fine Emperor" is not a Marxist analysis, nor are claims that he "crapped up" arts.
Sorry mates. My overall view of Stalin is actually positive. My main man Žižek is a self-proclaimed Stalinist, who am I to argue. Still,he did some questionable things. Like all that constant history-modifying, how's a worker supposed to make the right conclusions from history if the history itself is unreliable?
Then there's the American Herald Tribune, where the headlines say it all. It was actually what inspired the original version of this thread in the first place.
Homosexuality and Bourgeois Decadence: Reflections on the Orlando Massacre
One of the section headings is "Neoliberalism- a gay science."
9/11 and the Zionist Question: Is Noam Chomsky a Disinfo Agent for Israel? - Part 13
It's the "Part 13" that really makes this one.
Twitter has some good stuff too!