After seeing a megathread praising Mao Zedong, an actual mass killer, and a post about a guy saying “99% of westerners are 100000000000% sure they know what happened in ‘Tiny Man Square’ […] the reasons for this are complex and involve propaganda […],” I am genuinely curious what leads people to this belief system. Even if propaganda is involved when it comes to Tiananmen Square, it doesn’t change the atrocities that were/are committed everywhere else in China.
I am all for letting people believe what they want but I am lost on why one would deliberately praise any authoritarian system this hard.
Can someone please help me understand why this is such a large and prominent community? How have these ideals garnered such a following outside of China?
EDIT: Thank you to everyone who has responded! This thread has been very insightful :)
Low effort cop-out
Seems pretty reasonable to me. There is no point in actually engaging with you. Any and all evidence against you will just get handwaved away as “western propaganda” with no evidence whatsoever. Then you will immediately pivot to insults and name calling. That’s every conversation with a tankie ever. It’s mind numbing and not even good entertainment.
In this thread, there’s only about 2 or 3 lengthy comments with references from the side that’s critical of MLs.[1] [2] [3] [4] There are about a dozen from MLs explaining their positions.[5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
There’s also namecalling and shallow arguments coming from both sides. It’s not a “tankie” thing. It’s an internet thing.
https://hexbear.net/comment/6786216 ↩︎
https://hexbear.net/comment/6785802 ↩︎
https://hexbear.net/comment/6786946 ↩︎
https://hexbear.net/comment/6785575 Not lengthy but they did at least link something ↩︎
https://hexbear.net/comment/6787518 ↩︎
https://hexbear.net/comment/6786005 ↩︎
https://hexbear.net/comment/6785578 ↩︎
https://hexbear.net/comment/6787798 ↩︎
https://hexbear.net/comment/6786724 ↩︎
https://hexbear.net/comment/6787413 ↩︎
It’s especially a tankie thing though. When one side of an argument knows full well that there won’t be any good faith arguments from the other, they tend to revert to similar behavior. Wrestle with a pig and you both get muddy, but the pig enjoys it.
I don’t bother with well structured arguments against flat earthers, young earth creationists, or climate change deniers either. There is just no point in bothering.
Okay but you said that “tankies” always devolve to namecalling and insults but I showed you at least 6 direct examples of MLs responding to criticisms in this thread with lengthy responses, citing a bunch of sources. There’s more comments in this thread that don’t cite sources but still are fairly nuanced and explain where they’re coming from without namecalling or insults. To your credit, the critics also have written some comments that are thoughtful and well argued! There actually can be meaningful discourse, and good faith arguments. I don’t know why you say that you know full well that there won’t be good faith when you can clearly see people in this thread trying their best to communicate.
Nah you’re just butthurt
There are tons of extensive detailed responses here already and you’re not engaging for shit, quit lying
Says the creepos who start speaking in animated gif as soon as anyone points out the gigantic holes in their stories.
Says the user that gets in arguments and stops reading their interlocutor’s responses?
You sounding like every other tankie out there is not a me problem. It’s a you problem.
How do you know that without reading the responses?
Well, this is just a wild guess… but perhaps it’s got something to do with the fact that I haven’t encountered one of you in the last decade that doesn’t sound just like every other tankie?
But you didn’t read the responses, so are you just skimming through them and responding based on vibes? It seems wrong to land at any concrete conclusions based on that level of investigation.
Any and all conclusions regarding tankie ideology’s political emptiness has already “landed.”
A few comments before in this thread you criticized “tankies” for being creepos that speak using animated gifs once they’ve run out of arguments. Do you think that responding to someone asking you why you never read the stuff you reply to with crude generalizations to justify never reading is better than a gif reaction?
That’s called ideological consistency, the fact that a bunch of people who ostensibly agree on politics and society say similar things is in fact normal, if your cohort doesn’t do that it’s a fairly strong indication that you’re all fucking clueless
Then admit you’re an anti-socialist and prove your (alleged) “ideological consistency.”
Anything’s possible when you make shit up kiddo
“People who have similar political ideas say similar things to me and I think that’s problem” lol
Really? I have similar ideas to an anti-socialist?
Proof?
Lol learn to read
You first.
Seriously though, you’re not helping your credibility by responding in ways that clearly indicate you’ve misread the comments you’re responding to
Anything’s possible when you make shit up kiddo
Is that why your personality cult-objects tried made-up-socialism?
Weak, try harder liberal
Ok.
Is that why your personality cult-objects tried fake socialism?
Get new material
Ok.
Is that why your personality cult-objects tried artificial socialism?
Call it whatever you want, it’s still infinitely closer to actual socialism than the absolutely fucking nothing you and your ideological ilk have ever accomplished