“Tankies”
redsails.org
Tankies don’t usually believe that Stalin or Mao “did nothing wrong”, although many do use that phrase for effect (this is the internet, remember). We believe that Stalin and Mao were committed socialists who, despite their mistakes, did much more…

There are two approaches one can take to people who say “socialism = Stalin = bad”: you can try to break the first leg of the equation or the second. Trotskyists take the first option; they’ve had the blessing of the academy, foundation and CIA money for their publishing outfits, and controlled the narrative in the West for the better part of the last century. But they haven’t managed to make a successful revolution anywhere in all that time. Recently, socialism has been gaining in popularity… and so have Marxism-Leninism and support for Stalin and Mao. Thus it’s not the case that socialism can only gain ground in the West by throwing really existing socialism and socialist leaders under the bus.

  • StonedMarx [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Tankie... what is a tankie? I guess you could call people supporting revisionist China and NK tankies. Because the only reason to support those countries is because they once were on the road to socialism. If we define tankie by that, I guess fuck em. If we however define Tankie as anyone who isn't high on liberal propaganda and actually acknowledges the huge steps forward that the USSR or Cuba have accomplished, then everybody should be a Tankie.