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   Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Monday, 21-Jul-2025 17:32:38 JST Aral Balkan

   Tankies are the integer overflow errors of the left. They’re what happens when you go so far left that you wrap around to the right.

   TL;DR: Don’t be a tankie.

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Monday, 21-Jul-2025 18:19:51 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Mark Burton

     @markhburton Oh, they exist and you’ll know them when you meet them. They can renounce Israel’s genocide (agree) in one breath while glorifying Russia and China in the other (wtf?!)

   • Embed this notice
     Mark Burton (markhburton@mstdn.social)'s status on Monday, 21-Jul-2025 18:19:53 JST Mark Burton

     in reply to

     @aral
     "Tankies" was an insult used by Trotskyists for Communist Party members in the aftermath of Soviet interventions in Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
     It was always highly simplistic: communists mostly had nuanced positions on those events, being fully aware of the risk of Atlanticist opportunism as they unfolded.
     The western communist parties were and in some places still are vital elements of the anti-capitalist resistance.
     "Tankie" has no relevance today.
     (I have never been a CP member btw).

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Monday, 21-Jul-2025 20:23:49 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • David P

     @pewnack Not to mention those folks I saw in the US who flipped from supporting Bernie Sanders to supporting Trump.

   • Embed this notice
     David P (pewnack@aus.social)'s status on Monday, 21-Jul-2025 20:23:51 JST David P

     in reply to

     @aral

     You're describing the so-called horseshoe theory.

     https://theconversation.com/horseshoe-theory-is-nonsense-the-far-right-and-far-left-have-little-in-common-77588

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     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Monday, 21-Jul-2025 20:23:51 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • David P

     @pewnack No, I’m talking about folks who glorify Russia, China, etc. And yeah, there are authoritarian leftists.