I keep hearing the term in political discourse, and rather than googling it, I’m asking the people who know better than Google.

  • A1kmmAEnglish
    87·
    1 day ago

    While someone’s political beliefs are highly multi-dimensional, there are two axes that are commonly used to define where someone sits:

    • Economy - Left is favouring social responsibility for people receiving economic support (supporting people to meet their basic needs is everyone’s collective responsibility), while right is favouring individual responsibility (meeting your basic needs is your responsibility, and if you die because you can’t, even if it is due to something outside of your control, tough luck).
    • Social liberties - Social Libertarian is favouring individual decisions on anything not related to the economy / rights of others, while Social Authoritarianism supports government restrictions on social liberties.

    Since there are independent axes, there are four quadrants:

    • Socially liberal, Economic left - e.g. Left Communism, Social Democrat, most Green parties, etc…
    • Socially authoritarian, Economic left - e.g. Stalin, Mao. Tankie is a slang term for people in this quadrant.
    • Socially liberal, Economic right - Sometimes called libertarian. Some people with this belief set call themselves Liberal in some countries.
    • Socially authoritarian, Economic right - e.g. Trump. Sometimes called conservatives.

    That said, some people use tankie as cover for supporting socially authoritarian, economic right but formerly economic left countries(e.g. people who support Putin, who is not economically left in any sense).

    • mathemachristian[he]@lemmy.ml
      5·
      22 hours ago

      Economy and social liberties are not independent axes. The mode of production of a society influences it’s social life and the liberties afforded.

    • ReverendIrreverence@lemmy.mlEnglish
      5·
      1 day ago

      while right is favouring individual responsibility (meeting your basic needs is your responsibility, and if you die because you can’t, even if it is due to something outside of your control, tough luck).

      Unless “you” are a corporation and then a taxpayer-funded bailout is almost sure to arrive.

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
      112·
      1 day ago

      This isn’t accurate.

      For starters, the “libertarian/authoritarian” axis makes no sense. All states uphold one class while oppressing others. If we took a look at the Soviet Union, for the broad majority of society, social liberty increased dramatically. The economy was democratized for the first time, healthcare and education were free and high quality, working hours lowered while real wages rose, housing was free or low-cost, employment was full, women began to take serious administrative roles. This was all accomplished by the working class taking control from the capitalists and Tsar.

      The state will always be a tool for control, but the question isn’t if it controls, but who? And for whose benefit? There isn’t a sliding scale of more or less control, but which class a society serves. Socialist states aren’t especially exerting authority, they just use it against capitalists, fascists, and reactionaries, instead of against the working class.

      Finally, communists only support the Russian Federation to the extent that they oppose western imperialism, are a valuable trading partner for socialist countries, and have rising socialist sympathies. No communist wishes to adopt the Russian Federation’s economic model, we understand full well that the USSR fell 3 decades ago.

    • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
      15·
      1 day ago

      There is a single axis of geopolitics. Pro CIA/Zionazi demonic supremacist corrupt/rigged/controlled democracy evil vs resistors. Tankies are just an insult to the resistors. Speech is controlled by establishment everywhere, and just as money is speech, money/CIA is terrorism that will destabilize and diminish any country that supremacist speech is not exterminated.