"Tankie" was originally a British slang term from the 50s.
In 1956, when the Soviet Union invaded Hungary, the British Communist movement was split over whether this action was cool, or sucked.
The people who thought it sucked derided their opponents who thought its cool, as "Tankies", because the images in the newspapers featured lots of photos of Soviet tanks rolling into Budapest.
After this, it stops being used for the most part, until it started being reclaimed by socialists online as a tongue-in-cheeck insult to throw at each other. Because, let's be real, it's a silly sounding word that's fun to say, and silly words are among the UK's biggest cultural exports.
Eventually though, Tankie breached containment and started to be used by people who had zero connection to any kind of socialist movement or history, and its meaning began to warp.
I've seen Marxists, even those think the Soviet invasion of Hungary was bad, called tankies. I've seen Anarchists called Tankies, I've seen right wing guys who love trad russian Orthodox Christianity called Tankies.
It's a word that doesn't mean much anymore. It's like when your grandpa calls Joe Biden "Pinko Scum"
If you go to Vimm's Lair right now, you'll see, in the place of download buttons, text that says something to the effect of "This download has been removed at the request of the copyright holder"
The files are still hosted on the site, but they removed the download buttons to appease our bourgeoisie overlords. You can install a browser script that puts them back though
Furthermore, even if you, perhaps understandably, aren't a big fan of the concept of a Theocratic supreme leader, your personal feelings on that fact are really beside the point.
For better or worse, Iran has been the one of only countries on the world stage to materially support Palestinian resistance, and opposed Israeli expansionism.
You can't support the Palestinian cause and cheer on this war/the death of the Ayatollah. Certainly not before there's a free and unified Palestine, anyway.
While Adventurist terrorism is bad, no one should do it... I do wonder how long until life gets so unlivable for a minority like teams folks, that you start getting instances of Stochastic terrorism.
It's not like trans folks are concentrated enough right now for coherent resistance movements, re: Stonewall are feasible. Though things are getting bad enough for queer folks in red states, that a lot of them are fleeing to bluer States, so maybe that concentration is already happening.
The vocab word of the day is 'Finlandization'.
The term comes from the fate of Finland after the Winter War with the USSR. It remained a sovereign state, in control of its own domestic affairs, but had its foreign policy making ability neutered in the post-war peace.
Taiwan is, de-facto, a sovereign state, despite recognition being limited, re: the one-China policy. This lack of recognition, however, means that Taiwan is highly limited in the foreign policy decisions it can make.
Generally speaking, Taiwan is in the orbit of US geopolitical interests. It produces Electronics components largely for western markets, and it's proximity to China makes it a strategic asset. So, if Taiwan decided to break off relations with the US, or enter into some kind of federation agreement with mainland China (things that are unlikely, but let's pretend they were to happen for a moment), such a thing would most likely not go over well. The US has carried out coups in countries for less.
So when @umbrella@lemmy.ml says Taiwan "isn't sovereign", this is what is meant.
Thank you for actually taking an interest. Frankly, most people have zero idea what it even is. Those that do, know it as a vague anti-fascist symbol. I know we here all know it's history, as used by the SPD, but we're a bunch of dorks on an insular web forum.
But when people ask, I explain it's history, that it occasionally had other meanings ascribed to it, in addition to the anti-communist one, and explain that even though I'm an ML, I use it because chuds don't recognize it, like they do the Antifascist Action logo (which, btw anti-communist anarchists looove, despite it being invented by communists). And most people find it neat and move on.
Ultimately, a logo isn't a magic sigil of "cast liberalism". You just talk to people and be normal. What's important is that you're out there doing the work as an ML. anything else is secondary to that.
Should ML orgs be using it? No, that's silly. But for me, a trans girl living in chudsville USA, who isn't exactly keen on getting harassed as a "Tr*nny Anteefuh", it's a comprise that has only led to me meeting cool communists in my area.
Idk, i have a 3 arrows patch on my bag, because it's a way to dog-whistle my leftist politics to others, without chuds recognizing it, like the one with the flags.
Its usage has extended so far beyond its original anti-communist usage, that it's just a more obscure antifascist symbol at this point.
"Tankie" was originally a British slang term from the 50s.
In 1956, when the Soviet Union invaded Hungary, the British Communist movement was split over whether this action was cool, or sucked.
The people who thought it sucked derided their opponents who thought its cool, as "Tankies", because the images in the newspapers featured lots of photos of Soviet tanks rolling into Budapest.
After this, it stops being used for the most part, until it started being reclaimed by socialists online as a tongue-in-cheeck insult to throw at each other. Because, let's be real, it's a silly sounding word that's fun to say, and silly words are among the UK's biggest cultural exports.
Eventually though, Tankie breached containment and started to be used by people who had zero connection to any kind of socialist movement or history, and its meaning began to warp.
I've seen Marxists, even those think the Soviet invasion of Hungary was bad, called tankies. I've seen Anarchists called Tankies, I've seen right wing guys who love trad russian Orthodox Christianity called Tankies.
It's a word that doesn't mean much anymore. It's like when your grandpa calls Joe Biden "Pinko Scum"