this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2026
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Interesting. I use "leftists" as synonymous with "progressive" or, perhaps more accurately, "marxist". So I would never call a Liberal a Leftist, for example.
Interestingly enough, the Tankies as described by you here remind me more of the Neoconservative center and right, I have never associated such types with the left in my mind at all.
Conservatives can be progressive too though - e.g. George Bush, the Republican President of the USA prior to Obama.
And speaking of the USA, the party on the "left", the Democrats, are most definitely liberals, while the party on the "right", the Republicans, are conservatives. One thing that that means is that for most of modern history, there has been no true "left" party, hence most people inside the USA - and by extension, most people on Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, etc. since they got their start and maintain their strongest base in the USA, prior to opening up to an international audience. So to your average Redditor, "left" =~ Democrat = liberal.
And ironically, as horribly incomplete as that statement is, it is still more accurate than what tankies, especially Hexbears, believe. e.g. that Russia, China, and North Korea are somehow "communist", rather than totalitarian dictators under the guise of democracy and capitalism.
And that is why I am saying: they're not left at all. They only claim to be, which does not make it true.