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How do people actually fall into the "Tankie" mindset? (anarchist.nexus)

submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by stinky@anarchist.nexus to c/anarchism@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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After seeing a megathread praising Mao Zedong, an actual mass killer, and a post about a guy saying "99% of westerners are 100000000000% sure they know what happened in 'Tiny Man Square' [...] the reasons for this are complex and involve propaganda [...]," I am genuinely curious what leads people to this belief system. Even if propaganda is involved when it comes to Tiananmen Square, it doesn't change the atrocities that were/are committed everywhere else in China.

I am all for letting people believe what they want but I am lost on why one would deliberately praise any authoritarian system this hard.

Can someone please help me understand why this is such a large and prominent community? How have these ideals garnered such a following outside of China?

EDIT: Thank you to everyone who has responded! This thread has been very insightful :)

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[–] FlyingCircus@lemmy.world -2 points 4 days ago (30 children)

Those people don’t exist. You’re making things up.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (29 children)

Unfortunately not, I have had conversations with them. And I know your next line is going to be "But they're just trolling, no one really thinks that", and I call horseshit. That "trolling", when so religiously adhered to, inspires weak-willed onlookers into sincere belief.

[–] FlyingCircus@lemmy.world -1 points 4 days ago (7 children)

No, I don't think they're trolling. I think that you mistake any comment that is vaguely supportive of China or Russia or that contradicts the mainstream western narrative about those countries as wholesale support for anything those countries do.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You would be incorrect, I do no such thing. I'm speaking about a specific phenomenon, as I described.

[–] FlyingCircus@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Can you link to an example? Because I haven’t encountered such a person yet in my 6 months on Lemmy (admittedly not a long time).

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works -2 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I have deliberately avoided interacting with people like that for a while, and I don't really feel like digging back like a year to find a specific examples, especially since you came out of the gate unshakably convinced that it never ever happens.

But I assure you they exist. No I'm not generalizing pro- Russia/China sentiment. I'm talking about people who advocate the forceful spread of their ideology through violence.

[–] Diva@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

'i assure you my straw man exists'

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

"Every anecdote that challenges my biases is a lie".

Bad faith bullshit

[–] Diva@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Bad faith bullshit

ya get what ya give

I’m talking about people who advocate the forceful spread of their ideology through violence.

this describes every state on earth. calling revolutionary violence 'the forceful spread of ideology' only works if you pretend policing, prisons, borders, coups, and wars aren't already doing exactly that for capitalism.

feel free to step out of your bubble and read some of the responses here from the 'tankies' commenting from instances you're defederated from.

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