#anti tankie action

[all-things-are-nothing-to-me]

Nearly as soon as the Bolsheviks took power, they began to execute anarchists and Socialist Revolutionaries, most of whom had fought alongside the Bolsheviks in the Revolution. They also purged elements of their own party deemed "anti-Soviet" or "counter-revolutionary." This state repression was well documented by the Soviet government, but here we have chosen to use journals and letters of those affected. Lithuanian-American Jewish anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman describe the Bolshevik betrayal: The systematic man-hunt of anarchists [...] with the result that every prison and jail in Soviet Russia filled with our comrades, fully coincided in time and spirit with Lenin's speech at the Tenth Congress of the Russian Communist Party. On that occasion Lenin announced that the most merciless war must be declared against what he termed "the petty bourgeois anarchist elements" which, according to him, are developing even within the Communist Party [...] On the very day that Lenin made the above statement, numbers of anarchists were arrested all over the country, without the least cause or explanation. The conditions of their imprisonment are exceptionally vile and brutal. (Boni, 253)

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

.

[iisthepopeoffools]

Who told liberals about the word tankie?

[a-very-tired-jew]

Columbia University's Joint Anti-Israel Groups Go Mask Off

Hey, remember how Columbia University had students in encampments protesting for months? Remember how their SJP, BDS movement, and associated groups endorsed terrorism, violence, and "resistance by any means"?

I remember. Well their joint SJP and BDS group called CU Apartheid Divest just posted something to their Instagram that shows it has never been about Palestine or Palestinians.

Fig. 1. CU Apartheid Divest group, made of SJP, BDS, and other groups openly admits that they are anti-Western Civilization

Read that again.

"We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization."

That's a wild statement to make.

So what are they posting about suddenly that has them revealing their intent for their actions since October?

Bangladesh.

The CU Activists are attempting to liken October 7th attack by Hamas with the Bangladesh student protests. Bangladesh had a quota based employment system that students were protesting, the government responded violently, and everything escalated from there due to years of government corruption, violence, and economic turmoil. This was a protest turned revolution within a country by its own people. This was not a government run by a recognized terrorist group attacking another country, killing civilians, and taking them hostage.

However, the differences and reasons between Hamas's actions and the actions of the students in Bangladesh do not matter to the anti-Zionist Activist.

We've seen this repeatedly from these activists that they will try to liken their movement and/or attach it to other conflicts around the world. Many of these conflicts differ greatly from the Israel/Hamas war as they are internal issues with internal actors being involved.

Bangladesh is students protesting against their government.

Sudan is going through a civil war between various factions.

The Congo has been experiencing decades long violence as various militias fight each other for control.

Yet I've see anti-Israel protestors tag their posts with Free Bangladesh, Free Congo, Free Sudan even though these conflicts differ in origin and parties involved.

If you continue through the IG post you'll see very little information as to the cause of the protest/revolution in Bangladesh and continued attempts to coopt the actions for their movement.

Fig. 2. CU Apartheid Divest group tries to liken its student movements to the student protests in Bangladesh and calls to escalate.

I can't help but think that the CU student activists yearn to be oppressed in a way that would allow them to respond like revolutions and protests around the world. The way they speak and write exudes a yearning for violence. In Fig. 2. they detail the actions taken by students against an authoritarian government that has actively shot and killed protestors. Whereas here in the USA the students were forcibly removed from campuses, experienced some police violence, were arrested, and then released. No curfews with a shoot on sight policy were imposed here in the USA in response to college campus protests.

Fig. 3. CU Apartheid Divest classifies this as an Intifada and likens it to Hamas's attack.

Notice in Fig. 3. that they're trying to call the actions in Bangladesh an Intifada. Not an intifada, but an Intifada which is a proper noun with its own connotation. I know I may be a stickler here, but if I see that word capitalized then I know it's referencing the First and Second Intifadas, and I know that these student groups have been calling for a Third one under the guise of "Global Intifada". They also say that Westerners need to escalate and are "obligated" to do so.

Fig. 4. CU Apartheid Divest uses tankie terminology, refers to Bangladeshis as martyrs, and calls this part of the Global Intifada.

The terminology in Fig. 4. also shows how much the Free Palestine student movement in the USA is not actually about Palestine, Palestinians, or any other movement it tries to attach itself to. These are tankies as indicated by the use of "comrades" and they are wholly opposed to Western Civilization. They genuinely state that their movement should violently escalate here in the USA and that they should be prepared for "sacrifices". This language when coupled with the use of Intifada is alarming as it appears that these student activists are preparing to follow in the footsteps of the Second Intifada, or at the very least calling for others to do so.

These students, whom call themselves the Militants of Hind's Hall (seen in the IG post, but not pictured here), are coopting, or attempting to coopt, movements and conflicts from around the world for their own ideals. As these are students in the USA who are arguably experiencing the least amount of oppression when compared to these other conflicts, and are actively attending Ivy League or R1 universities, it can only be assumed that they're yearning to live out their Glorious Revolution fantasy.

I am under no illusion that I understand their reasoning. Are things perfect here in the USA? Of course not, but when compared to the countries that these student protestors are attaching themselves to, we are leaps and bounds better. And if you disagree, then I have to ask, when was the last time we had a curfew with a shoot on sight policy?

Anyone attempting to call this movement and group "peaceful" is naive. They've been telling you for months that they're not peaceful, that their goals are not peaceful, and that the only peace they want is after they commit violence.

The IG link for reference

[thomasthetankieengine]

The interesting thing about the Tankie love of the term "liberal Zionist" (or its variant here, "I'm not a Zionist but-") is that it seems to encompass a variety of the following positions:

"I live in Israel, but hate Netanyahu and Likud."

"I don't live in Israel and don't ever want to move there, but still hate Netanyahu and Likud."

"I want a two-state solution."

"I don't believe in any states, including Israel, but am against people using anti-Zionism as an excuse for antisemitism."

"Zionism is not a monolithic movement."

"I support the Standing Together movement."

"There's no excuse for how Israel is treating Palestinians, but it's still fucked up to vandalize a synagogue in Europe or the US to protest that."

If your definition of a supposed movement is that broad, then it's really not much of a movement at all, now is it?

The only thing this positions actually seem to have in common is that they're telling some anti-Zionist activists that it's not OK to be antisemitic or blame Jews in general for the actions of the Israeli government.

And if that feels you with a murderous rage, well... maybe it's time to consider why you feel that way.

For someone like archaeocommunologist, though, there's probably no hope. Currently, the vast majority of his blog consists of him picking fighting with Jewish users.

[warsofasoiaf]

What's the tea on Sheila Fitzpatrick? Haven't gotten around to any of her work yet

Sheila Fitzpatrick is one of the prominent historians of the "revisionist" school of the Soviet Union, which emerged as a response to the "totalitarian" or "traditionalist" school that was prominent earlier, such as Robert Conquest. Fitzpatrick's most notable contributions to history come from the perspective of the lower classes of the Soviet Union, that the Soviet Union was not a singular ideological monolith driven from the top-down and that it had to respond to social forces within its own nation. In many ways, it's actually a welcome revision from the 1950's era of Soviet historiography, and the scholarship produced has increased the overall level of historical understanding.

For herself, Sheila Fitzpatrick is perhaps most notable for her "people's history" of the Soviet Union, one divorced from ideology and focused mostly on social mobility and the experiences of the peasantry and line workers. Perhaps most controversially (and what I was referencing in the earlier post), is that Fitzpatrick contends that the Great Purge and Stalinism was an albeit brutal form of democratic revolution, due to the people that were able to move into the places of those purged and experience social advancement. Stalin secured a way of public buy-in through a newly-empowered cadre of middle-class individuals to achieve legitimacy for his government and secure popular buy-in.

Now, of course, to outside observers, this is nonsense. Murdering people and distributing their stuff to other people is not a viable method of securing popular buy-in or achieving democracy. But because the purged were "class enemies," Fitzpatrick identifies them as "bourgeoise" and "executives," somehow this confers the action a form of legitimacy not seen in other historical or scholarly analysis - it was okay to exterminate them because others were able to benefit, conferring the idea that the people being purged were inherently less worthy than the people who benefitted. Similarly, Fitzpatrick, who took great pains to minimize the effect of ideology within the Soviet Union, is singularly unable to answer the question of why these targets were deemed acceptable in the first place - though ideology provides a very clear outline as to why such "class enemies" would be exterminated. Since such scholarship would be seen as antithetical to the revisionist school, however, it had to be discarded, which undermines the authenticity and accuracy of historical scholarship.

What bothers me about Fitzpatrick is that this is not considered a fringe belief of an otherwise respectable historian, but that this is considered a valid interpretation of a period of history with implications delivered further into the present. To Fitzpatrick's scholarship, it's *okay* to murder undesirables provided that they're the correct undesirables (a big problem given the rise in the justification of violence toward groups deemed to be subhuman - just look at the Russian invasion of Ukraine). Now, this is hardly unusual from a Marxist perspective - Orthodox Marxism depends on the categorical extermination of undesirables to achieve its desired societal utopia, but Fitzpatrick is no tankie and is in fact, quite critical of Stalin, otherwise, but has to find ways to mitigate his atrocities so he's not relegated as a monster.

This has been the case for a lot of contemporary historical scholarship with the Soviet Union. There's a significant number of false equivalencies in Soviet scholarship, such as the Great Purges or Khrushchev's forcible medication of dissidents with McCarthyism, in order to mute criticism of the Soviet Union and reject the notion of it as a censorious and ideologically-driven state. Contextually speaking, a lot of history scholars came to prominence as members of the New Left, whose anti-Vietnam War activism sought to portray the Soviet Union as a defensive, anti-imperialist, and progressive power despite all evidence to the contrary, and has similarly translated into hostility against new scholarship that brings sharper criticism of the Soviet Union into the fore. This was the case with Haynes and Klehr, whose translations of the VENONA cipher decrypts and exposure of the CPUSA's role in Soviet espionage was met with abject vituperation from the leaders of history departments - specifically and explicitly because it serves to provide evidence that undermines their core, tribal thesis. Such hostility to new scholarship, particularly that which is based in evidence instead of interpretation, is nothing short of a failure in history departments in their core mission.

Thanks for the question, Hex.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[kick-a-long]

So I looked up what the white house is currently doing in this new school year to combat antisemitism. They sent out a dear colleague letter last year. That is one tangible thing. The problem I have is two fold.

1. The letter in no way helps Jewish teachers and students report hostile environments because the letters are not sent to them. It doesn’t indicate who to contact (I believe) it mostly informs administrators what their liability is.

2. Almost half the examples are of Arab and Muslim discrimination. Including the formation of clubs for Muslim and Arab support but not that those clubs can’t advance a hostile environment for Jews or Israelis. Several of the examples of antisemitism ignore how antizionist rhetoric is used against American Jews. No examples include harassment for wearing a Star of David or a yarmulka while there are explicit warnings about hijabs.

It’s good to combat anti Muslim bias among students but it’s fucked that almost half of the fight antisemitism letter sent out to schools is focused on it. Especially fucked because antisemitism in every metric has increased more and is more widespread than anti Muslim sentiment, harassment, and actions.

But fuck me right? I hope antizionists, leftists, and tankies know they are perfectly in line with the feds.

If you are experiencing antisemitism at school, contact the ADL and google/contact Jewish legal advocate groups in your area which will do a hell of a lot more than a goy controlled government. (See it’s funny because Zog but Gog is the provable reality! Funny!)

[rotzaprachim]

let’s talk genocide denial!!! I’ve been seeing a Lot of it and it’s very infuriating on all fronts, especially when we are facing situations with multiple genocides at play! For ref, I am not indigenous to turtle island, I am a Tagalog Jew! 1) people refusing to recognize the nakba and the state of Israel’s long-form treatment of Palestine as a form of genocide because “there are more of them now!!!” Genocide is not solely a matter of “numbers” of people alive but also the purposeful destruction of peoples and cultures, as has been enacted against Palestine. 2) this is a complex one but…. Importation of discourses of originalism and indigeneity to middle eastern and Eastern European cultural contexts where they don’t belong. While pretty straightforward on turtle island, the constant flow of people into and out of these regions has meant many groups of people have lived in the same places for hundreds or thousands of years. The claim of “certain” groups of people as being invaders or recent “imports” has been a central aspect of the justification of deportation and genocide across EE and SWANA regions. This includes Jews across Eastern Europe (middle eastern invaders!!!) Palestinians in Palestine (Arab or greek invaders!!!) Armenians everywhere (Christian invaders!!!!) Greeks in Turkey and Egypt, Bosnians in Bosnia-Herzegovina (Turkish invaders!!!) and so forth. Don’t adopt these discourses. 3) point blank labeling of antisemitism as something *fake* the Jews control. *antisemitism*

4) refusal to reckon with the extent of the Shoah and intergenerational traumas and realities of the Shoah (like other genocides.) a genocide affects not only the survivors but their descendants. I’m seeing a lot of people acting like Zionism is a particularly evil ideology the Jews cooked up and then brainwashed other Jews into believing and then everyone chose to move to Israel instead of continue living in their nice cosy Yiddish bund homeland, and that removes the goysiche agency from the story. The Shoah outright obliterated the Jewish homelands and cultural areas Jews had been living in across Europe, and any genuine antizionism or diasporism NEEDS TO LOOK that history right in the face rather than sweeping it under the rug. It NEEDS to reckon with why so many Jews came to believe that they could no longer live outside of their own state because the goyishe world told them with blood that they could no longer live outside of their own state. It also needs to deal with the fact mass numbers of Jews were pretty unceremoniously dumped from DP camps to the state of Israel after the war was over. Genocides affect the survivors for generations, including where they live. 4) refusal to recognize antisemitism in the Arab world or the contexts which forced middle eastern Jews from their homelands and into the state of Israel. Oh it must be /their fault./ see above, no effective antizionism without reckoning with these histories.

5) tankies. There’s just been a mass platforming of tankies recently and many of them engage in genocide apologism or outright denial, especially of the holodomor. Others whitewash the policies of forced cultural assimilation or land dislocation undertaken by the USSR as “necessary anti-conservative revolutionary action against reactionaries.” I don’t care what their *good stances* are, we should not platform outright genocide deniers even if they can *justify* mass killings by means of political ideologies. These ideas include the idea that any discussion of governmental violence or genocide by a non U.S.-aligned state is a western psyop invented by the U.S., and they include not only historic genocides (although as discussed, genocides are not solely “historic” in the sense they continue to affect survivors and their children for generations) but current and ongoing violence against Uighur, Kurdish, Ukrainian, and Tibetan people.

5) anti indigenous racism in turtle island. Also a complex one as I don’t want to engage in whataboutism, but a lotttt of the jokes about *just send the Israelis to New Jersey/New York/Florida* ignore the fact that New Jersey, New York, and Florida are also settler colonies and indigenous homelands. A lot of the discussion of IL by white settlers has revealed the extent that they do not view themselves as white settlers, nor do they really understand native peoples and First Nations continue to exist. “I’d let Native American Hamas kill me and it would be awesome!!!!” Well there is no Native American Hamas, but there might be a tribe in your area that needs money for new kindergarten chairs or support for landback, so you shouldn’t treat them as a vaguely existent hypothetical.

6) reimposition of the colonial notion of one land for one ethnic group with one language and only one language that can be applied to place names. Even if this is in a *decolonial* sense for one area it’s still very dangerous logic to play with, especially with the ethnic diversity of much of the world. The idea of inherent primacy of one ethnic group over another in the post colonial era has been at the root of many mass killings.

7) labeling a language as “evil” or “untrustworthy”

8) I shouldn’t have to tell you why the idea that “there are no civilians” is very bad in literally any case

[wealmostaneckbeard]

Critical Role Plays Lancer (hypothetical)

What if the core cast of Critical Role played the table top Mecha role playing game Lancer? Here are the CR cast members paired with the most entertaining mechs for their style of play:

Travis Willingham in a HORUS Balor

In the major D&D campaigns Travis has shown a preference for melee combatants who engage with dark unsavory powers. The Balor is a huge mech that eats other mechs using nanite swarms. Those same nanites probably contain the consciousness of freedom fighters-turned-terrorists-turned-into-a-hive mind. It's a perfect match! If the Balor is equipped with an A.I. called a Non-Human Person then there is a possibility that Travis's pilot-character could get eaten by his own mech!

Laura Bailey in a Harrison Armory Barbarossa

Laura apparently likes long-range damage dealers and typically those are very delicate and agile characters. It would be intriguing to see how she'd handle the Barbarossa. The Barbarossa is a tanky behemoth armed with the APOCALYPSE RAIL, an anti-warship weapon that requires the user to stay still in order to charge. It would be very interesting to see if the pilot that Laura creates would fire into a melee scrum and potentially kill her allies to achieve victory. She could play around with the anxiety her pilot would experience while screaming "Get Clear of the Blast! Firing!" Or she could role play as someone totally ruthless who justifies friendly fire with the fact that dead pilots can be flash-cloned and mechs can be salvaged.

Marisha Ray in an IPS-N Tortuga

Marisha Ray is from Kentucky. The Tortuga has Shotguns. The synergy is naturally there, you guys. Joking aside, the Tortuga would give Marisha a lot of role flexibility, she'd be able to defend her friends from enemy advance or she could push into the fray headfirst. If her pilot is tech-savvy, she could even engage in some cyberwarfare which the Tortuga is kind-of good at. Plus the Tortuga comes with a really boring A.I. that could act as the straight man for whatever jokes Marisha's character would come up with.

Talesin Jaffey in an SSC Mourning Cloak

Mr. Jaffey would probably go with a homebrewed mech if given the choice. Since I cannot imagine the Eldritch Mechanism he would craft, I am forced to prescribe him a Mourning Cloak. It is one of the few mechs capable of teleporting, which it doesn't do very precisely. There is a slight chance that Talesin might roll poorly while determining teleport distance, causing his pilot and mech to go... someplace else... and only reappear after the scene is over. He and the game master could have a lot of fun with that.

Liam O'Brien in a HORUS Goblin (warning: robo-codpiece, or maybe you like that kind of thing, IDK)

In tactical table top action, Liam shows a propensity for complexity. And nothing is more complex than the little Goblin which contains more electronics within it than is physically possible. The Goblin can hack allies to make their systems better, hack enemy systems to make them much worse, and even hack reality to make Things happen. Liam could reprise some of his favorite shticks like "I'm just a little guy, give me uppies," and "This goblin is named Nott and is my best friend."

Ashley Johnson in a Harrison Armory Genghis

In the first two major D&D campaigns Ashley played melee damage dealers and then branched out into a wildfire druid in the third. So a striker type mech that plays with fire would be consistent with her previous choices. Enter the Genghis, the carefree pyromaniacs choice of mechanized chassis. The mech builds up heat from weapons like it's Krakatoa flamethrower or a GMS Thermal Lance and then releases it in a blistering-blinding heat cloud. Incendiary damage continues burning victims until they douse themselves so Ashley can just set and forget. Finally I'd love to see what kind of pilot Ashley would come up with who would use a mech that's just as terrifying as the Balor.

Sam Riegel in an SSC Swallowtail (oh gods... please excuse the terrible mspaint job... hopefully this looks funny in a good way)

In D&D, Sam seems to like playing as unconventional back-line characters. He's been a tricky bard, a sneaky goblin/halfling rogue, and most recently a literal healbot with rage issues. So I think the Swallowtail would be a good fit for him. It's less of a mech and more of a high quality holographic movie studio on legs. It can make simulated stunt doubles of allies, use it's cameras to focus in such excruciating detail that invisible subjects are revealed, and even turn itself and everyone nearby invisible so they don't mess up the film shoot. Sam's pilot character could be some kind of propagandist or movie set manager who is infuriated by how messy actual warfare is.

Finally, Last but not least:

Mathew Mercer in an IPS-N Lancaster

I would be automatically fascinated by Mr. Mercer's interpretation of galactic human society in the year 5016u and the journey he would take his players on. But if he was a player then it would be interesting to see him controlling a Lancaster, the apex of mobile field repair platforms. Anything bad that can happen to a mech (damage, burning, hacked, immobilized) can be undone by the reliable Lancaster and it's limited pool of resources. I'm confident Mercer would be able to manage those resources wisely although it would be funny if he didn't. Role playing as his pilot, we'd get to see Matt do his best futuristic tow truck operator impression, which I think would be a very gratifying experience.

[reasonandempathy]

"I find it telling that people say there should be a ceasefire, because the on going war will just make Palestinians hate Israelis more, leading to more groups like Hamas being established, but I saw no one denouncing Hamas' massacre on Oct 7, or the decades of Palestinian terrorism that preceded it, being denounced because of the hatred for Palestinians that would plant in the hearts of Israelis."

It's takes like these that only serve to help convince me that people exist on entirely different planes of existence, and that's sincerely and seriously concerning.

Different lived experiences, to be sure, but I couldn't find any mainstream conversation that didn't include condemnations of the crimes of Hamas, and didn't center the pain experienced by Israelis and Jewish people until 2024 rolled around.

Maybe on the most extremely-online circles, or tankie circles, that was more common (or maybe Twitch?), but "Palestinian terrorism [like Hamas' actions] is counter-productive" has been arguably the main leftist and anti-Zionist point against Hamas the entire time. There is some steel-manning of Hamas in the "they're resisting occupation" thought, but I haven't seen anyone seriously advocating that Hamas' actions are productive/"good". The best defense I've ever seen, even in passing, of Hamas is either vague Tankie bullshit or that one MLK quote, which itself has a condemnation of the acts built into it.

There are a long list of reasons why Hamas is abhorrent, so maybe this person only noted reasons 4-27 and missed 1-3 and 28-96, but...

Palestinian terrorism [and Hamas specifically] fostering fear and hatred in the hearts of Israelis is the central political machination of the Netanyahu Government's support for Hamas in the first place. Granted there was also the "we need to keep palestinian political life separate to make resistance weaker," but there was also very much a "Hamas is horrible, it will not be a reasonable partner for Israel, and its abhorrent beliefs will ensure Netanyahu has a stable base of hatred of Palestinians to use as political fuel."

Where do they think the "The Palestinian/Israeli Conflict is so long and so complicated and we can't expect [Israelis and Palestinians] to stop fighting, because how could Israelis not hate Palestinians/Hamas" concept come from?

It's like saying U.S. Society never really spoke about Slavery because it's only passingly referenced in the 2024 Constitution.

[all-things-are-nothing-to-me]

Always against the tanks.

[kolibrieren]

If your reaction to anti-GDR and PRC art is to call it "anticommunist" then you're not actually thinking, you're just worshipping the idea of communism.

The GDR and PRC (and USSR) were/are soulless totalitarian states that abused their citizens and committed genocide, while wearing the flayed skin of communism to try and justify their actions as being in service of the proleriat they were stomping on.

The Eusean Nation is a direct commentary on these states, particularly the GDR, and just because Signalis shits on a millitary dictatorship justifying its' oppression with revolutionary rhetoric doesn't mean it's some sort of fascist screed.

The workers of S23 are kept in cages and tortured for confessions. Use some fucking braincells and stop mindlessly consuming tankie propaganda, goddamn.

[tiredandsleepyaf]

About blog: After seeing tons of goyim turn to celebrating Jewish death and become extremely antisemitic, I decided to make a blog that’s a safe space for Jewish people. I’m a secular Jew looking to learn more about my culture. Both secular Jews and converts are welcome (also if you’re in the process of converting your welcome here too), I don’t gatekeep. I don’t support the actions of Israel’s government, and it’s antisemitic to assume all Jews do, we aren’t a monolith. I also don’t think any goyim celebrating Jewish death right now and attacking every Jewish person they come across really cares about Palestine at all. I think y’all are just using it as an opportunity to show your true antisemitic colors.

I’m saying this only once, I believe in a two state solution. Everyone seems to have their own definition of what Zionism is these days, and if that makes me a Zionist in your book, I really don’t care. Y’all throw that word around as much as you run your mouths about things you know nothing about. This blog is dedicated to addressing rising antisemitism and exploring Jewish culture, not for you to interrogate and harass me because I’m Jewish. I make good use of the block button and I’m not afraid to name and shame.

List of antisemitic people to block (I’ve decided to discontinue adding to this, but will continue to reblog other peoples block suggestions under #block list)

List but with some screenshots to back it up

About me:

Pronouns: they/them

Adult

Queer af

Do not interact: goyim, queerphobes of any kind, anyone who’s antisemitic, transphobes/gender critics, maps, misogynists, conservatives, anti choice, anyone who supports any kind of genocide or ethnic cleansing, if you celebrate the death of Jewish people (see the antisemitic thing), and tankies (again, see the antisemitic thing).

For now I’m allowing non-lgbtqia+ people but you’re on thin ice.

Warning: this blog contains heavy and potentially triggering topics. Please reconsider interacting if this could be harmful to your well being or if you’re not mature enough yet to handle such topics.

[a-very-tired-jew]

A lot of the anti-Zionist crowd reminds me of the Che shirt kids from high school and undergrad.

You know the ones I'm talking about.

In high school they'd talk about how the "system was evil" while purposefully being disruptive in class, would barely pay attention or pass a class cause the material was all "propaganda", and would wax philosophic about their teenage comprehension of Communism and its associated leaders. Any history class would eventually end up with them arguing with your teacher. Yes, they would have some good points, but at the same time their understanding of the material would be juvenile at best.

In college they'd get worse. Some of them might continue wearing the shirts and paraphernalia, but others would go all out and start wearing the black beret and/or associated dress of Che and other leaders. They now have a college vocabulary and use it to drive every discussion towards their political ideology. Almost nothing exists outside of their political framework and talking to them is exhausting.

They're also not seen as a disruption anymore, but more as that annoying Tankie who has to go "um, actually" and then go on a monologue about the CIA in class. Professors will either let them do this or tell them that it's not the time or place and that they have to teach. The former gives a small sense of triumph as they "subvert the system" (and we do this because if we don't you become more annoying), the latter causes them to grumble and complain about being "silenced".

Yes, we're aware of the CIA's actions. Yes, Che had some very good points about the role of neo-imperialism in the Global South. Yes, the USA has done some absolutely horrid shit. But what makes everyone keep these people at arms length and/or ignore them is the refusal to acknowledge the atrocities that the man on the shirt did. It's the black and white juvenile reasoning that colors everything they talk about and putting him and other leaders on a pedestal.

If you talk to anyone in the Cuban diaspora they, their family, or someone they know within the community will refer to Che as a butcher. They will tell you about the absolutely horrific things he did as a leader. They will tell you about how this man that young adults are idolizing would imprison and execute them for any number of things that they enjoy simply because he objected to them. The same thing goes for anyone who has family members that survived the USSR or any other 20th century authoritarian country that called itself Communist.

It's the refusal to acknowledge that the world exists in shades of nuance. It's the refusal to acknowledge that these authoritarian Communist governments would imprison, exile, and/or execute all of them and their friends for being queer, speaking out, their writing, their taste in music, their manner of dress, etc, etc... That countries, governments, leaders, ideologies, and people are multifaceted and not this idealized fantasy that can be argued for with whataboutisms.

We see this same behavior in the current batch of anti-Zionists. Some of them are the newest cohort of Tankies who are just repeating the same behaviors we've seen time and time again. However, in this current situation we all have access to information and are able to address things for what they are. The disruptive misinformation isn't as tolerated any more because Che shirt kids are no longer just marching around on the college green in their Communist LARP gear, but are instead coopting a war and its suffering for their Glorious Revolution accelerationist rhetoric.

The adherence and defense of Cold War era tactics, the almost rabid want to implement them, the use of whataboutism to defend your blorbo and the refusal to acknowledge their atrocities, plus the additional antisemitic laden screeds, all the while the world is attempting to move forward from this is downright regressive and juvenile.

And keep in mind, I'm an old alt kid. I've been part of counter culture for decades now. I have patches older than most of these college Tankies. I remember the Che shirt kids and how we stayed away from them because they often spouted rhetoric that was both fantastical and extremely violent. If you're unaware, Che himself believed that to achieve the socialist utopia that extreme violent revolution was necessary (sound familiar?). Not mentioning the fact that often this process gets stuck at the authoritarian step after the violent revolution.

Meanwhile, we just wanted to be accepted for wearing all black, chains, and just being "creepy". We weren't actually violent as most suburban moms believed. So we often stayed away from people who actually believed in violent rhetoric. Not only would it not look good for the alt community, but it was simply antithetical to what we believed. We wanted to be accepted in society and help improve it, not burn it down (and look where we are now, everyone wants a goth mommy. Mission achieved).

The two groups are counter culture in essence, but extremely different. So when I say the current batch of anti-Zionist protesters are just Tankie Che shirt kids, believe me. I've known their type for years.

[starstuffandalotofcoffee]

i've been trying to comment less on the anti-voting/online cosplay leftist/tankie crowd bc other than no-nonsense debunking of lies I think depriving them of attention is the way to go but it does strike me that the reason the British ones have been so active in particular lately is that if there's a massive Labour victory it really fucks over their "everything is terrible and you're in denial, so join us" message.

I don't think it's bots (not that there aren't bots, but I think a lot of the Tumblr Communists (TM) are genuine homegrown idiots), I don't think these morons are getting paid, I really do think it's just that when conservatives or fascists are in power the people they consider liberals (which range from barely left of center to full-blown communists who aren't sucking Putin's dick and actually take irl direct action) are nicer to them. So much of the anti-voting rhetoric boils down to "an online stranger I consider liberal wasn't sufficiently nice to me, so now I'll fuck everyone over, including myself, and that will show them." I really think they want fascism because the internet's positive perception of them reached a peak when that guy punched Richard Spencer at the 2017 inauguration and, due to the general lack of any kind of follow-through, organization, or revolutionary action, it's been downhill from there. They're still chasing that high. That sort of Terminally Online Leftist type was seen as cool and edgy under fascism (though I think after the shtick is now played out); they're quite obviously cringe when a decent lawmaker is in charge, and ultimately that group fears nothing more than being seen as cringe.

[warsofasoiaf]

Tankies and pro-Putin left aren't the same thing?

No. It's a relatively common talking point among the pro-Ukraine left (such as Animarchy History, who has good content for the most part but it's a huge blind spot), but the pro-Putin left aren't exclusively tankies.

Tankies are very specific. The name tankie came from the Communist Party of Great Britain who supported the party line that the 1956 Soviet intervention in Hungary was a justifiable act. Since Khrushchev "sent in the tanks," the supporters became "tankies." In modern parlance, "tankie" is used a slang term for any supporter of authoritarian communism, particularly Stalinists.

But neo-Stalinists and Maoists aren't the be-all and end-all of left-wing support for Putin. The Democratic Socialists of America, for example, is not a communist group but they are heavily pro-Putin and breathe life into the discredited NATO expansion myth and consider Russian actions in Central Asia/Eastern Europe to be defensive in nature. CodePink, same thing, not a communist group but deeply committed to concern trolling regarding nuclear exchange and happy to ignore Russian atrocities and aggression despite being, in theory, a group promoting pacifism.

Part of it is campism, which originally was a term for third-way socialists but is commonly used as a descriptor for any left-wing individual who supports any cause provided it's sufficiently anti-Western. Just as before, I think a lot of it has to do with political opportunism. They hope Putin will win to breathe life into their movements when they say "See! We were right all along." And a lot of it has to do with influential figures of the New Left such as Noam Chomsky who despise Eastern Europe for the Revolutions of 1989 and their pro-Western turn and desire to see them punished for, in their view, abandoning the true faith and invalidating the ideology that they had long sought for.

This is why you have ostensible libertarian-leftists or left-liberals who wholeheartedly support a host of authoritarian states regardless of their position on the political spectrum, from China to Russia to Iran.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King