On stuff outside of lemmygrad, we are receiving a lot of hate, especially by those who just moved from Reddit. Guess they lost their hidden privilege at Reddit as their rhetoric used to be almost universal over there, while genzedong and our other subs get censored and banned. And now, on lemmy, their stuff isn’t universal, as we are more prevalent here. Seems like they really want that hidden privilege back
But the terminology ‘authoritarian and oppressive’ doesn’t really make sense in leftist circles where all states are understood to be just that by definition. I mean, that’s why people are socialists. Tankie is lib terminology referencing anything that undermines liberal democracy. It only makes sense when coming from anarchists.
You’ve never had the pleasure of interacting with someone that can produce endless excuses for the USSR or PRC?
Yes, but that doesn’t make them more authoritarian or oppressive because no matter what every state is using what it deems the most effective path to enforcing its will and if that means violence it will always resort to violence. It makes them bad communists.
It’s not a matter of oppression or no oppression but a matter of oppressing the right people. If the USSR and PRC were perfect they would be a contradiction to their own purpose, no?
Look amigo, I get there is a lot of depth to be had in a discussion like this, but I’m just explaining what people generally mean when they say tankie.
I would agree they are bad Communists, but unfortunately they are extremely visible and influence how non-Leftists see Communists, which is why many Leftists are quick and eager to disavow any connection with them.
They are bad because they oppress the privileged, I assume. The privileged do not need communism. Leave communism to the unprivileged people.
No I mean like how homosexuals were persecuted
and im a trans communist, and so are many people on this site. you think we dont know our own history?
Are you are defending, excusing, or justifying the persecution of LGBT people?
what?
They were persecuted, sadly. Communist countries stopped doing that shit earlier than capitalist ones.
Yes, but I’m referring to people defending that persecution instead of just accepting that Communist countries can also be criticized
Do you have an example of this? Because I’ve literally never once seen this here.
It took West Germany 2 decades to catch up with East Germany re: LGBTQ rights. Tge USSR was the primary opponent of the Nazis, do you know what they did to anyone falling outside of the sexual or gender norms? Germany was a bastion for queer people before the Nazis took over - Nazis quietly supported by Western powers under the hope that they would kill the Soviets (spoiler alert: they tried to kill every Slav). During the cold war in capitalist countries, homosexuality was generally illegal, often criminal, and was used to blackmail people, and notably used against high profile civil rights activists.
Does that make the oppression that did exist in some socialist countries okay? Of course not. But they did much better than the capitalists, so it’s ridiculous to choose that as your primary criticism. Socialism isn’t a utopia and no socialists ever claim it is. It is a struggle, and the earlier it starts the better we can progress.
Cubs is currently running circles sround capitalist countries with its new family code. Were you aware of this?
Okay, so you’re not the kind of person I’m talking about, I’m referring to the people that excuse those things
I’ve never met one and I think I’ve probably met way more commies than you.
It’s good to endlessly excuse the USSR and PRC, as most criticisms of them are bullsit that is only believable by people with poor knowledge of history and zero capacity to critically engage with the media. Unfortunately, this is basically everyone under capitalism.
It really isn’t
I suggest you read the entire argument before responding to it.
“endlessly excusing” is mutually exclusive with “critically engage”
Hey, I am one of them. The usa is always 100x worse, arguing does not change this reality.
Nobody was arguing that, two things can both do bad.
Only that it is almost never the case. And never when people start giving your talking point.
What is my talking point?
“Two things can be bad” - never the case it situations when people start saying it. It ignores scale and often takes hearsay as fact.
I specifically said “do bad”
Where does China do bad then? On the scale of the US? The supposed Uyghur “genocide” which lacks any strong evidence, even after years? Supposed debt traps, that even westen capitalist outlets like Bloomberg denied the existence of? Military wise? The PRC waged its last war almost 50 years ago (aside the ongoing civil war ofc), that’s twice as long as the US had years not in a war in its entire history.
There is a world war going on and I have picked the side that fights against the usa.
thats fine honey
Found the lib
Sure 🙄