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How do people actually fall into the "Tankie" mindset? (anarchist.nexus)
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months 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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[-] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

The majority of the theory I read is Marx, Engels, Lenin, and modern theorists. I do read Mao and Stalin too, of course, but the groundwork for Marxism-Leninism is in Marx, Engels, and Lenin, of course. The fact that I have read Marx, Engels, and Lenin is why I support socialist states, rather than do everything in my power to cherry pick quotes to avoid supporting existing socialism and make a mockery of Marxism. I recommend Roland Boer's Socialism in Power: On the Theory and History of Socialist Governance.

If my tone sounds a bit harsh, it's because the goal is to understand the world so as to change it, not just doompost.

this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2025
220 points (91.0% liked)

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