840
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2026
840 points (85.5% liked)
Political Memes
12598 readers
1627 users here now
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
1) Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
2) No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
3) Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
4) No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
5) No AI generated content.
Content posted must not be created by AI with the intent to mimic the style of existing images
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Tankies are the (Hyper-)Auth-Left.
People can pick apart the 2D political compass all they want, but it's definitely more useful than the 1D one.
Tankies are the intellectual equivalent and ideological opposite of libertarians. And nobody that isn't in high school should be ascribing to either.
At that point we have to get into the weeds about whether we're talking about American "libertarians" or libertarian on the global scale.
My understanding is proper, globally-defined libertarianism is the exact opposite of authoritarianism, which yes, is a critical piece of the auth-left AKA "tankies." But on that scale, they'd also be in direct opposition to fascism.
Contrast that to American libertarians, which tend to just be pot-smoking Republicans (because the US leans right in general).
TL;DR: Left-libertarians exist, but they're a rounding error in the US compared to right-libertarians.
Bullshit. That's a common conservative lie. Tankies are just conservatives in normal person's clothing. Every view they espouse is ultimately in support of conservatism.
Conservatism is the opposite of progressivism. Authoritarianism is on the conservative side of the spectrum and the opposite side from progressivism. Progressives (the opposite of conservatives) are very clear in despising authoritarianism. In fact, antiauthoritarianism is foundational to progressivism.
Tankies try to gaslight the normal people into thinking nazis and fascists were progressives. Every tankie talking point is based on conservative talking points and common conservative lies. Tankies are just conservatives trying to gaslight everyone.
When tankies start gish-galloping about their slanted views of history and what labels apply to whom, it becomes clear they are conservatives. Every word uttered by a conservative is deception or manipulation. Every. Word.
Again, you're oversimplifying the complexities of human political thoughts to a literal single dimension. Cue the scene from Donnie Darko when Donnie is asked to put every human action somewhere on the Love-Fear Spectrum.
I have never seen or heard a tankie make that argument; I've only heard it from MAGAs fairly recently - I saw it starting around a year ago.
It's not complex. Conservatives are people who espouse conservative views. Tankies are conservatives who are pretending to be authoritarian leftists and claiming "it's just too complex for dumb leftists to understand". Conservatives are pathological liars and calling themselves tankies is just one example of that. Tankies go on the same smoldering pile of carcasses as the rest of the nazis.
You're really bending the definition of "conservative" here.
"Tankie" is a negative exonym; I've never seen a tankie call themselves a tankie. See also "nazi;" they called themselves "national socialists."
With respect, I don't think you know what you're talking about and should therefore butt out.
You are dead wrong on both points.
Conservatives are simply those who espouse conservative positions. Tankies espouse conservative positions. They are the literal definition of conservatives.
Nazis frequently call themselves nazis. In 1940's Germany, you could be sent to a concentration camp for not identifying as a nazi. They used the word specifically. (Although in the 30's, nazis often just referred to themselves as "conservatives".) In the U.S., an official "Nazi Party" preceded WWII. A different American Nazi Party exists today and members still refer to themselvss explicitly as nazis. Proudly. In fact, there are currently several organizations whose members call themselves nazis or neo-nazis.
Conservatives are pathological liars. I do not respect my enemy, nor those who defend my enemy. So, without respect, "I don't think you know what you're talking about and should therefore butt out."
You are dead wrong on both points.
(Trying a tautology like you did. Does it make the following more convincing? No? Must be a waste of typing then.)
They do not.
Never head of that. My understanding is it was an anti-nazi slur, and they preferred the term "national socialist."
I never defended them; use your brain sometimes - you might find it fun.
I accept your concession.
Likewise!
I like horseshoe theory but I would describe it differently. Once you get far enough right or left you reach a kind of political singularity where what you are really advocating for is authoritarianism, which will only give lip service at best to any ideology other than naked control of power. Communists, Nazis, Tsarists, Monarchists, they are all the same and they do not represent the people.