Anarchism

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

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day 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?

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[–] theparadox@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I empathize with some of the thinking, but I don't necessarily agree with it. To keep it simple, imagine how many different world powers are working to sabotage openly Socialist and Communist governments. What kinds of tools and resources might these world powers have at their disposal? I can't imagine being part of a disfavored leftist government and not becoming haggard and paranoid beyond reason.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

I break it down like this:

Free-for-all Capitalism has gotten us this shit state.

Free for all Communism has never worked in any meaningful way. Now, the always ready retort is "it's never had the chance to!" to which I'd reply: it never will. If it can compete with other forms of governance let it rip, but.... ? where is the success story?

Democratic Socialism has worked for the US already: the new deal, labor rights, Social Security, 40hr work week, etc., et.c,

/then came the 80s.. reaganomics destroyed unions, made education a gamble... conservatives saw a path to reducing it all.

Democratic Socialism works very well in other countries all over the world: they recognize there are certain services that are critical to provide in order for democracy to function: fire, police, healthcare, disability affordances, so many things that government is uniquely situated to promote and provide.

I'm happy to change from free-for-all-capitalism, welcome it, but you can't point to a hypothetical end point that's never ever existed AND won't be allowed to exist as long as resources require capital.

[–] Bluewing@lemmy.world 0 points 1 hour ago

I would argue that Democratic Socialism works somewhat better than the perverse form of capitalism that exists today. It does have its flaws also. See the increasing surveillance of the population in the EU that is being pushed by politicians as a start.

At some point in the future, socialism will fail just like every other form of governance humans have devised.