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Comment on Tankie

Words are defined by common use. If the common use of the word “tankie” is to throw it at people who oppose war, then that’s what it means now. You can say it’s defined as being pro- war, but I’ve never seen it used that way.

Indeed. And the common use of the word tankie is “authoritarian communist”

Why are you using an uncommon definition?

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Objection@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
OK, next time someone calls me a tankie, I’ll just say, “Actually, I don’t support sending tanks to Ukraine” and I’m sure that’ll clear things up and convince them I’m not a tankie.

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- Mulligrubs@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Well, that’s just silly.
  
  I didn’t make the definition
  
  tankie noun A member of the Communist Party of Great Britain who slavishly followed the Kremlin line, agreeing with the crushing of revolts in Hungary and later Czechoslovakia by Soviet tanks.
  
  This was how the term was first used in the 80s. As of today, the definition has expanded to “authoritarian communists”.
  
  Nothing about peace yet, sorry.
  
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  - Objection@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    What’s silly about it? Tankie is when you support using tanks, I don’t support using tanks in Ukraine so therefore I’m not a tankie. The people who want to send tanks to Ukraine are tankies.
    
    Or we can recognize that that definition doesn’t reflect how it’s actually used. And the way it’s actually used is generally towards people who promote peaceful, diplomatic solutions over military ones.
    
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