a drawing of a person wearing a balaclava and holding a gun with the text “all my homies hate tankies” :3

  • ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works
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    9 days ago

    I remember a time when tankies were just the militant leftists that would literally and physically punch nazis. That was pretty much the only qualification required, anarchist or communist: if you were willing to do violence on a nazi you were the tankie and it didn’t require some stance on NATO geopolitics.

      • ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works
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        8 days ago

        I just remember that’s what we called the de-facto bouncers at the bar I used to frequent. Whom I witnessed remove a few nazis. (The bar was not too far from the greyhound station that supplied a frequent supply of tan jumpsuits.) But this was right after Occupy Wall Street, so ancient history.

          • spujb@lemmy.cafe
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            8 days ago

            this is interesting. so sometime between the Communist Party of Great Britain and 2017 the word devolved to mean “nazi puncher”, then returned to its roots as describing authoritarian communists? am i getting that right?/gen

            i have never seen firsthand that nazi punching usage. i have only know it to describe authoritarian communists

          • ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works
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            8 days ago

            …I am well aware of wikipedia.

            And besides: even that link attributes modern internet usage as emerging in 2017, whereas I am referencing anecdotal usage from 2011. Are you under the impression the story I was telling meant I was not familiar with the word and how its use has changed?

            • WillStealYourUsername@lemmy.blahaj.zoneM
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              8 days ago

              It talks about the origin of the word as meaning something different from what you are talking about, so an earlier usage than yours again. I provided the link in case you were unaware, it was not meant to imply anything about you.