• hark@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It is kind of funny that people throw around the word “tankie” so meaninglessly when the US has the largest military spending in the world by far and is thus literally the most “tankie” i.e. enforcing their will with military might.

    • Big Miku@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Either you are willingly redefining a word, or you don’t even know what it means

      Tankie means a person who supports an authoratian communist state.

      The word comes from the Tianamen Square Massacre, where tanks were used to silence and kill protester, which some people think didn’t happen.

      • hark@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I know the original meaning, I’m simply pointing out the irony that people using the term for everyone who disagrees with them are more likely to support military action against people than the ones they’re calling “tankies”. The term has been so overused that it has lost all meaning. It’s basically the liberal version of conservatives calling everything “woke”. Notice how these stupid catch-all words always seem to be spammed toward the left of whoever is using the term?

        • Big Miku@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          But that wasn’t said in your original message, was it? In your original message you were implying that by the USA spending more money in their military to spread their influence, would make the US government a tankie(?), thus invalidating everyone who uses the word tankie.

          Also if your point was that the word tankie lost its meaning by usage in invalid contexts, why did you mention the USA? Wouldn’t it have been more appropriate to explain that it lost its meaning by the usage of it, and not by the actions of the US government, since the US is not the only nation who has people who use the word tankie?

          • hark@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Perhaps my original post was worded poorly, but my point is that people are throwing the term around meaninglessly at anyone who criticizes US foreign policy. I also noted that it is made funnier because the US enforces its will around the world with the highest military spending in the world by far. In effect, a global authoritarian government. Again, which people who throw the term “tankie” around meaningless are defending.

            • Big Miku@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              But wouldn’t that invalidate the usage of that word in the circles that use it wrong, and not for those who use it properly.

              Like if there was a hypothetical town where the word “good” was used to describe bad things, would that town invalidate the word “good” for every single town? Of course it wouldn’t, it would only invalidate the usage of that word by the ones who use the word in question wrong.