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It's a (light) perjorative for a Marxist-Leninist, although now it's been expanded to anything left-of-center. This includes self-identification by both Maoists
by woodruffw 3y ago
It's a (light) perjorative for a Marxist-Leninist, although now it's been expanded to anything left-of-center. This includes self-identification by both Maoists (who aren't exactly Marxist-Leninists in terms of doctrine), and identification of others by reactionaries (for whom it's the lazy label for anybody on the left).
- rsynnott 3y ago… Wait, Stalinists/Maoists _self_ identify as tankies now?! I’m only really familiar with it as a term used by democratic socialists for Stalinists, and occasionally Maoists. (I wouldn’t have thought actual tankies would be too thrilled with the current Chinese regime, anyway.)
- woodruffw 3y agoYeah, there's some ironic self-identification going on, I believe. (I'm not a tankie and far be it from me to gatekeep who gets called it, but my understanding matches yours re: the Chinese regime.)
- empyrrhicist 3y ago> it's been expanded to anything left-of-center. I've never seen it used this way. What I've seen is the term being used to describe leftist authoritarianism, usually by other leftists.
- woodruffw 3y ago> I've never seen it used this way. What I've seen is the term being used to describe leftist authoritarianism, usually by other leftists. These are not exclusive! My point was that it's used broadly, and is thus not inherently pejorative -- I've leftists use it both pejoratively and non-pejoratively.
- arroz 3y agoWrong It’s used to describe people who support authoritarian left Honestly even this is wrong, it’s more authoritarian anti-US as they support Putin