Disclaimer, I saw this on All, I’m not subscribed here.
Idk if I count since I don’t self-identify as these things, but I’ve been called a “tankie” and a “Stalinist” for ideas I came to by grappling with historical and material reality and settling on what made the most sense and seemed most consistent with the available evidence. I’ve also tried, for the sake of leftist solidarity and a united front, to understand and do shit along anarchist lines, and I just haven’t gotten it.
Reasons I’ve been called these terms:
thinking that the anticolonial revolutions in Cuba, Vietnam, and non-occupied Korea were better than the alternative.
thinking that the Bolsheviks did the best they could under siege and made the right call of attempting to achieve “socialism in one state” rather than laying down arms, giving up, being killed, and “setting the cause of socialism back 200 years” (I’m not exaggerating, an anarchist has told me this).
thinking it’s not inherently evil to bring the repressive hammer of a state down upon fascists
supporting the idea of a centralized revolutionary government to marshal a newly socialist state’s defense against the inevitable counterrevolution as opposed to hoping that an entire nation will freely associate its own decentralized military defences.
being somewhat skeptical of any narrative that serves the Fourth Reich’s information-war interests.
generally, preferring concrete ideas for solutions over abstract principles and magical thinking.
Disclaimer, I saw this on All, I’m not subscribed here.
Idk if I count since I don’t self-identify as these things, but I’ve been called a “tankie” and a “Stalinist” for ideas I came to by grappling with historical and material reality and settling on what made the most sense and seemed most consistent with the available evidence. I’ve also tried, for the sake of leftist solidarity and a united front, to understand and do shit along anarchist lines, and I just haven’t gotten it.
Reasons I’ve been called these terms:
thinking that the anticolonial revolutions in Cuba, Vietnam, and non-occupied Korea were better than the alternative.
thinking that the Bolsheviks did the best they could under siege and made the right call of attempting to achieve “socialism in one state” rather than laying down arms, giving up, being killed, and “setting the cause of socialism back 200 years” (I’m not exaggerating, an anarchist has told me this).
thinking it’s not inherently evil to bring the repressive hammer of a state down upon fascists
supporting the idea of a centralized revolutionary government to marshal a newly socialist state’s defense against the inevitable counterrevolution as opposed to hoping that an entire nation will freely associate its own decentralized military defences.
being somewhat skeptical of any narrative that serves the Fourth Reich’s information-war interests.
generally, preferring concrete ideas for solutions over abstract principles and magical thinking.
And far far more.