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So now that some HKers are starting to discover who tankies are, welcome to the club. We've been dealing with these assholes for quite sometime
Because you may be wondering who the hell they are, I'm going to do a thread explaining who tankies are (cont'd)
Because you may be wondering who the hell they are, I'm going to do a thread explaining who tankies are (cont'd)
Tankies are people who believe in states that they think challenge Western imperialism and Western capitalist hegemony. For them, they believe challenging oppression and injustice caused by Western governments means siding with governments that are anti-Western (cont'd)
This is problematic in that tankies will justify authoritarianism and oppression caused by these governments they support because they think it's pro-Western propaganda. They worship these states thinking their saviors and representative of anti-imperialist struggles (cont'd)
These states include China (obviously), the former USSR, Iran, Venezuela, Bashar's Syria, Qaddafi's Libya, and so many countless others. No matter how oppressive or even how capitalist they are, tankies support them because they seem them as "resistance" to the West (cont'd)
Tankies mostly identify themselves as (with very few exceptions) leftists. They assume siding these states is "leftist" just because they oppose the West, ignoring the inconvenient facts that these states share many qualities that Western and pro-Western states have (cont'd)
To be clear: not all leftists are tankies. There are leftists, socialists, communists, and anarchists who oppose tankies for their authoritarian and hypocritical beliefs. They oppose injustice and oppression of all types no matter what (cont'd)
Why this is relevant to Hong Kong: tankies have opposed the protests (AKA HKers, which maybe you reading this) because they think they're "pro-imperialist". This is because they believe that the CCP should control Hong Kong because it's "anti-imperialist" (cont'd)
Tankies view any opposition to the CCP is inherently "imperialist" and "right-wing", as they view China as "socialist" and "anti-imperialist" (which is false because China is capitalist & imperialist). And for them they see the HK protests as some pro-Western plot (cont'd)
These same tankies have denied the Uyghur camps, denied that China oppresses workers, denied colonialism in Tibet, and have denied political repression in the country. They even have gone as far as praising China for handling the coronavirus even though it botched it up (cont'd)
And they have refused to acknowledge police brutality and violence in HK. They instead cherry-pick isolated incidents and share edited videos defaming the protesters whilst turning a blind eye to the injustices of the government and the police (cont'd)
This is why you'll see tankies mock and depict the movement dishonestly rather than seeing them call out political repression. Despite the overwhelming evidence, tankies prefer to believe it's a "fascist" and "racist" movement funded by capitalists and the US (cont'd)
They accuse HKers of thinking themselves racially superior to Mainlanders, accuse them of pro-imperialist and pro-white supremacy leanings. They accuse HKers of praising imperialism and capitalism and being brainwashed. They see a few bad apples to demonize the movement (cont'd)
Should the pro-US leanings of some HKers be called out? Yes. Should racism be challenged in HK? Yes. But to call the movement racist, capitalist, imperialist, or fascist ignores the history of protests in Hong Kong, the grievances of HKers, and repression in the Mainland (cont'd)
But don't feel too bad, as there are leftists, socialists, communists, and anarchists who support the HK protests. People like me stand for your cause just like we stand for movements against oppression worldwide. Don't let these tankies feel that you're isolated (cont'd)
I hope we can all work together to fight against oppression and those that defend it. We're all in this together, so don't let the bastards grind you down! (End)
