258
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by BouncyFerret@lemmy.world to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world

I've run across these terms several times, but without enough context to figure out what they mean. Could someone help me out, please?

ETA All of you are amazing! A huge thank you to everyone who responded, and an extra thank you to those who have provided links or explanations to further and/or related information. I am learning so much by reading all of these comments!

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Neato@kbin.social 72 points 1 year ago

Tankies are Red Fascists. They're essentially communism-flavored authoritarians. I would contend they do not qualify as "left", "leftists", etc but far-right. They support and defend Soviet Russia and the CCP, specifically defending their atrocities and oppression.

Can there be such a thing as a progressive/leftist who is pro-authoritarianism? I guess they must exist somewhere but I haven't met any.

[-] FaceDeer@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago

I suppose it's always possible to believe in a benevolent dictator who will use their authority to establish whatever system it is that you think is "best", even if it's not authoritarian. Lots of revolutions try that.

Political leanings and ideological preferences aside, anyone believing in a benevolent dictator needs to crack a book and read some history :)

[-] tempest@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 year ago

I don't see why not since progressive leftist describes where their beliefs lie and authoritarianism describes how they go about enforcing their beliefs.

Really depends on how specific you want to be with the definition of leftist though.

Sure, I guess I equate a desire to be subject to an authoritarian, strongman type leader as something that appeals more to people on the right. We're a diverse and messy species though so there's likely someone, somewhere who will be the exception that proves the rule.

[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

Can there be such a thing as a progressive/leftist who is pro-authoritarianism?

Not really.

Progressivness is about freedom, authoritarianism about the lack of freedom.

But someone could hypothetically be an actual communist and an authoritarian. Because communism is just an economic system.

In practice the only way it would work is "mob rule". Like what happened during the French revolution where people rose up, killed the ruling class, and then distributed their wealth.

But even that wasn't the same because the mob didn't attempt to distribute it equally. Everyone just grabbed shit.

I think it's especially confusing to people with a two party political system, because economic and social policy start to get intertwined, when they're two different things.

Which a cynic would say is intentional so that no matter who gets elected, the wealthy win.

A cynic or a realist? All political systems have to have some checks against human greed and avarice or things quickly turn to shit for the average person. If you can't vote someone out, that's an important check you're giving up.

[-] 0235@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Environmental change activists? They have pretty authoritarian views on certain subjects, even if they are more "liberal" and alternative views?

I wouldn't say they're authoritarian, as there is no strongman they want to appoint to govern.

[-] Neato@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

From wikipedia:

Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy as a whole[1][2][3][4] or certain social hierarchies.[5]

According to emeritus professor of economics Barry Clark, supporters of left-wing politics "claim that human development flourishes when individuals engage in cooperative, mutually respectful relations that can thrive only when excessive differences in status, power, and wealth are eliminated."[6]

So maybe? If you had a truly benevolent dictator that promoted equality, freedom (limited to everything except changing nature of government) and prosperity for all then that might fit? But in the real world, not effectively.

I've seen plenty of people start off with good intentions and then they change when they get a taste of power.

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.” - Lord Acton.

this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2023
258 points (100.0% liked)

No Stupid Questions

35819 readers
861 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS