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the way tankies both tug at western guilt with “oh noes we are in imperial core, can’t criticize other countries’ affairs” AND exploit western ignorance to smear and talk over marginalized people in those same countries is so cynical it’s fucking beautiful
anti-imperialism is a real and powerful marxist anti-colonial tradition but in the hands of these online larpers it weaponizes western shame to discipline critical analysis into toothless, asinine contrarianism where people start thinking retweeting global times is a radical act
tankies grant people the longed-for feeling of decentering the US / decolonizing themselves without asking them for anything too difficult—like not taking US politics as their starting point for every analysis. "the imperial core" is a good excuse to never get outside of yourself
i'm sick of tankies not because their roleplaying cult impacts policy (god i hope not) but because it preys on western folks' real and valid feelings of confusion and just exacerbates them, at the expense of other marginalized people, and in the end wastes everyone's fucking time
