NomNomLast poll for Paris 2025 elections. Second round. The anti-car candidate is at 36%.
Notice how, to this user, “pro-car” and “normie centrist” aren’t deserving of slurs, but being to the left of socdems gets you called “tankie” and libs use every lawfare case to smear leftist candidates
Are you claiming tankie is a slur?? Seems real insensitive towards actually marginalized people
You can admire their public transport without supporting the government, what are you on about? “Since I’m anti-car I have to support the persecution of Uyghurs”
When you talk about urban mobility in Paris, do you make it a point to mention the pinned Paris-controlled currency in 10+ African countries thst legitimizes and continues neocolonialism by France? Do you discuss the extreme exclusion and segregation of blacks and Arabs in Paris, leading to much higher poverty and criminality rates? No, because this is a community about urban transit and modes of transportation, in which you can definitely support the Dutch and the Chinese model.
Also, if you still believe in the “Uyghur genocide” CIA propaganda a full 4 years after the reeducation camps have been closed (per BBC), you run into the risk of looking like someone who doesn’t actually give one single fuck about Uyghurs and only uses them as a political weapon to hate on a country that their government tells them to hate.
It’s a useful shorthand, not a slur. +1 for calling libs “dronies” though, that’s hilarious
Again, you can admire their public transport without supporting the government, what are you on about? Why are you trying to link 2 unrelated things even harder now?
Interesting info in that article though. According to it, they’ve transition from putting uyghur in camps to putting them in prisons which doesn’t seem better to me
It’s a useful shorthand, not a slur
I would argue that demeaning shorthand expressions used in a negative connotation against people who have been systematically discriminated, imprisoned or even assassinated, is an appropriate descriptor of a slur. Communism has been seriously repressed, from “milder” forms like McCarthyism in the US purging communists from all public life and condemning them to unemployment, to more direct methods such as literal extermination through forced labor and murder as in my homeland of Spain. All Marxists from Spain were either murdered or had to emigrate to Mexico or the USSR during the 1930s.
Again, you can admire their public transport without supporting the government
Exactly my point, and the reason for my original comment.
According to it, they’ve transitioned from putting uyghur in camps to putting them in prisons
Not really. They’re documenting the existence of prisons in Xinjiang, but there’s absolutely no evidence of mass imprisonment of Uyghurs based on their ethnicity or religion or any other grounds. Prisons exist in all countries, not exclusively in China, and China doesn’t have particularly high rates of imprisonment compared to countries like the US.
Left-punching slur? What are you talking about.
You can have leftist ideas without being a tankie.
Do you know what tankie means?
Uygur genocide denial
Get off the CIA propaganda buddy, not helping your “leftism”. We’ve seen a televised genocide in Gaza and what it looks like, calling the Uyghur situation in China a genocide is insulting to Palestinians suffering actual genocide
Ok tankie
being pro-China should be the default position.
You can absolutely be pro-public transit without also endorsing or excusing all the other shit one particular country does, just because you happen to agree on one point. China is more than its railway.
Also, I’m pretty sure “normie” is just as much of a derogatory epithet as “tankie”, and neither is particularly bad. Certainly not bad enough to rise to the level of a slur.
“Normie” is related to “normal”, “tankie” is related to “tanks”. The word “lib”, which I use, is a shortening of “liberal”. I could make up a slur to refer to liberals such as “dronies” referring to drone strikes by the Obama administration they support, or “bombies” for supporting Europe when it bombed Iraq and Libya and Yugoslavia. I hope it’s self-explanatory that the word “tankie” is explicitly a lot more violent.
You can absolutely be pro-public transit without also endorsing or excusing all the other shit
Yes, that’s what people usually do when they praise Dutch bike cities for example. Bringing Netherlands as an example doesn’t mean you condone Netherlands being the heir state to a genocidal empire. Bringing up China in the context of public transit should be regarded well.
I could make up a slur to refer to liberals such as “dronies” referring to drone strikes by the Obama administration they support, or “bombies” for supporting Europe when it bombed Iraq and Libya and Yugoslavia.
Actually, I think that’s a good idea. Call out people that blindly endorse violence or support a given government uncritically. I’d still rather have a bombie government that bombs the middle east than a nazi one that does so too, but worse, and also actively tries to remove any potential for resistance from their own people, but saying “A bombie isn’t as bad as a nazi” at least carries the subtext “(but still bad)”.
(Obviously, not bombing would be best. Imperialism is a despicable policy.)
It also kinda sidesteps the ambiguous definitions and interpretations of liberal philosophy. For instance, I’d consider imperialism to be decidedly illiberal, given its disregard for the consent of the governed, but that obviously isn’t a universal understanding. I’d rather not get into that here, so let’s just agree to call bombing-apologists bombies.
Bringing up China in the context of public transit should be regarded well.
The post brings it up in the context of a particular candidate’s opinions on China’s mode of government and civil liberties. If it specifically pointed out “China’s public transport is…”, I’d agree with you. But just because this aspect is nice, that doesn’t mean China as a whole should necessarily be regarded well.
(Again, I just want to point out the logic arising from the premise that the candidate does defend China; whether that premise is true is beyond me, and whether the claim is true is not something I’ll argue about here. Trying to have a chill, civil Sunday and all.)
The post brings it up in the context of a particular candidate’s opinions on China’s mode of government and civil liberties
A western lib (or bombie)'s propagandized opinion on China’s civil liberties, degree of democracy or mode of government are worthless if this person is not informed. I only focused the conversation on the public transit part because that’s what’s relevant to this community, but if you want to discuss how democratic China is in comparison to Europe, we can discuss the Podemos party in my homeland being destroyed by a state apparatus + private media manufactured plot of lawfare, we could discuss Alexis Tsipras not being allowed to enact the Democratic will of Greek people under threat of the Troika, we could discuss Berlin’s popular referenda of rent control being struck down by the highest court in Gedmany, or we could discuss Macron using emergency constitutional powers to raise the retirement age in France against the Democratic will of the people.
but if you want to discuss how democratic China is in comparison to Europe
Pretty sure I explicitly said I don’t, but thank you for offering your argument anyway. Have a nice evening.
The N-word is related to colour, I dont get it why that matters whether something is a slur or not.
Now, if there were precedents of mass imprisonment, law abuse, discrimination, and outright murder of communists, my argument would hold. Oh, wait, the red scare happened, and McCarthyism, and mass executions of communists all over fascist Europe, and… Oh wait, there’s all of that…
Are you sure this was meant to be a reply to me?
Well, you’re making bad faith replies to words used to describe people who are consistently repressed under capitalism, so yes I’m responding to you
I said slurs can be based on colour and you’re saying that I pretend that communist were not persecuted, do you see why I’m confused?
Because I think you were wrong? In fact I find your original argument kind of ridiculous.
So you DO understand why I explained you my reasoning for criticising the word “tankie” used as a left-punching slur, and you’re just playing dumb instead of engaging with anything I said.
I engaged with what you said, I said I dont think it’s right to base whether something is a slur based on the root meaning of the word. I think that’s incorrect and a little ridiculous.
Which is why I proceeded to explain you the history of repression and discrimination of communists in western societies.
What does that have to do with whether tank being a weapon causes a word to be more oppressive or not?
Then ignore the etymology and focus on the historical facts, what do you have to say about them?
Why would I ignore the thing I wanted to talk about? Do you find it weird that you accused me of not engaging with you yet you seem to ignore what I say?
Your argument would make sense if ms Chikirou was not a textbook definition of tankie.
Why would it be impossible for someone from LFI to be a tankie?
She expressed opinions that tankies express. What else do you need to label them a tankie?
She’s homophobic and racist.