As a poc, for as long as I can remember, I find tankies to be extremely tone deaf as if they speak for people of colour who either have experience living in a communist state or living next to one. For example, I am originally from the Far East, and while I don’t agree with American military presence because they occasionally cause disruption to locals, it is simply out of geopolitical necessity and by explicit permission from the country to host American troops. Because guess why? Those of us from democratic countries are living next to Marxist-Leninist countries being threatening. China is trying to occupy an entire body of ocean and squatting within 200 nautical miles from Philippines’ internationally recognised legal territory. China is waterhosing both Filipino and Vietnamese fishermen, and then sending their own armed-to-the-teeth fishing vessels to monopolise fishing in the area. Japan is having a similar water territorial row with China. South Korea is living next to North Korea and I don’t need to elaborate their situations.

When I bring all those up to tankies, they go on conspiratorial mental gymnastics that these countries are being coerced by the US both militarily and economically. But i then ask them the rhetorical question if they have actually asked Filipino, Vietnamese, Japanese and Koreans what they think of China-- it’s all crickets. They go on ad hominem that I am a white Western bootlicking capitalist. When I tell that I am actually Asian, they go quiet! Like, as if they speak for people who actually have lived experience being next to a communist behemoth that don’t respect democracy! If I were white, they would probably go on with ad hominem, which I will go on more details in later paragraph.

I get that tankies took up anti colonial struggles as well, but they became the very thing they rail against, although frankly in a comical way. They patronise the global south and other non-Western nations as if they don’t have their own agency. It’s the red version of “white man’s burden”. That said, they convince themselves that those outside the West are brainwashed. Either tankies are totally ignorant of geopolitics and differing views from wider cultures, or wilfully ignorant. Being so tone deaf, I am convinced that they are actually Westerners living a middle class life or at least not struggling-- considering most of them are terminally online so they have nothing better to do.

Additionally, I have immigrated to Europe. I find tankies refuse to recognise that Europe is not one homogeneous place. Countries like Poland, Ireland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Baltics were under imperial and colonial rule by bigger neighbours in the past. And yet, tankies think all white Europeans are guilty of colonialism and imperialism, despite many having been victims like those from non-Western countries. I got banned in one of their instances when I pointed this out. I don’t know what their background is, but if most of the tankies are actually white folks, that is a weird self-hatred to have.

Witnessing all this, this is like the tankie version of “Get Out”. The white knighting from tankies is cringe inducing kinda like with liberals. This is why I appreciate Slavoj Zizek making the same observation and commentary because he has a tacit licence to say such things. He is an Eastern European immigrant who suffered from imperialism and has broad and diverse lived experience in both capitalist and communist societies, unlike terminally online tankies who are probably actually middle class and never have been in a communist state.