# Roger Waters is a tankie **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 7, 2022, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-waters-is-a-tankie/969234 "2022-08-07T05:05:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 14
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-waters-is-a-tankie/969234/14 "2022-08-07T12:22:35Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > I have literally never heard the term tankie before. I guess it’s a pejorative label for Communists? Specifically, it’s a label for left-wing apologists for authoritarian regimes, originally referring to British Communists who supported the Soviet use of force to quash liberal movements in Hungary and Czechslovakia. > **[Tankie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankie)** > > Tankie is a pejorative label generally applied to communists who express support for one-party communist regimes that are associated with Marxism–Leninism, whether contemporary or historical. It is commonly used by anti-authoritarian leftists, including anarchists, libertarian socialists, left communists, democratic socialists, and reformists to criticise Leninism, although the term has seen increasing use by liberals and right‐wing factions as well. > The term "tankie" was originally used by... > **[Stalin apologetics](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Stalin_apologetics#Tankies)** > > Stalin apologetics are actually a thing. Some Western communists deny that Joseph Stalin was the murderous dictator he is extensively documented\[2\] as having been. It’s a fitting epithet for a guy who seems to think Stalin and Putin were/are the good guys and Roosevelt, Biden, and Zelensky weren’t/aren’t. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-waters-is-a-tankie/969234)._