I know someone that thinks tankies are allies against American imperialism, and they say that any movement to the left is better than capitalism, even if it’s Russia or CCP branded leftism. They say that nothing that Russia or CCP has done is worse than what American imperialism. This all came up after I mentioned the tankie triad, and they said they were subscribed to multiple communities on there and didn’t disagree with what they were seeing on there. Let me know if there’s a better place to ask or if there’s any other threads or resources I should refer them to. I will be forwarding this thread to them, so your help would be greatly appreciated.
Your friend would have to give a shit about one’s freedom of speech, though if they have no issue with how Russia and China handle those issues, they likely already think that a state suppressing it’s peoples’ ability to protest is sometimes good.
It’s also a red flag that they would say “whatever Russia and China does, it’s certainly not worse than what Capitalist nations do”. We all agree that what Capitalist imperialism does is fucked up beyond measure. Russia and China did/do things that were/are unacceptably fucked up, and saying ‘still better than capitalism’ is a smokescreen to skirt around an objective conversation about how terrible those actions taken still are.
You’re friend’s a tankie. They’re likely already down the pipeline. How you handle them IRL is up to you, but I personally would not continue interacting with them, for my own mental health.