Um, no, I've put plenty of thought into it and that's why I said it in the first place. I wouldn't be arguing something that I've never put thought into, because I'm not an idiot. But thanks for assuming that I am solely because you disagree with what I'm saying.

but since the Bolsheviks took it, they own it.

Bolsheviks, tankies, what's the fucking difference? (Yes, I know historically they refer to specific groups, but in practice today, anyone who identifies with bolshevik ideology is a tankie). I don't fucking care about the nuances of trotskyism vs leninism, they were both assholes.

And you consider everyone who doesn't swallow your particular brand of ineffective purity a tankie, it seems.

No, I don't have a brand of ideological purity. That's another thing tankies share with the far-right: you're so zealously committed to your ideology that not only is there no room in your worldview for anyone to hold different opinions, but you also project your fanaticism onto everyone else, so in your eyes anyone who firmly rejects your ideology on rational grounds or otherwise has a more nuanced view, you accuse of the ideological purism that's actually your own.

And no, calling out tankies for being authoritarian (by calling them red fash) is not the same thing as allying with capitalists and fascists. Yet another thing tankies have in common with the far-right: they think anyone who isn't on their side is on the opposite side. Tankies are fucking assholes, fascists are fucking assholes. Both things can be true at once, and I'm not being inconsistent by calling them both out in the same paragraph.

Capitalism is destroying the planet and it's been oppressing and exploiting the majority of humanity since it was invented as a concept, and its precursors have been doing so since before even then. But guess what? I can be a socialist without being a tankie. And that's another thing tankies share with the far-right: they think all socialists have to be radicalized, fanatic, authoritarian communists.

Which brings us back to the beginning of this conversation: I was criticizing tankies for accusing Mamdani of being a fascist, which is a ridiculous assertion on all levels. He's a democratic socialist. Two things fascists hate: democracy and socialism. He stands for both, in a time when such leadership is rare. Definitely not a fascist.

But if in your worldview a fascist is anyone who's not a bolshevik, then we have very different definitions of fascism, and yours is not the correct one. And by the way, if that's what you believe, then you're not as different from the fascists as you think you are (need I repeat that refers to methodology rather than ideology, or in terms any erudite communist should understand, praxis rather than theoria. I'm not so fucking stupid that I think communists and fascists believe in the same ideals. But they believe in the same means which they believe their opposing ends justify).

So no, while I'd be onboard with dismantling fascism, if your proposed course of action is a bolshevik revolution then I firmly disagree.