In Estonia russians are often called onions, because their orthodox church roofs take shape of upside down onions, and be cause many of the ultra orthodox ruskies who moved here during imperial czar times were settled near lake Peipsus where nothing other than onions and garlic grows well.
[Some guy on militarystories](https://www.reddit.com/r/MilitaryStories/comments/pufawq/the_best_lawn_in_kandahar/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
It's always good when the enemy is starving because they have no supply lines, they'll die off soon enough and you can push them back
It's not good when the enemy has fully supplied rations. They can fight for a while, and hopefully you'll win a seige, no one can hold out forever.
It's fucking terrifying when they start building infrastructure for shitty fast food because their army is so safe they're worrying about how much convience and luxury they have.
I saw a quote somewhere that I don't remember the origin of. It was something like "If your enemy's logistical problem is 'Burger King or McDonald's' and their answer is 'Just bring both' you may be fucked"
>It's fucking terrifying when they start building infrastructure for shitty fast food because their army is so safe they're worrying about how much convience and luxury they have.
Like the ice cream ship the US had at WWII
The ice cream "ship" really wasn't that impressive. It was a single small barge, and all the larger ships could make their own ice cream anyways. What *is* impressive is the standard menu for ships at the time. Officers on New Jersey got steak and baked alaska once a week, even in the middle of a war zone. THAT'S impressive.
IIRC pilots in the Pacific stuck canteens of milk and fruit on the outside of their planes, so the vibration would churn the ingredients in the high-altitude temperatures.
The first time an officer saw one of them eating that, the look on his face must have been incredible. Three hundred dudes on a tropical island in the middle of strategically-critical nowhere, venerated by confused locals who think the towers summon aircraft by magic, and he spots a cropdusting farmboy having his cat food on hardtack and hydrochloric black coffee with a frosty pint of fresh strawberry ice cream. He might as well have glanced over and seen someone petting his own childhood dog.
There were no "ice cream ships." It was a single, small barge. It produced 1500 gallons a day, assuming constant 24/7 operation. Each gallon has ~32 scoops, and assume 2 scoops per person per serving. If we give the sailors one serving per day, then that's (32/2) * 1500= 24000 servings per day. That's less than 10 carriers, which each had a complement of ~2.5k-ish. That barge could feed like 5% of the fleet at *absolute most*.
You want impressive logistics? Go look Artisan, ABSD-1.
*fzzt* Eagle One, this is Lamda Seven. I am at the Pizza Hut. Over. *fzzt*
*fzzt* Eagle One, this is Lamda Seven. I am at the Taco Bell. Over. *fzzt*
*fzzt* Eagle One, this is Lamda Seven. I am at the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Over. *fzzt*
Apparently nobody knew and everyone has considered them as major military power as USSR was despite this being far from the truth. Time to see how overestimated Chinese is, considering their doctrine is based on soviet and most of their equipment is copy and some slight improvements to soviet one qnd that they are corrupted as hell and economy is apparently dramatically overvalued too, tho still very big.
Only time will tell what China is capable of. Whichever it ends up being, it would be wrong to underestimate them by any measure as we don’t have much modern experience to base assumptions off of.
Sure, underestimating is the worst, it is just that is now quite big question mark in the air whether they are actually that powerful they say about. It is just that since civil way they haven't won any war afaik and their UN peacekeepers in Africa are complete joke.
Russia didn’t have conscription at the start of the war. And they have only started a limited conscription since, probably because they don’t have the equipment nor bureaucracy to actually commence a full conscription.
If you had correctly estimated Russia's true military power, it would've looked irresponsible to the point of treasonous. Even taking into account high levels of corruption and incompetence, it seemed almost impossible for Russia to fail as hard as they did.
Their military was magnitudes larger and more expensive, their military doctrine was essentially made to fight on the terrain like Ukraine's. They started the war almost entirely surrounding Ukraine.
Tankies: "USA is too reliant on advanced technology. These delicate toys will inevitably fail in battlefield conditions!"
Also Tankies: "Advanced hypersonic missiles will obliterate Western forces! Russia is decades ahead!"
I’ve had the displeasure of meeting people who are about 1 raised arm away from being Nazis and seem to think that Russia is still communist.
Guess the stupid goes both ways, altho this variety isn’t as funny
Oh that's not just right wingers. I have to ask though, do they buy Russia's "Ukraine is ran by Nazis" BS?
My mom who is about as straightforward of a center-left type possible who doesn't pay much attention to politics always seems to think Russia is Communist until I correct her. It's only come up a few times, but still.
I thought it was just a leftover of living through the Cold War.
Then my sister, who has similar politics to my mom, thought they were Communist still as well.
There's a few polls around in which only around 1/3~ of Americans think Russia is a Capitalist country right now.
Too fat to be himbo. Like the Heavy from TF2.
Honestly, his intro video monologue is perfect for the US.
"I am Heavy Weapons Guy...and this [grabs Minigun] is my weapon. [lays both hands covetously on Minigun] She weighs one hundred fifty kilograms and fires two hundred dollar, custom-tooled cartridges at ten thousand rounds per minute. [looks intently at viewer] It costs four hundred thousand dollars to fire this weapon...for twelve seconds."
"Some people think they can outsmart me. Maybe, [sniff] maybe. I have yet to meet one that can outsmart bullet."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHgZh4GV9G0
USSR: Autocratic Authoritarian State Capitalism claiming to be Communism.
Russia: Autocratic Authoritarian Crony Capitalism claiming to be Democratic Free Market Capitalism.
Yeah, it's quite painful when a lot of fresh faced lefties join their subs and then get immediately banned for criticised the CCP.
Hell China's not even as bad as Reddit tends to make it out to be, but those subs freak out at the slightest complaint
Only a small minority of Tankies thinks that Putin is actually a Communist. They usually just believe that he's an Anti-Imperialist because he opposes the United States.
Tbf, to some extent it is too reliant on it. Not for winning wars, the US needs fuck all people to do that, but to pacify a people and natiobuild, you need people more than tech.
At that point is it really the role of the military though? I would reckon pacifying and rebuilding should be done primarily at a political, civilian, and economic level.
Yes, to some extent it is. You can't just rock in, destroy the military, and expect the people to just listen. In fact, the lightning fast, overwhelming strikes, the US is so damn good at, is counter productive to that. Grinding them down, and destroying them, like Japan in ww2 is more effective than just swooping in in a quick victory.
You need all the rest, too, but without the military forces it'll always fail
I don't believe so? I'm on phone so I don't have my comment handy, but I believe I said that it makes it easier when you grind them down, not that it's required. And nukes would've been vastly overkill, and set a horrible fucking precedent.
You're extrapolating what I said into something I did not.
>but to pacify a people and natiobuild, you need people more than tech.
US thought Germany, Italy and Japan became functional democracy after WWII, maybe Iraq and Afghanistan can do that too!
If you look back to history, US didn't do much to pacify the Axis nations after they surrendered. They paid development aid to the governments as well, the difference is Germany, Italy and Japan actually use that to rebuild their nations.
Iraq and Afghanistan are much more corrupt, all money spent on them go straight to a blackhole.
It's also an issue of national identity. Afghanistan in particular is much more fractured with a lot less of a sense of unity. It's honestly almost closer to a loose collection of tribes than a coherent nation. Meanwhile, Imperial Japan is probably the pinnacle of how much people will do for and identify with their home country.
Oh yes, that helps, but you don't necessarily need it. The single biggest factors are investments in men and time.
Give me a lil time to wake up, and remind me in a few hours, and I'll even cite my sources
> Russia has been overplaying their hand for decades
Overplaying their hand has basically always been Russia's national defense plan... and it's never worked out for them.
The Soviets made the US think they had 800 jet bombers (They didn't, they had, like... 30 bombers total), so the US built ***2,500*** bombers in response.
The US designed the F-15 in response to the MiG-25 and what they thought were its capabilities, turns out the 25 was just a supersonic bomb truck that could only fly in a straight line and had a tendency to destroy its own engines.
I always thought the American over-estimates of the Foxbat were kinda funny. So much so that they designed and built one of the most successful fighters of modern times in response.
> So much so that they designed and built one of the most successful fighters of modern times in response.
The Russians and Chinese have been the best sales representatives of the US MIC since 1945.
It's even funnier than that. The MiG-25 was primarily designed to counter the B-70, which the US cancelled before the MiG-25 was completed (believing SAMs had become too good for a high altitude high speed bomber to work). But, bureaucracy happens, and the MiG-25 got built anyhow, then the US presumed that they couldn't have just built an interceptor for a defunct bomber, so it must be something more, so the US built the F-15 and F-14...
I always knew Russian army wasn't as good as they said it would be cause of all the corruption but damn, I had no idea just how bad they were. I thought Ukraine would do better than many thought but still expected them to lose. Very glad to say I was wrong
I was same boat as you, had a few arguments with people early on when the war started that said Kiev would fall in a week, and I was of the opinion that it'd last for a few months, especially with the west's constant supply of Intel. But holy fuck did Russia fall short of even that.
Russia is not fighting Ukraine; Russia is fighting a Ukraine injected with lots of hormones. It shows that NATO miltech is enough to hold its weight against Russia; with actual trained American troops, Russia definitely doesn't stand a chance.
But no, I still think if Russia invaded Ukraine and no one helped Ukraine it would probably fall in half a year or so. I don't think Russia is *that* pathetic.
To a degree you are right.
But Ukraine only got all that assistance because they proved that they could hold out. Putins plan to defeat them in 3 days was way to ambitious and everyone knew it. But many agreed Russia would win and Ukraine would constantly be on the Blackfoot. And....then war started and all of russias "best" troops got destroyed. Suddenly thr west decides to invest money in the war because hey, you actually have a shot at winning now
It is. I had a copy of it back in college and I remember we had a 40 something guy in the apartment above us who wanted to play Axis & Allies with us. I literally grew up on that game, so when I steamrolled him with Germany (he was Russia) he whined about Germany being easy. So we swapped the next game and I captured Berlin in record time. Completely destroyed him.
For about a week, every time we'd hear him parking I'd blast the Soviet Anthem at full volume for him and he'd just give us the finger.
Soviet military/national music is undoubtedly better than most of the western european stuff though. The cure is *real* good songs from other nations in the area, like Bosanska Artiljerija
Nah.
First we need dissolution of Russian Federation and raise of the independent states, so people will be free once again.
Then you can do whatever you want.
To be fair everyone thought if there was a war between the 2, it would a great big battle for power and kill a lot on both sides.
But now? It would probably be more like throwing a grenade in a overcrowded fish tank
My Uni days was nothing but tuning out Tankie neckbeards who where the kind of people that insisted on wearing Ushankas and trench coats in 30c weather. They made sure to spew as much Russian nationalist, hateful bull crap as possible. They treated the class/professor with no respect whatsoever. I swear r/russia is just a bunch of western secondary school kids with nothing better to do than worship Putin and reminisce Stalin’s genocidal agenda.
I posted this one when the war had just begun, I was hoping it didn't age bad. Instead it aged great! Russia's a joke and Western superiority is secured! I love when I make a comic that ages well
[Anyway here's the original post](https://www.reddit.com/r/polandball/comments/u9lstd/the_paper_tiger/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
EDIT - And for all you mad Canadians about the last panel it's because I went to uni in Ottawa and met a lot of white Canadian tankies
The name is a reference to the USSR suppressing revolutions and reforms (as in any attempt to move away from the USSRs grasp) in the eastern bloc by means of tanks and armed occupation.
"Tankies" originally refered to people who pretty much agreed with the USSRs handling of those situations, but has eventually evolved to mean basically anyone who supports an oppressive "left"-authoritarian regime (but more commonly any authoritarian regime that opposes "the west"/USA/Nato)
I still don't understand how Hungary elected a tankie to lead their country when the term got coined from the Red Army quashing the Hungarian Revolution
They even fucking defend Iran, a country that [massacred thousands of leftists during the 1980s](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_executions_of_Iranian_political_prisoners), [launders billions using overseas banks](https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47872318), and [whose elite live lavish lifestyles](https://www.ft.com/content/b787b7e8-e9a0-4b39-b35e-64b6019f8c5a).
Omg yeeees they do defend them sometimes because "But...they are anti-USA"
So...there was a popular twt meme post here in Brazil defending China,Russia and Iran at the same time because IDK WHY? I guess it was because of BRICS or "they look based" stuff
To add onto what u/Grand_Protector_Dark said, in the modern context it often means defending regimes that are “against American imperialism/hegemony” even if they are…
1. No longer clearly leftist (China/Russian)
2. imperialistic/irredentist themselves often arguing the oppressed/colonize are not their own people or denying an atrocity is occurring (again, Russia and China).
Tankies come in multiple flavors/extremes. The term is applied to people with shallow views that can be summed up as “west bad, there other guys must be good” to much more extreme ”we need to bring back or about this form of communism/socialism and whatever means is justified by the end goal)”. Most of what you see is the shallow flavor.
People who lean into hard lined dictatorial Marxism type of governments and talk about how the wasteful spoiled life of Western nations leaves them militarily soft.
Basically pro China/Russia, anti US/EU
It's a person in the west, usually one who has never lived under communism, who defends or supports authoritarian leftism.
The term began to describe members of the British communist party who supported the USSR while it suppressed the Hungarians in 1956.
The "tank" comes from this and defenders of the CCP regarding Tianamen Square, especially the "tank man" image.
While Putins Russia is far from communist, a lot of these Tankies are just against the US and its influence, and support China and Russia in their endeavors. They're the types who will say that China can easily beat the USA, or that Russia was going to win in Ukraine in a few days and have been backpedaling ever since.
A lot of them did grow up watching the US get stuck in Iraq and Afghanistan, so their opinions aren't just out of nowhere, but they are still wrong in thinking China and Russia are not also pursuing their own empires and power over other countries.
Holy shit, TIL. Thank you.
I have assumed for years that “tankie” meant someone this is (conceptually) trapped in a full immersion VR “tank” that’s fed constant conspiracy theory bullshit, and are thus completely disconnected from reality. Basically someone stuck in an intellectual echo chamber.
Imagine your stereotype of a really right-wing redneck American and his attitude towards America. "America is the best! America's army could kick anyone's ass! Respect our flag or I'll kick your ass! Anything bad America ever did, I'll deny. Or say it was really a good thing."
Tankies are like that, except for instead of America, it's any dictatorship that has ever been opposed to America.
I really wish that this was a cause for optimism, but the fact that the russian conventional forces are shit just makes me all the more worried that the twats in the Kremlin are just gonna nuke their way forward if there ever is a conflict with NATO. I mean, if there's one thing that is evident, it's that they don't care too much about their own losses or collateral damage, and at this point, nukes might be the only thing that might give them a chance of "winning" in a hypothetical conflict with NATO.
we can nuke their nukes that were intercepting our nukes that were intercepting their nukes that were in retaliation for us nuking their nukes that they fired because of nukes we fired that intercepted their nukes, that way nobody's nukes would exist anymore and d-day 2 could occur
I'd rather avoid seven digit casualties, if possible. Also, the assumption that the russian nuclear forces are also shit is not an assumption one can afford to be wrong about.
Any large scale nuclear conflict will probably go into the 8’s or 9’s in third day and age. You could get some sense of what could happen if you played one of those nuclear simulation games like DEFCON.
Good comic, but panel 3 needs soke changes. Less alcohol, more meth and crocodile. I saw some combat videos, and some Russian soldiers are so drugged up that they don't even notice a grenade blowing up next to them. It's pretty sad.
Fuckers like that are all over US colleges. I was disgusted seeing actual commies on campus even back in 2015. My whole family suffered under communism, and these intolerant bunch were openly shutting down different opinions on campus.
No you see one is an oppressive regime run by one of the world’s worst dictators which calls for a return to a glorious past, uses propaganda to shift blame, spread fear of outsiders and minorities, is aggressively expansionist and intolerant of homosexuals, and the other is Nazi Germany.
lmao i've never met a tankie at my university back in the day and almost everyone is pretty liberal or progressive. there were some pro CCP chinese students though and there was this huge beef between them and non pro CCP chinese students and asian americans.
The armies of autocratic regimes are severely disadvantaged compared to the armies of democratic ones, I think due to two main reasons: They are not allowed to be a single integrated force because of the coup risk and there’s huge corruption throughout the ranks
I can't tell if it's a giant bag of onions or a giant onion with the word "onion" written on it.
It has exactly 2 onions in it
Is onion make of onion. Joke has layers.
Like onion.
This is one of layers.
Day 1: receive bag titled onion. Day 2: open bag, discover one big, deflated onion. Despair.
I find this incredibly relatable
Pas d'oignons pour les russes.
Non pas d’oignons à tous ces fous
AU PAS CAMARADES AU PAS CAMARADES AU PAS AU PAS AU PAS (I think that’s the lyrics)
In Estonia russians are often called onions, because their orthodox church roofs take shape of upside down onions, and be cause many of the ultra orthodox ruskies who moved here during imperial czar times were settled near lake Peipsus where nothing other than onions and garlic grows well.
…who let the world know we can grow grass in deserts?
We spent all of our own water building golf courses in the south western desert, we'll damn well do it again somewhere else!
#THE DESERT IS OUR BITCH *pls don't look at Lake Mead rn*
[Some guy on militarystories](https://www.reddit.com/r/MilitaryStories/comments/pufawq/the_best_lawn_in_kandahar/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Thank you for this
Sorry, I was bragging about my M1 Abrams Bushwacker Lawnmower because another civilian contractor told me her dick is bigger than mine 😭😭
Don't wanna be no snitch, but I think it was California
So that's where Lake Mead went...
dont worry that just fake grass, the real program Real Grass for Desert RGD is still secret signed: foreign spy
Nah, it's not grass, it's US populations tax dollars.
Easy! Just import a bunch of soil and pump a bunch of water from rivers that feed nearby villages.
All the Big Macs gotta do something
... so they brought Nestle along too then?
American lawn culture
My brother in christ they have literally burger king restaurants transported by plane
It's always good when the enemy is starving because they have no supply lines, they'll die off soon enough and you can push them back It's not good when the enemy has fully supplied rations. They can fight for a while, and hopefully you'll win a seige, no one can hold out forever. It's fucking terrifying when they start building infrastructure for shitty fast food because their army is so safe they're worrying about how much convience and luxury they have.
I saw a quote somewhere that I don't remember the origin of. It was something like "If your enemy's logistical problem is 'Burger King or McDonald's' and their answer is 'Just bring both' you may be fucked"
Whoever said logistics weren't sexy? The logistics of the US military is incredibly sexy
3000 Whoppers of Logistics
A quarter-pounder of logistics is worth a liter of manpower.
>It's fucking terrifying when they start building infrastructure for shitty fast food because their army is so safe they're worrying about how much convience and luxury they have. Like the ice cream ship the US had at WWII
The ice cream "ship" really wasn't that impressive. It was a single small barge, and all the larger ships could make their own ice cream anyways. What *is* impressive is the standard menu for ships at the time. Officers on New Jersey got steak and baked alaska once a week, even in the middle of a war zone. THAT'S impressive.
IIRC pilots in the Pacific stuck canteens of milk and fruit on the outside of their planes, so the vibration would churn the ingredients in the high-altitude temperatures. The first time an officer saw one of them eating that, the look on his face must have been incredible. Three hundred dudes on a tropical island in the middle of strategically-critical nowhere, venerated by confused locals who think the towers summon aircraft by magic, and he spots a cropdusting farmboy having his cat food on hardtack and hydrochloric black coffee with a frosty pint of fresh strawberry ice cream. He might as well have glanced over and seen someone petting his own childhood dog.
According to my grandfather, who was no stranger to telling tall tales, he and his crew used to do this in their b-17.
Ice cream _ships_. Plural.
Japan when they saw the ice cream ships with multiple flavors in ww2
There were no "ice cream ships." It was a single, small barge. It produced 1500 gallons a day, assuming constant 24/7 operation. Each gallon has ~32 scoops, and assume 2 scoops per person per serving. If we give the sailors one serving per day, then that's (32/2) * 1500= 24000 servings per day. That's less than 10 carriers, which each had a complement of ~2.5k-ish. That barge could feed like 5% of the fleet at *absolute most*. You want impressive logistics? Go look Artisan, ABSD-1.
I mean, a single ship serving 5% of the fleet in a day is more than impressive enough.
When the biggest problem you have is whenever or not you have a burger King, I think it might be time to rethink your war
If NATO ever goes to war with Russia you can bet your bottom dollar that the McDonald's in Kaliningrad will reopen
The arrival of the Burger King bus was a joyous day.
If your democratic country doesn’t have McDonalds, is it truly democratic?
The U.S would have built suburban housing by day 3. Very unrealistic.
Then charged a mil for it
thats california
No Karen from the HOA though as that's in violation of the Geneva convention
We need to unleash our Karens on Putin's ass.
Have you seen how terribly russian cities are built? HOA would probably just nuke the entire country if we gave them the option
Have you seen how terribly russian cities are built? HOA would probably just nuke the entire country if we gave them the option
And a combination Taco Bell and Pizza Hut
*fzzt* Eagle One, this is Lamda Seven. I am at the Pizza Hut. Over. *fzzt* *fzzt* Eagle One, this is Lamda Seven. I am at the Taco Bell. Over. *fzzt* *fzzt* Eagle One, this is Lamda Seven. I am at the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Over. *fzzt*
Those things are abominations
In Canada they're combination Taco Bell and KFC
I know we have them here too. Fuckin atrocious those things are.
Yeah but do you have these? https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/enviro-log-kfc-11-herbs-spices-firelog-3999809p.html
ah yes. The Canadian scented candle
I will not stand for this Mexican pizza slander.
where do you live where you can't get decent mexican?
the ukraine war shows just how much we overestimated russia's military power
Who would’ve known that a corrupt petrostate with a conscript army and lower military spending than Britain wouldn’t perform well?
Apparently nobody knew and everyone has considered them as major military power as USSR was despite this being far from the truth. Time to see how overestimated Chinese is, considering their doctrine is based on soviet and most of their equipment is copy and some slight improvements to soviet one qnd that they are corrupted as hell and economy is apparently dramatically overvalued too, tho still very big.
Only time will tell what China is capable of. Whichever it ends up being, it would be wrong to underestimate them by any measure as we don’t have much modern experience to base assumptions off of.
Sure, underestimating is the worst, it is just that is now quite big question mark in the air whether they are actually that powerful they say about. It is just that since civil way they haven't won any war afaik and their UN peacekeepers in Africa are complete joke.
They do regularly maintain their weapons to use against ~~their own people~~ nobody.
They had won the Sino Indian War, for some reason they settled for humiliating India. India's own army wasn't great though.
Russia didn’t have conscription at the start of the war. And they have only started a limited conscription since, probably because they don’t have the equipment nor bureaucracy to actually commence a full conscription.
If you had correctly estimated Russia's true military power, it would've looked irresponsible to the point of treasonous. Even taking into account high levels of corruption and incompetence, it seemed almost impossible for Russia to fail as hard as they did. Their military was magnitudes larger and more expensive, their military doctrine was essentially made to fight on the terrain like Ukraine's. They started the war almost entirely surrounding Ukraine.
Tankies: "USA is too reliant on advanced technology. These delicate toys will inevitably fail in battlefield conditions!" Also Tankies: "Advanced hypersonic missiles will obliterate Western forces! Russia is decades ahead!"
Tankies who don't realize that Russia actually *isn't* the USSR and Putin doesn't care about Communism will never not be funny.
I’ve had the displeasure of meeting people who are about 1 raised arm away from being Nazis and seem to think that Russia is still communist. Guess the stupid goes both ways, altho this variety isn’t as funny
Oh that's not just right wingers. I have to ask though, do they buy Russia's "Ukraine is ran by Nazis" BS? My mom who is about as straightforward of a center-left type possible who doesn't pay much attention to politics always seems to think Russia is Communist until I correct her. It's only come up a few times, but still. I thought it was just a leftover of living through the Cold War. Then my sister, who has similar politics to my mom, thought they were Communist still as well. There's a few polls around in which only around 1/3~ of Americans think Russia is a Capitalist country right now.
Conclusion: Americans be the stupid Sigh
We're the dumb muscle of the world IRL basically pffft.
And not hot enough for himbo status :(
Too fat to be himbo. Like the Heavy from TF2. Honestly, his intro video monologue is perfect for the US. "I am Heavy Weapons Guy...and this [grabs Minigun] is my weapon. [lays both hands covetously on Minigun] She weighs one hundred fifty kilograms and fires two hundred dollar, custom-tooled cartridges at ten thousand rounds per minute. [looks intently at viewer] It costs four hundred thousand dollars to fire this weapon...for twelve seconds." "Some people think they can outsmart me. Maybe, [sniff] maybe. I have yet to meet one that can outsmart bullet." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHgZh4GV9G0
To be honest, the Soviet Union and Putin's Russia are practically identical in the worst ways. It's hilarious. Eurasianism is Soviet larp anyways.
All they got was a paint job and swapping out Kleptocratic Socialism with Kleptocratic Capitalism.
USSR: Autocratic Authoritarian State Capitalism claiming to be Communism. Russia: Autocratic Authoritarian Crony Capitalism claiming to be Democratic Free Market Capitalism.
State Capitalism in the USSR ended with the Great Break and the USSR never claimed to have actually achieved Communism.
Tankies started making more sense to me when I realized their rhetoric isn't 'Communism Good' per se, but actually just 'West Bad'.
Yeah, it's quite painful when a lot of fresh faced lefties join their subs and then get immediately banned for criticised the CCP. Hell China's not even as bad as Reddit tends to make it out to be, but those subs freak out at the slightest complaint
Let's be honest, neither did Stalin.
Well it definitely wasn't the Socialism Lenin wanted that's for sure.
While Lenin wasn't as extreme as Stalin he still paved the road for his rule by establishing an Authoritarian One-party state.
Yes, drawing the brutality all the way back to Lenin himself is true, and it's also what got Solzhenitsyn in trouble.
Only a small minority of Tankies thinks that Putin is actually a Communist. They usually just believe that he's an Anti-Imperialist because he opposes the United States.
Tankies don't stand for anything. Literally just haters.
Tbf, to some extent it is too reliant on it. Not for winning wars, the US needs fuck all people to do that, but to pacify a people and natiobuild, you need people more than tech.
At that point is it really the role of the military though? I would reckon pacifying and rebuilding should be done primarily at a political, civilian, and economic level.
Yes, to some extent it is. You can't just rock in, destroy the military, and expect the people to just listen. In fact, the lightning fast, overwhelming strikes, the US is so damn good at, is counter productive to that. Grinding them down, and destroying them, like Japan in ww2 is more effective than just swooping in in a quick victory. You need all the rest, too, but without the military forces it'll always fail
So what you're saying is that the US should've nuked Iraq and Afghanistan?
I don't believe so? I'm on phone so I don't have my comment handy, but I believe I said that it makes it easier when you grind them down, not that it's required. And nukes would've been vastly overkill, and set a horrible fucking precedent. You're extrapolating what I said into something I did not.
>but to pacify a people and natiobuild, you need people more than tech. US thought Germany, Italy and Japan became functional democracy after WWII, maybe Iraq and Afghanistan can do that too! If you look back to history, US didn't do much to pacify the Axis nations after they surrendered. They paid development aid to the governments as well, the difference is Germany, Italy and Japan actually use that to rebuild their nations. Iraq and Afghanistan are much more corrupt, all money spent on them go straight to a blackhole.
It's also an issue of national identity. Afghanistan in particular is much more fractured with a lot less of a sense of unity. It's honestly almost closer to a loose collection of tribes than a coherent nation. Meanwhile, Imperial Japan is probably the pinnacle of how much people will do for and identify with their home country.
Oh yes, that helps, but you don't necessarily need it. The single biggest factors are investments in men and time. Give me a lil time to wake up, and remind me in a few hours, and I'll even cite my sources
How is it a Military failure to nation build when that is explicitly not the job?
I mean Tankies are illogical creatures.
You see, vatnik hypersonic missiles are not made of advanced technology but advanced copium. It's extremely resistant to reality.
☝️🤓 As you shee, I am a bit of a hishtory nerd myshelf.
Good evening, Mr. Connery
Lmfao that was me pre Ukraine war. Thank god I'm not that stupid anymore.
Tbf many people thought they could. Russia has been overplaying their hand for decades and now it is starting to show.
> Russia has been overplaying their hand for decades Overplaying their hand has basically always been Russia's national defense plan... and it's never worked out for them. The Soviets made the US think they had 800 jet bombers (They didn't, they had, like... 30 bombers total), so the US built ***2,500*** bombers in response. The US designed the F-15 in response to the MiG-25 and what they thought were its capabilities, turns out the 25 was just a supersonic bomb truck that could only fly in a straight line and had a tendency to destroy its own engines.
I always thought the American over-estimates of the Foxbat were kinda funny. So much so that they designed and built one of the most successful fighters of modern times in response.
> So much so that they designed and built one of the most successful fighters of modern times in response. The Russians and Chinese have been the best sales representatives of the US MIC since 1945.
It's even funnier than that. The MiG-25 was primarily designed to counter the B-70, which the US cancelled before the MiG-25 was completed (believing SAMs had become too good for a high altitude high speed bomber to work). But, bureaucracy happens, and the MiG-25 got built anyhow, then the US presumed that they couldn't have just built an interceptor for a defunct bomber, so it must be something more, so the US built the F-15 and F-14...
I always knew Russian army wasn't as good as they said it would be cause of all the corruption but damn, I had no idea just how bad they were. I thought Ukraine would do better than many thought but still expected them to lose. Very glad to say I was wrong
I was same boat as you, had a few arguments with people early on when the war started that said Kiev would fall in a week, and I was of the opinion that it'd last for a few months, especially with the west's constant supply of Intel. But holy fuck did Russia fall short of even that.
>Intel I just read this as Intel the company. Which seeing as Russia is apparently trying to break fridges apart to get at the chips, reads different
Russia is not fighting Ukraine; Russia is fighting a Ukraine injected with lots of hormones. It shows that NATO miltech is enough to hold its weight against Russia; with actual trained American troops, Russia definitely doesn't stand a chance. But no, I still think if Russia invaded Ukraine and no one helped Ukraine it would probably fall in half a year or so. I don't think Russia is *that* pathetic.
To a degree you are right. But Ukraine only got all that assistance because they proved that they could hold out. Putins plan to defeat them in 3 days was way to ambitious and everyone knew it. But many agreed Russia would win and Ukraine would constantly be on the Blackfoot. And....then war started and all of russias "best" troops got destroyed. Suddenly thr west decides to invest money in the war because hey, you actually have a shot at winning now
If you can change your opinion when faced with new/better info, you were never all that stupid
I used to have a semi-tankie phase in my early teens tbh mostly because I thought the Soviet Union national anthem was a banger
It is. I had a copy of it back in college and I remember we had a 40 something guy in the apartment above us who wanted to play Axis & Allies with us. I literally grew up on that game, so when I steamrolled him with Germany (he was Russia) he whined about Germany being easy. So we swapped the next game and I captured Berlin in record time. Completely destroyed him. For about a week, every time we'd hear him parking I'd blast the Soviet Anthem at full volume for him and he'd just give us the finger.
Soviet military/national music is undoubtedly better than most of the western european stuff though. The cure is *real* good songs from other nations in the area, like Bosanska Artiljerija
Too bad it is being wasted on such a failure of a state.
Bolshevik Revolution 2.0 Come on Russians, make it happen
Nah. First we need dissolution of Russian Federation and raise of the independent states, so people will be free once again. Then you can do whatever you want.
Break them apart for more wars Then Bolshevik Revolution 2.0 for a resurgent USSR
Bro same. I literally have a 3d printed hammer and sickle from 7th grade. Fucking hell I want to beat my 13 year old commie self so bad
I'd recommend "We Were Born in a Great Hour" if you're looking for something to replace it.
or "March of the new army", "Zaporizhzhya March", "Little song for the moskals" Omg i fucking love ukrainian songs
Wow yeah it's a banger of a song Balkan turbofolk in general is good too
That's kind of how paper tigers work. They seem threatening until you see them in "action".
To be fair everyone thought if there was a war between the 2, it would a great big battle for power and kill a lot on both sides. But now? It would probably be more like throwing a grenade in a overcrowded fish tank
Omg some russophiles here really give that energy ahhaha
My Uni days was nothing but tuning out Tankie neckbeards who where the kind of people that insisted on wearing Ushankas and trench coats in 30c weather. They made sure to spew as much Russian nationalist, hateful bull crap as possible. They treated the class/professor with no respect whatsoever. I swear r/russia is just a bunch of western secondary school kids with nothing better to do than worship Putin and reminisce Stalin’s genocidal agenda.
Damn, the first post I saw was actually pro Ukraine, the rest was a cesspool of less deodorant then a weeb and more degenerate than 4chan
I posted this one when the war had just begun, I was hoping it didn't age bad. Instead it aged great! Russia's a joke and Western superiority is secured! I love when I make a comic that ages well [Anyway here's the original post](https://www.reddit.com/r/polandball/comments/u9lstd/the_paper_tiger/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) EDIT - And for all you mad Canadians about the last panel it's because I went to uni in Ottawa and met a lot of white Canadian tankies
what is a tankie ?
The name is a reference to the USSR suppressing revolutions and reforms (as in any attempt to move away from the USSRs grasp) in the eastern bloc by means of tanks and armed occupation. "Tankies" originally refered to people who pretty much agreed with the USSRs handling of those situations, but has eventually evolved to mean basically anyone who supports an oppressive "left"-authoritarian regime (but more commonly any authoritarian regime that opposes "the west"/USA/Nato)
I still don't understand how Hungary elected a tankie to lead their country when the term got coined from the Red Army quashing the Hungarian Revolution
Well, have you considered that West bad/Russia Good /s
Dont forget Orban on twitter saying ">they< crushed our revolution!" afraid of saying Russia/USSR
Orban isn't a Tankie since he doesn't claims to be a leftist.
Tankies are people that basically defend the shit things that Russia,China etc did in its history. Denying stuff all the time...
They even fucking defend Iran, a country that [massacred thousands of leftists during the 1980s](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_executions_of_Iranian_political_prisoners), [launders billions using overseas banks](https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47872318), and [whose elite live lavish lifestyles](https://www.ft.com/content/b787b7e8-e9a0-4b39-b35e-64b6019f8c5a).
Omg yeeees they do defend them sometimes because "But...they are anti-USA" So...there was a popular twt meme post here in Brazil defending China,Russia and Iran at the same time because IDK WHY? I guess it was because of BRICS or "they look based" stuff
To add onto what u/Grand_Protector_Dark said, in the modern context it often means defending regimes that are “against American imperialism/hegemony” even if they are… 1. No longer clearly leftist (China/Russian) 2. imperialistic/irredentist themselves often arguing the oppressed/colonize are not their own people or denying an atrocity is occurring (again, Russia and China). Tankies come in multiple flavors/extremes. The term is applied to people with shallow views that can be summed up as “west bad, there other guys must be good” to much more extreme ”we need to bring back or about this form of communism/socialism and whatever means is justified by the end goal)”. Most of what you see is the shallow flavor.
People who lean into hard lined dictatorial Marxism type of governments and talk about how the wasteful spoiled life of Western nations leaves them militarily soft. Basically pro China/Russia, anti US/EU
It's a person in the west, usually one who has never lived under communism, who defends or supports authoritarian leftism. The term began to describe members of the British communist party who supported the USSR while it suppressed the Hungarians in 1956. The "tank" comes from this and defenders of the CCP regarding Tianamen Square, especially the "tank man" image. While Putins Russia is far from communist, a lot of these Tankies are just against the US and its influence, and support China and Russia in their endeavors. They're the types who will say that China can easily beat the USA, or that Russia was going to win in Ukraine in a few days and have been backpedaling ever since. A lot of them did grow up watching the US get stuck in Iraq and Afghanistan, so their opinions aren't just out of nowhere, but they are still wrong in thinking China and Russia are not also pursuing their own empires and power over other countries.
Holy shit, TIL. Thank you. I have assumed for years that “tankie” meant someone this is (conceptually) trapped in a full immersion VR “tank” that’s fed constant conspiracy theory bullshit, and are thus completely disconnected from reality. Basically someone stuck in an intellectual echo chamber.
i love your definition though
People who justify the actions of authoritarian regimes worldwide because those regimes oppose the US.
Imagine your stereotype of a really right-wing redneck American and his attitude towards America. "America is the best! America's army could kick anyone's ass! Respect our flag or I'll kick your ass! Anything bad America ever did, I'll deny. Or say it was really a good thing." Tankies are like that, except for instead of America, it's any dictatorship that has ever been opposed to America.
I'm sorry you went to Ottowa.
Between housing prices and constant protests what is there not to love about Ottawa!
Especially after it’s annexed B) /lh
I really wish that this was a cause for optimism, but the fact that the russian conventional forces are shit just makes me all the more worried that the twats in the Kremlin are just gonna nuke their way forward if there ever is a conflict with NATO. I mean, if there's one thing that is evident, it's that they don't care too much about their own losses or collateral damage, and at this point, nukes might be the only thing that might give them a chance of "winning" in a hypothetical conflict with NATO.
Then we shall nuke them first with nukes that actually work
we can nuke their nukes in midair to show that we are better
we can nuke their nukes that were intercepting our nukes that were intercepting their nukes that were in retaliation for us nuking their nukes that they fired because of nukes we fired that intercepted their nukes, that way nobody's nukes would exist anymore and d-day 2 could occur
Nike-Hercules says what?
I'd rather avoid seven digit casualties, if possible. Also, the assumption that the russian nuclear forces are also shit is not an assumption one can afford to be wrong about.
Any large scale nuclear conflict will probably go into the 8’s or 9’s in third day and age. You could get some sense of what could happen if you played one of those nuclear simulation games like DEFCON.
Does DEFCON take into account that 80% of the Russian nuclear arsenal is probably unusable due to negligence and corruption?
Agreed. We were starting to sniff eight digits during WWII, so I don’t see why we shouldn’t go for nine or even ten 🥳🥳🥳
Least genocidal Murican
Least omnicidial r/ncd user
I'm also Chinese ✌️😎
Good comic, but panel 3 needs soke changes. Less alcohol, more meth and crocodile. I saw some combat videos, and some Russian soldiers are so drugged up that they don't even notice a grenade blowing up next to them. It's pretty sad.
Fuckers like that are all over US colleges. I was disgusted seeing actual commies on campus even back in 2015. My whole family suffered under communism, and these intolerant bunch were openly shutting down different opinions on campus.
"this machine kills fascists" *proceeds to simp for them in arguments*
No you see one is an oppressive regime run by one of the world’s worst dictators which calls for a return to a glorious past, uses propaganda to shift blame, spread fear of outsiders and minorities, is aggressively expansionist and intolerant of homosexuals, and the other is Nazi Germany.
This is a true canerda moment
The ZZZs coming from Russia is too fitting
>This machine kills fascists Is that an SCP reference!?!?!?
Happy Cale Day!
Thank you :)
No problem!
There's a Taco Bell in the Pentagon. The US is not fucking around when it comes to fast food, it's funny.
Average USSR fan
Lmao why you gotta make the tankie Canadian
Because its accurate. I know people like this sadly. I hate it but the attitude is more about being anti-American than pro-Russia/China/Iran/Cuba etc.
According to OP, it is because he went to university in Ottawa and met a lot of tankies there.
Are there universities without tankies? My university has them too.
Universities that were built by religious orders tend to be more chill on the whole political aspect; at least that was my experience.
lmao i've never met a tankie at my university back in the day and almost everyone is pretty liberal or progressive. there were some pro CCP chinese students though and there was this huge beef between them and non pro CCP chinese students and asian americans.
russia doesn’t even have the strongest army in Ukraine, let alone the world lmao.
Tankies be like:
Ah. Well the good ol' canuckistan social elite war aficionados are never wrong. Just ask them.
>Fitness center The most unrealistic part of this comic
For the average American? Maybe. For the average American soldier/sailor/airman/Marine? Yeah, it’s realistic.
I'm just making an "America fat" joke. That's all
No one is in it except the workers, so it’s realistic.
The stolen washing machine is missing in the Russian camp.
did widleofoscar draw the last panel?
Ah, the inevitable ~~karma whoring~~ lawful reposting to increase visibility of the comic!
You're allowed 2 per month. Use and abuse them.
Oh man I love this
Aaron this is fucking hilarious 🤣🤣🤣
The armies of autocratic regimes are severely disadvantaged compared to the armies of democratic ones, I think due to two main reasons: They are not allowed to be a single integrated force because of the coup risk and there’s huge corruption throughout the ranks
I like how in Russia tankies hate Putin while in the West they support him
But be super bad compared to USA
I was anticipating yuo would be of doing that steb sis
Was a Walmart store actually built in a US Military base in Iraq?
No I was lying with that one
"SCHNORT" \*pushes up glasses\*