Tankies are just the Eastern world’s version of Republicans. I agree with most tankie criticisms of Western imperialism, even if their own perspective is horrid. Western “anti-imperialism” seems to come in three basic forms:

-Conservative anti-imperialism (e.g. Pat Buchanan), which argues that empire-building is impractical, too expensive, or “not in the national interest” (whatever that means).

-Liberal anti-imperialism (which includes most social democrats, Trotskyists, and left-anarchists as well) who are only “anti-imperialism” when it advances liberalism.

-Marxist anti-imperialism, which is more thorough in its critique of Western capitalist imperialism, but limits its anti-imperialism to capitalist imperialism only.

Afghan tribespeople reclaiming their country from Western and/or Russian invaders, Sentinelese Islanders shooting arrows at Western missionaries, and Papua New Guinean cannibals abducting and eating Western tourists are far more “anti-imperialist” than most ideological “anti-imperialists.”