History Main / StillFightingTheCivilWar

* "Tankies" [[note]] In reference to Khrushchev "sending in the tanks" during the Hungarian uprising.[[/note]]are a sub-section of communist living outside the former communist world and still defend the old Soviet Union with a near religious fervor just as they did during the Cold War. Unlike "necro-patriots" living within the former Eastern Bloc (who generally acknowledge the hardships even if they miss it for [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell one reason or another]]) or other groups of socialists who have denounced the USSR, tankies insist the USSR was a paradise ruined either by incompetent liberalizing leaders or the CIA. The fact that the political left in the West hasn't and doesn't like them, adopting social democratic, anarchist, and green politics over Marxism-Leninism, and the right doesn't care doesn't seem to have dawned on them. Even the few remaining nominally communist states, including China, Laos and Vietnam, have mostly abandoned central planning for market economies. Regardless, tankies are the inverse of the [[NoTrueScotsman "not real communism"]] types of socialists, insisting that China, Laos, and Vietnam are "real communism adapted to material conditions". This becomes a subverted trope when you notice that while tankies still defend the USSR, they've mostly thrown their weight behind [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny The People's Republic of China]], who as of 2020, is in a currently escalating cold war with the United States. In fact, if you dare say that China isn't real communism [[NoTrueScotsman they call you an "ultra-leftist" and make you a ]] PersonaNonGrata in their communities.

** There is a bit of split within tankies between "classic tankies" and "Sino tankies," the latter of whom are the mentioned sympathizers of China. The former classic tankies are a double shot of this trope, effectively still fighting the Cold War ''and'' the Sino Soviet split. Rather than China, classic tankies throw their weight behind the political powerhouses of... Cuba, Venezuela, and Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko. [[note]] The last has preserved Soviet style state owned industry in Belarus but managed to piss off even his communist base recently.[[/note]]

* "Tankies" [[note]] In reference to Khrushchev "sending in the tanks" during the Hungarian uprising.[[/note]]are a sub-section of communist living outside the former communist world and still defend the old Soviet Union with a near religious fervor just as they did during the Cold War. Unlike "necro-patriots" living within the former Eastern Bloc (who generally acknowledge the hardships even if they miss it for [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell one reason or another]]) or other groups of socialists who have denounced the USSR, tankies insist the USSR was a paradise ruined either by incompetent liberalizing leaders or the CIA. The fact that the political left hasn't and doesn't like them, adopting social democratic and green politics over Marxism-Leninism, and the right doesn't care doesn't seem to have dawned on them. Even the few remaining nominally communist states, including China, Laos and Vietnam, have mostly abandoned central planning for market economies. Regardless, tankies are the inverse of the [[NoTrueScotsman "not real communism"]] types of socialists, insisting that China, Laos, and Vietnam are "real communism adapted to material conditions". This becomes a subverted trope when you notice that while tankies still defend the USSR, they've mostly thrown their weight behind [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny The People's Republic of China]], who as of 2020, is in a currently escalating cold war with the United States. In fact, if you dare say that China isn't real communism [[NoTrueScotsman they call you an "ultra-leftist" and make you a ]] PersonaNonGrata in their communities.

[[folder:Tabletop Games

* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' and ''ComicBook/TheTransformersRobotsInDisguise'' has several characters (mostly Decepticons) trying to keep the war going, even though it ended some years back, and everyone around them is ambivalent about it starting up again at best. Some, like [[KnightTemplar Prowl]] or [[TheDreaded the Decepticon Justice Division]] are more direct about it than others - the D.J.D. refuse to stand down, even having been told the war's over, because they haven't heard Megatron ''say so'' (and when they do hear it, their boss decides it doesn't matter, and Megatron needs to die).

* The Peacock family from the ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "Home". When Mulder & Scully come across the matriarch, she rails at them about the War of Northern Agression. The episode is set in Pennsylvania - a Union state - so the Peacocks were either [[{{hypocrite}} invaders from the South]] or Confederate sympathizers.

** There is a bit of split within tankies between "classic tankies" and "Sino tankies," the latter of whom are the mentioned sympathizers of China. The former classic tankies are a double shot of this trope, effectively still fighting the Cold War ''and'' the Sino Soviet split. Rather than China, classic tankies throw their weight behind the political powerhouses of... Cuba, Venezuala, and Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko. [[note]] The last has preserved Soviet style state owned industry in Belarus but managed to piss off even his communist base recently.[[/note]]

Series/{{Mash}}: In the episode "The Tooth Shall Set You Free", Colonel Potter says the trope name almost verbatim to Maj. Weems, a racist engineer officer who's been sending blacks out to do the most dangerous duties in the hopes that he can get them wounded so bad that they'll get sent home or [[MoralEventHorizon even killed]]. All this in the futile pursuit of reversing by default the Army desegregation order of 1948.

* On one ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short ("Southern Fried Rabbit", 1953), WesternAnimation/BugsBunny encounters a Rebel general (WesternAnimation/YosemiteSam) who still believes the war is on and [[AbsurdlyDedicatedWorker is still following orders given to him by Robert E. Lee]] to blast any Yankee that tries to cross the Mason-Dixon Line. When Bugs informs him that [[RealityEnsues the war ended almost 90 years ago]] (as of the time of the cartoon's release), Sam's response is "I ain't no clock-watcher!"

* "Tankies" [[note]] In reference to Khrushchev "sending in the tanks" during the Hungarian uprising.[[/note]]are a sub-section of communist living outside the former communist world and still defend the old Soviet Union with a near religious fervor just as they did during the Cold War. Unlike "necro-patriots" living within the former Eastern Bloc (who generally acknowledge the hardships even if they miss it for [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell one reason or another]]) or other groups of socialists who have denounced the USSR, tankies insist the USSR was a paradise ruined either by incompetent liberalizing leaders or the CIA. The fact that the current political left has mostly left them behind, adopting more moderate social democratic and green politics over Marxism-Leninism, and the right doesn't care doesn't seem to have dawned on them. Even the few remaining nominally communist states, including China, Laos and Vietnam, have mostly abandoned central planning for market economies. Regardless, tankies are the inverse of the [[NoTrueScotsman "not real communism"]] types of socialists, insisting that China, Laos, and Vietnam are "real communism adapted to material conditions". This becomes a subverted trope when you notice that while tankies still defend the USSR, they've mostly thrown their weight behind [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny The People's Republic of China]], who as of 2020, is in a currently escalating cold war with the United States. In fact, if you dare say that China isn't real communism [[NoTrueScotsman they call you an "ultra-leftist" and make you a ]] PersonaNonGrata in their communities.

* ''Film/MeetingDaddy'' has as its title character an elderly Southerner (Lloyd Bridges in his final screen role) who is still proud to be a Confederate citizen (in spirit if not in fact) in the year 1998 (the year the movie was filmed), and is still flying the Confederate flag on his front porch. (The old man's prospective son-in-law, a writer from California, objects to the flag, but the old man emotionally manipulates him into putting it up for him.) When he sees activists on the TV news protesting against the Confederate flag, the old man grumpily calls them "outside agitators" - a term that by that point was about 30 years out-of-date, as it was an insult directed at Northerners who travelled to the South in the 1960s as civil-rights workers. (What's especially strange about this is that Daddy is old, but not ''that'' old; he was born ''long'' after the Civil War ended! That said, his father could have fought in the war, then passed on the belief to him.)

* ''The Fred Allen Show'' had recurring character Senator Beauregard Claghorn, who was a parody of this type of character. The senator was only man to buy Confederate war bonds in the 1950s, a proponent of moving the Mason-Dixon line to the Canadian border, wanted to dissolve the state of North Carolina on account of it having "North" in the name and refused money from one of his backers when the backer described the contribution as a "[[UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant grant]]".

* There was a minor heel named Jean Lafitte who claimed to be the direct ancestor of the 19th-century French pirate with the same name. Lafitte dressed up as his (supposed) famous ancestor and announced he was out for revenge against all Americans [[Wrestling/BretHart (and one Canadian)]] for an 1807 law that blockaded New Orleans, preventing pirates from entering the city [[note]] In fact, the blockade of New Orleans was part of a nationwide embargo intended to preserve American neutrality with both Britain and France, and had practically nothing to do with pirates. [[/note]] This was in the mid-1990s - [[ButForMeItWasTuesday long]], ''[[ButForMeItWasTuesday long]]'' [[ButForMeItWasTuesday after America had collectively forgotten that the blockade had ever happened.]]

** In one episode, the boys get in an argument prior to performing for the Union in a [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar Civil War]] [[Main/WarReenactors Reenactment]], prompting Cartman to join the Confederacy. When he's made fun of for joining the losing side, he tries to one-up them by getting the performers so drunk they forget it's a reenactment and fight for real. Surprisingly, Cartman builds an army that comes very close to overturning the war.

* "Tankies" [[note]] In reference to Khrushchev "sending in the tanks" during the Hungarian uprising.[[/note]]are a sub-section of communist living outside the former communist world and still defend the old Soviet Union with a near religious fervor just as they did during the Cold War. Unlike "necro-patriots" living within the former Eastern Bloc (who generally acknowledge the hardships even if they miss it for [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell one reason or another]]) or other groups of socialists who have denounced the USSR, tankies insist the USSR was a paradise ruined either by incompetent liberalizing leaders or the CIA. The fact that the current political left has mostly left them behind, adopting more moderate social democratic and green politics, and the right doesn't care doesn't seem to have dawned on them. Even the few remaining nominally communist states, including China, Laos and Vietnam, have mostly abandoned central planning for market economies. Regardless, tankies are the inverse of the [[NoTrueScotsman "not real communism"]] types of socialists, insisting that China, Laos, and Vietnam are "real communism adapted to material conditions". This becomes a subverted trope when you notice that while tankies still defend the USSR, they've mostly thrown their weight behind [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny The People's Republic of China]], who as of 2020, is in a currently escalating cold war with the United States. In fact, if you dare say that China isn't real communism [[NoTrueScotsman they call you an "ultra-leftist" and make you a ]] PersonaNonGrata in their communities.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheRealAdventuresOfJonnyQuest'' involves Team Quest running into a pair of FeudingFamilies still waging the Revolutionary War deep in the woods of New Jersey (one family were the descendants of a Red Coat that stole the ''real'' Declaration of Independence and the other were the descendants of the soldier sent to recapture it -- they managed to keep their lines going by dressing up as TheJerseyDevil and kidnapping kids every once in a while). When Team Quest tries to explain to them that the war is long over, the British lost and the Declaration was remade and signed, both sides get pissed, call them spies, and try to kill them.

Very much TruthInTelevision. This is similar to, but different from, TheRemnant, where a character is ''literally'' still fighting against his enemies from a war that he actually took part in, but which is now over. See also MexicoCalledTheyWantTexasBack.

* "Tankies" are a sub-section of communist living outside the former communist world and still defend the old Soviet Union with a near religious fervor just as they did during the Cold War. Unlike "necro-patriots" living within the former Eastern Bloc (who generally acknowledge the hardships even if they miss it for [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell one reason or another]]) or other groups of socialists who have denounced the USSR, tankies insist the USSR was a paradise ruined either by incompetent liberalizing leaders or the CIA. The fact that the current political left has mostly left them behind, adopting more moderate social democratic and green politics, and the right doesn't care doesn't seem to have dawned on them. Even the few remaining nominally communist states, including China, Laos and Vietnam, have mostly abandoned central planning for market economies. Regardless, tankies are the inverse of the [[NoTrueScotsman "not real communism"]] types of socialists, insisting that China, Laos, and Vietnam are "real communism adapted to material conditions". This becomes a subverted trope when you notice that while tankies still defend the USSR, they've mostly thrown their weight behind [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny The People's Republic of China]], who as of 2020, is in a currently escalating cold war with the United States. In fact, if you dare say that China isn't real communism [[NoTrueScotsman they call you an "ultra-leftist" and make you a ]] PersonaNonGrata in their communities.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheRealAdventuresOfJonnyQuest'' involves Team Quest running into a pair of FeudingFamilies still waging the Revolutionary War deep in the woods of New Jersey (one family were the descendants of a Red Coat that stole the ''real'' Declaration of Independence and the other were the descendants of the soldier sent to recapture it -- they managed to keep their lines going by dressing up as UsefulNotes/TheJerseyDevil and kidnapping kids every once in a while). When Team Quest tries to explain to them that the war is long over, the British lost and the Declaration was remade and signed, both sides get pissed, call them spies, and try to kill them.

* On one ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short ("Southern Fried Rabbit", 1953), WesternAnimation/BugsBunny encounters a Rebel general (WesternAnimation/YosemiteSam) who still believes the war is on. When Bugs informs him that [[RealityEnsues the war ended almost 90 years ago]] (as of the time of the cartoon's release), Sam's response is "I ain't no clock-watcher!"

* "Tankies" are a sub-section of communist living outside the former communist world and still defend the old Soviet Union with a near religious fervor just as they did during the Cold War. Unlike "necro-patriots" living within the former Eastern Bloc (who generally acknowledge the hardships even if they miss it for [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell one reason or another]]) or other groups of socialists who have denounced the USSR, tankies insist the USSR was a paradise ruined either by incompetent liberalizing leaders or the CIA. The fact that the current political left has mostly left them behind, adopting more moderate social democratic and green politics, and the right doesn't care doesn't seem to have dawned on them. Even the few remaining nominally communist states, including China, Laos and Vietnam, have mostly abandoned central planning for market economies.

* "Tankies" are a sub-section of communist living outside the former communist world and still defend the old Soviet Union with a near religious fervor just as they did during the Cold War. Unlike "necro-patriots" living within the former Eastern Bloc (who generally acknowledge the hardships even if they miss it for [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell one reason or another]]) or other groups of socialists who have denounced the USSR, tankies insist the USSR was a paradise ruined either by incompetent liberalizing leaders or the CIA. The fact that the current political left has mostly left them behind, adopting more moderate social democratic and green politics, and the right doesn't care doesn't seem to have dawned on them. Even the few remaining nominally communist states, China, Laos and Vietnam, have mostly abandoned central planning for market economies.

* "Tankies" are a sub-section of communist living outside the former communist world and still defend the old Soviet Union with a near religious fervor just as they did during the Cold War. Unlike "necro-patriots" living within the former Eastern Bloc (who generally acknowledge the hardships even if they miss it for [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell one reason or another]]) or other groups of socialists who have denounced the USSR, tankies insist the USSR was a paradise ruined either by incompetent liberalizing leaders or the CIA. The fact that the current political left has mostly left them behind, adopting more moderate social democratic politics, and the right doesn't care doesn't seem to have dawned on them. Even the few remaining nominally communist states, China, Laos and Vietnam, have mostly abandoned central planning for market economies.

* "Tankies" are a sub-section of communist living outside the former communist world and still defend the old Soviet Union with a near religious fervor just as they did during the Cold War. Unlike "necro-patriots" living within the former Eastern Bloc (who generally acknowledge the hardships even if they miss it for [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell one reason or another]]) or other groups of socialists who have denounced the USSR, tankies insist the USSR was a paradise ruined either by incompetent liberalizing leaders or the CIA. The fact that the current political left has mostly left them behind, adopting more moderate social democratic politics, and the right doesn't care doesn't seem to have dawned on them.

* "Tankies" are a sub-section of communist living outside the former communist world and still defend the old Soviet Union with a near religious fervor just as they did during the Cold War. Unlike "necro-patriots" living within the former Eastern Bloc (who generally acknowledge the hardships even if they miss it for [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell one reason or another]]) or other groups of socialist who have denounced the USSR, tankies insist the USSR was a paradise ruined either by incompetent liberalizing leaders or the CIA. The fact that the current political left has mostly left them behind, adopting more moderate social democratic politics, and the right doesn't care doesn't seem to have dawned on them.

* "Tankies" are a sub-section of communist living outside the former communist world and still defend the old Soviet Union with a near religious fervor just as they did during the Cold War. Unlike "necro-patriots" living within the former Eastern Bloc (who generally acknowledge the hardships even if they miss it for [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell one reason or another]]) or other groups of socialist who have denounced the USSR, tankies insist the USSR was a paradise ruined either by incompetent liberalizing leaders or the CIA. The fact that the current political left has mostly left them behind and the right doesn't care doesn't seem to have dawned on them.

* "Tankies" are a sub-section of communist living outside the former communist world and still defend the old Soviet Union with a near religious fervor just as they did during the Cold War. Unlike "necro-patriots" living within the former Eastern Block (who generally acknowledge the hardships even if they miss it for [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell one reason or another]]) or other groups of socialist who have denounced the USSR, tankies insist the USSR was a paradise ruined either by incompetent liberalizing leaders or the CIA. The fact that the current political left has mostly left them behind and the right doesn't care doesn't seem to have dawned on them.

* ''The Fred Allen Show'' had recurring character Senator Beauregard Claghorn, who was a parody of this type of character. The senator was only man to buy Confederate war bonds in the 1950s, a proponent of moving the Mason-Dixon line to the Canadian border, wanted to dissolve the state of North Carolina on account of it having "North" in the name and refused money from one of his backers when the backer described the contribution as a "grant".