Indeed, as odd a label as that is to consider.

The 'tankie' label is ironic in this context. I think it was originally aimed at western socialists or communists who still found a way to support the Soviet Union after they sent tanks into Czechoslovakia to enforce the communist government there, despite the obvious tyranny of using violence to achieve the outcome. And here is Mason trying to make out that an army of head-chopping fanatics, armed, trained and fully backed by foreign governments, marching on Damascus is actually 'a mass popular uprising', a 'genuine revolt of the Syrian people', an expression of 'working class agency', even bringing 'liberation'... Pure projection in other words. I'd say it'll come back to haunt him, but none of the other inverted-reality analysis and spook-adjacent snitching seems to have dented his confidence in the slightest. He knows the right people support him, and that's all that matters...

jeers,
I