I see the word comrade get passed around a lot on the internet, particularly lemmy, and I’ve never really known the lore behind it. The only association I have with the word is that it’s a word I primarily see used by tankies (as in, authoritarian leftists who hate on authoritarianism in the west but not in the east). Does anyone know and can explain it in a relatively understandable way?
Personally I don’t use it and dislike it being used for me, because it has too strong ties for me with statist communism plus it feels like folks are saying we aren’t friends then (if we are).
I actually prefer another similar but less contentious term: compeer, that I came across thanks to Star Trek Discovery.