It is an unfortunate thing, because tankies are actually a problem. And I do mean the real term, as in the folks who identify with dictatorships that are so-called communist.

The reason it’s a problem is that the folks who are left-leaning but uneducated sometimes get swept up in pro-authoritarian rhetoric that happens to oppose the west. I’m anticapitalist, leftist, etc. I see tankies and fascists having a lot in common. That seems dangerous in the sense that fascism is a real threat. Also, then, our ranks are being thinned out and co-opted by specific bad-faith actors. At the same time, when people buy into tankie (pro-Russia, pro-China, pro-North Korea) propaganda, this more or less consolidates some of the power that opposes actual leftists (as in, people who support human rights, equitable societies, environmental protection, etc).

Not really any argument against what you’re saying. Just kind of adding that the term tankie is actually useful to describe a specific viewpoint, but obviously not in the way that the previous commenter used it.