Your mistake is thinking that people who use the word tankie have any kind of consistent definition, or even understand the politics of the person they're name-calling.
It used to refer to a very specific incident where Khrushchev sent in tanks to suppress unrest. Anyone who supported that decision was called a tankie.
Now it just means "person on the left that I don't like." Trots are tankies, anarchists are tankies, Joe Biden is a tankie. The word doesn't mean anything.
Your mistake is thinking that people who use the word tankie have any kind of consistent definition, or even understand the politics of the person they're name-calling.
It used to refer to a very specific incident where Khrushchev sent in tanks to suppress unrest. Anyone who supported that decision was called a tankie.
Now it just means "person on the left that I don't like." Trots are tankies, anarchists are tankies, Joe Biden is a tankie. The word doesn't mean anything.
Ah, to me, MLs are tankies only and I prefer to keep it that way.
I like the word "tankie" and, well, am one, as far as I'm concerned.
But that's just me. For a long time, that was my definition.