Calling someone a “tankie” is kind of similar to calling someone “woke”. It serves as an easy way to dismiss someone whose opinion you don’t like without actually engaging with their ideas. As such, I feel like the definition has been watered down with time.

I got the sense a few years ago that the colloquial definition used online referred to people who unironically thought Stalin did nothing wrong. Most self described marxist-leninists don’t even fit into that category. As the scope grew people start using it to refer to basically any ML. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it’s been used to refer to anyone, Marxist or otherwise, who opposes US involvement in the war.