The term Tankie has a clear usage pattern, and it refers to both the action and defending of the action of authoritarian regimes using military assets (such as tanks) to systematically inflict violence upon civilian populations.
It first came into use after an authoritarian government sent troops and tanks to overturn the election of a candidate they didn’t like (in Prague 1968) and the vapid simps of that authoritarian government clapped like seals in mindless automatic support of it.
Other events that follow this pattern:
When the Communist Party of Kampuchea purged over a million people between 1975 and 1979 because “reasons” (usually paranoia),
When on 1989-06-04 the Chinese government declared martial law, deployed troops and tanks to occupy Tiananmen Square and slaughter the hundreds of student protestors there (that figure according to the Chinese government; other parties allege higher casualty numbers),
When Petro Poroshenko shelled his own cities in 2014 and bragged that he intentionally wanted to maim and terrorize the civilians there for the mere “crime” of living in the same municipality where rebels allegedly lived, while not commonly associated with the term, definitely fits the bill
If you don’t LIKE that people refer to these recurring patterns of state-actualized brutality (and the rhetorical support and defense thereof) as “Tankie”, WELL that sounds like a skill issue. GIT GUD.