the litmus test for tankies is whether they blindly support modern era china, russia, and nk, all authright empires

This is pretty close to my own thoughts, though my definition might go more into the ideological underpinnings of those positions. There’s also a lot of leeway in the “blindly” on that one, and I would guess I am less likely to label someone a tankie than others here.

The term is thrown around pretty loosely on Lemmy. I’ve been called a tankie on here for criticizing democrats and for disagreeing with specific criticisms of the Trump regime (things like going after Melania’s nudes or other things I find entirely trivial next to the monstrous crimes) so I expected it to be taken as the more vibes based usage here.