Why would you be called a tankie?

Because I'm quoting Engels, one of the grandfathers of the Communist movement.

It’s a term used by basically all kinds of communists and socialists, from anarchists to eurocommunists (not tankies) to Maoists (tankies).

It always gets me when people attach Mao to the phrase "Tankie", when - at best - you're trying to describe Deng and getting your historical wires crossed. Of all the historical communist leaders, Mao was the least reliant on mobile armored artillery. Euro-Communists, on the other hand... Real, Actual, Literal Tankies.

People are so clueless as to the history of the term that they'll slap it on anyone. That's why I think some shitposter on a 3rd-tier social media site will get labeled as a 50s-era military officer. The term is pure invective. If it ever meant anything when it was coined, it's descended into pure reactionary gibberish in the modern day.