Tankie is a derogatory used to refer to marxist-leninist specifically because of their belief in the dictatorship of the proletariet. Most people assume this means a single unelected person has complete power over the economy and military but it should not take this form and marxist-leninist "tankies" do not typically advocate for this. The dictatorship of the proletariet only means that the working class both owns the means of production (anything required to produce goods, this can be factories, land, tools, etc.) and dictates the rules/organization of society. This is as opposed to the dictatorship of the bourgeosie (as seen in current liberal democracy) where an unelected minority, the rich, controls the means of production and dictates the rules/organization of society.

As for the origin of the term

'tankie’ emerged in the 1970s as a pejorative term to describe those who supported the Soviet actions in 1968 and was used in internal disputes, especially around the 1977 revamping of the CPGB programme, The British Road to Socialism, where Eurocommunist ideas reached the upper echelons of the party.

source

Typically though tankie is used to refer to anyone who supports real existing socialism

[–] chuckleslord 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Okay, it's nice to explain what the difference between a dictatorship of the proletariat and an actual dictatorship is... but a large amount of marxist-leninist countries are literal dictatorships. Xi removed term limits unilaterally. NK is a literal dictatorship, or a absolute monarchy at best. Maduro has run sketchy elections in the past, no comment on the current one yet.

Authoritarian keys to power are incompatible with a fair and just society. Everyone has to steer the ship, or people inevitably get crushed. The less hands steering, the more crushing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

I've been called a tankie for just trying to be clear about what Marxism actually is. I would say I'm sympathetic to Marxists but not one. Having far stronger anarchist sympathies.

But you know, being critical of the usa or saying anything remotely positive about China/the ussr means you are either a Russian bot/op or a tankie.