Memes

Tankie means something specific, a sympathizer for communist or aesthetically communist states which lack either free and fair elections, a freedom to criticize the government, or just general human rights.

I'd like to offer a correction:

Tankie means something specific, a sympathizer for socialist states which are alleged by liberals to lack either free and fair elections, a freedom to criticize the government, or just general human rights.

I fully agree that the definition you gave is the one that wielders of the pejorative believe to be true, but I'd argue my definition is more accurate as it accounts for the fact that "tankies" do not believe the allegations against socialist states to be true or to be highly exaggerated and removed from historical context in liberal narratives.

Whenever a socialist is accused of being a "tankie," they generally have 1 of 3 choices:

1. Attack the validity of the pejorative as a real ideology

2. Accept the pejorative, and use this to move onto discussing specifics, forcing the accuser's hand

3. Accept that "tankies" can and do exist, but try to convince your interlocutor that you aren't one of them.

The third is the most common among western leftists, and also happens to be the most self-defeating. Only options 1 and 2 actually present a path forward for socialists. You can replace "tankie" above with "woke" and the argument still applies, you can either own the label or attack the validity of the label to move forward.