I’m somewhat convinced it’s mostly Russian propaganda produced by Russian state-funded troll farms, which are very real

I struggle to understand lemmygrad. They advertise the instance as Marxist, but like you said they are reflexively pro-Russia and call you a western pig if you try to point out that Russia is also capitalist and not even remotely Marxist

“Tankies” as a term has been creeping from a description of people who think Stalin and Mao should be in charge again toward a description of anyone who believes even a hint of socialism should exist in society. It’s basically a right-wing dismissal at this point