Tankie is a term used derogatory that essentially refers to people who are self proclaimed communists that support the CCP and other authoritarian governments that label themselves as communist. I’m decently sure the term is a reference to the Tiananmen Square.

The tankie triad is a reference to the 3 biggest instances for them: lemmy.ml, lemmygrad.ml, and hexbear.net

Now in all honesty I have only seen a handful of bad faith actors. Usually it’s because:

1. They are extremely critical of the US and in extension Israel, which is completely valid because right now the US is a shithole
2. They are extremely defensive of any communist parties. They deny any wrongdoings of the CCP as western propaganda, take the side of Russia over Ukraine, CCP over Taiwan and HK, etc.

To me it’s hypocritical to be against the current authoritarian and fascist US, but also be supportive of the authoritarian CCP and Russia. It’s ok to recognize some actions that the CCP has done as an objectively good thing (like modernization of public transport), but they also deny the fact that the CCP has done atrocious acts and essentially bully the neighbors (aka the rest of Asia).

For reference I have no issues with the idea of socialism or even communism, but the CCP is far from those ideals.