I’ve had this handle for many years now, including on . It was always around as a term but you really had to be politics brained to understand it.

Recently it became shorthand for “person on the left I don’t like”.

Well, /r/shittankiessay has existed since at least 2016, maybe earlier? I feel like the rise of the word “tankie” in mainstream political discourse really started around that point, and is reaching its peak of popularity in this decade.