Late response (sorry!) but wanted to let you know that I appreciated the comment and details. Personally, this doesn’t convince me he’s a tankie, but that’s largely because I’m not familiar enough with Hakeem to know he’s a tankie, nor do I know what video you were referring to. Which is not to say you’re outright wrong — just that I would want to see more specifics to change my opinion, is all. All the same, I appreciate the effort and am happy to better understand your position.

I do somewhat agree with your definition of a tankie, for what it’s worth. I don’t think saying the GOP and DNC are both bad is necessarily tankie behavior, but the rest makes sense. This said, I’ve personally seen extremely little defense of Russia from any far-left discourse, including communities close to Second Thought, and from what I hear from those communities China is still very divisive. You’ve clearly encountered worse though, and my experiences are limited, so take them for what you will.