I like it because it had a symmetry with Red Army devotion to the tank as the king of the battlefield. The old joke about the Soviet tank crew sitting in a West German Mcdonald's asking "I wonder who won the air war"
It wasn't. I was just amused at the definition of tankie. I had heard it in the context of post-soviet studies and a little bit since Feb 2022 in context of GOP Ukraine haterz.