The way I think of it is as follows: if you like the idea of socialism or communism, and you think the only way to get there is to have an authoritative leader “clean house” before they for some reason or another decide to give the power back to the people, then you are a tankie.

In my opinion, an authoritative leader will never give up power back to the people willingly. Or if an authoritative gets in charge, it will never dismantle systems like capitalism because capitalists give authoritative people power.

Another good hint is if they really like the idea of murdering billionaires even if there are less violent solutions to it. I’m not saying that there are currently less violent solutions. I’m just saying they will never go out of their way for less violent solutions. As if they like the idea of murder a lot.