Ah, I see your confusion.

what it means (people in support of that use of force and tanks to suppress civilian revolution)

This ^ is the incorrect part of your statement. That is not what it means now.

edit: Also

Tankie refers to those people who supported the Soviet use of tanks to quell the Hungarian revolution.

Emphasis added. If you meant “referred” in the past tense, that was a typo on your part. Otherwise, you are just trying to reclaim the term to an earlier meaning.