“Liberal” has a clearly-defined meaning, and 95+% of people of the imperial core are liberals, because it is the hegemonic ideology of the imperial core.

The first sentence from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism:

Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property and equality before the law.

From the first paragraph of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_property[^1]:

Private property is foundational to capitalism, an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit.

That’s what liberals believe. Liberals are those who support capitalism.

Meanwhile, “tankie” is just a floating signifier. It’s just a pejorative and a thought-terminating cliché to dismiss people to the left of liberalism.

[^1]: Not to be confused with personal property.