Well, the way I see it is that tankies are pretty much a minority without any power in the west, and, at least the ones I've seen around here, aren't actively organising any sort of violent revolutionary behaviour or anything ... which means their views tend to always be critiques of the powerful western governments and mainstream cultures form the perspectives of minorities, and often in ways that many in the mainstream find unpalatable, and therefore unconvincing. So, even if "extreme" (whatever you mean by that exactly) in some way, it's a "punching up" kind of "extreme" that I'm open minded to hearing, however agreeable or disagreeable I tend to find their opinions.

Do you really think tankies are convincing? This thread, at least, indicates otherwise. So much "extremism" are they going to be spreading? IMO, the sort of "extremism" much more likely to spread is the sort of stuff driven by hate of some sort of "other" weaker and smaller than the mainstream as a scapegoat, not least because it's more amenable to the worldview(s) of the larger and more powerful majority.