all they had to say is “no we aren’t tankies” and people just took them at their word lol

IMO it’s a little more cynical than that, they rephrased the narrative into one that they could cleanly reject and be quoted on. As others have pointed out, it is almost a certainty that 1) they do not consider themselves or their ideology to be fascist, and 2) they aren’t supporting genocide if they do not acknowledge that the peoples in question are actually subject to genocide.

Edit: …Which you’ve already affirmed in one of your previous comments, my bad.