I swear tanking is the most looked down upon out of all the other specializations so I'm just curious why do ground units hate us so much?

Yes, but how can you tell that that is what they are? I just created a new character for my son to mess around with. He wanted to do tanks. He can't do standard tanks or turrets yet nor does he know how to use the tank better so he's rolling around in a mil tank with a mil blaster. I hopped on too for some cheap fun. I do the same thing that a kd/r scrub would do GÇô shoot infantry and tanks with a blaster, lose a tank to AV etc.

Why try to determine the intent of a tanker other than they are playing in a way that you don't like? Some people try to enjoy a game their way and other people seem to need this game to desperately prove some kind of pre-pubescent manhood and tanks apparently emasculate the player's epeen.

Better I can prove it! With Just 2 little names.
Spkr4thedead and Takihiro Kakushken (if that's how you spell them)

Look up their posts see how they talk to everyone, see what they wanted tanks to become (for clarification, they wanted overpowered murderhouses on wheels)

Taki wanted gunnlogis to passively repair through all damage.
Spkr wanted armour to be able to reach installation levels of eHP and still have hardeners and reppers.

They and numerous other tankers, wanted it to take 3-4 people running PROTO AV to take a STD HAV with STD mods.
It's not difficult to see why people hate tankers, people like those 2 have given them a bad name.

You rarely see a tank, covering his infantry, providing suppression or anything like that, it's always the same.
Rush In, Kill Everybody, Rinse, Repeat. Their is no comradeship from tankers, I've seen more in blueberries for crying out loud.

I've seen blueberries with mlt gear form honour guards for AVers, I've seen a Heavy and Logi whom have never meet turn into a 2-man meat grinder. I've had dropships kill a cloaked scout who was sneaking up on me. I've cleared entire rooves of enemy uplinks so my team can continue to hold there ground.

But from tanks, you usually only ever see the same thing, if friendly fore was on, their would be more infantry deaths from being run over by a blue tank, than in combat. I've seen tankers purposefully steer into friendly LAV's just to blow them up, I've seen them roll over parked vehicles just to get a better shot. I've even seen them shoot at friendly dropships because the pilot got the kill.

Their is nothing wrong with the current balance of tanks right now, they aren't invincible, but they aren't easy to kill, they can take just 1 man, but the tank has time to retreat. Their is nothing wrong with the tanks themselves, but the people that drive (most of them anyway) could do with an attitude change towards their fellow players.