Tanks aren't irreplaceable

I was in a heroic the other day on my warlock. Things were going pretty predictably - the group was fairly well-geared, and we were just burning everything down in silence. Then, someone made a mistake we had too many mobs on us, the healer got distracted and the tank went down. The rest of the group mopped the mess up, and the tank started complaining, pretty rudely. "FFS what are you doing, you morons" etc... I tried to calm him down, saying it's no big deal and there's no need to be insulting. He reponded that he was the tank and he could be as insulting as he wanted.

Now that really, really, offends me. I hate the idea that we need to suck up to tanks, that we should be afraid of offending them. My main is a tank, and I've done hundreds of heroics without being so insulting, and I told this guy so. He tried to make out that he'd just been kidding (and maybe he was) but as I didn't understand (and kiss ass like I was supposed to) he left the group, saying "good luck finding another tank".

I then felt really guilty - the rest of the group were faced with a 15 minute wait, all because I couldn't keep my big mouth shut and take abuse from the tank like a good dps. But before I could say anything, a new tank arrived - we were waiting less than a minute. We finished the instance quickly with no fuss. And I imagine the tank that left us was still hanging around waiting for his desserter debuff to wear off. You may think this is rare to get a tank so fast, but I had another tank leave a heroic without saying anything on the same day, and he too was replaced within a minute. I guess groups in progress get priority for new tanks who sign up.

I love tanking. I like the responability and control that it brings. In heroics, tanks are usually looked upon to lead the group and a good tank can carry a group more so than a good dps or even healer can. I'm sure there are a lot of tanks out there who've had to put up with abuse - I know I have sometimes. It's sad though that the shortage of tanks has led to some of them turning into primadonnas, and making many people too afraid to say anything incase they offend. That's just so sad - but of course the solution is more and more people levelling tank alts, learning just how difficult (or easy) it is to tank themselves, and taking the tanks on when they think they're irreplaceable.