Bernie Has A Mean Followers Problem

[Cristiano]

The mean side of a political revolution

Some digital media experts say the level of hostility in pockets of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders' online following outweighs that within the social media circles of his Democratic rivals.

www.cnn.com

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

That's the kind of stuff I hinted at a little while ago. I voted for Sanders in the 2016 primary and I'll be more than happy to vote for him if he's the nom this time around; I mean, I like the guy. But let it slip on social media that I don't currently think he's my first choice for the primary this time around and holy frack.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

 

[Shiloh Lyric]

Yeah, God forbid, don't criticize Bernie.

 

[Casey Pelous]

Cheetolini has a mean follower problem, too. Doesn't seem to have slowed him down a bit. That'll tell you the value of decency in America.

 

[Kara Spengler]

Mean Bernie followers? More than the followers of any other candidate?

BTW, my niece is extremely pro-Bernie. She has pictures in both 2016 and this year of her and my sister in the area behind him at his stages. She will just miss being eligible for the 2020 elections but she is pretty politically active.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Cheetolini has a mean follower problem, too. Doesn't seem to have slowed him down a bit. That'll tell you the value of decency in America.

You should have seen the time I suggested on an internet forum that Mike Bloomberg and Donald Trump were engaged in what resembled a childish slapfight.

Oh yeah, that was this forum.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

Yeah, God forbid, don't criticize Bernie.

Even here on VVO, it can get ugly.

 

[Cristiano]

Even here on VVO, it can get ugly.

Yes, I can already predict what the responses are going to be from certain people. Everything even slightly critical of Bernie is a smear and a conspiracy, but criticism of other candidates is perfectly valid no matter what is said.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Cheetolini has a mean follower problem, too. Doesn't seem to have slowed him down a bit. That'll tell you the value of decency in America.

That's what concerns me the most. Half the problem with Trump is a slavish personality cult that insulates him from all criticism and consequence. I don't want that to be the new normal.

Right now one of the starkest differences between Dems and the GOP is that Dems will call out Dems for bad behavior rather than rally around them and deflect. If Sanders gets the White House I want to feel confident I can criticize him whenever he f's up, and certainly that congressional Dems can do so without it being some kind of dramatic Romneyan political honor-suicide moment.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Mean Bernie followers? More than the followers of any other candidate?

BTW, my niece is extremely pro-Bernie. She has pictures in both 2016 and this year of her and my sister in the area behind him at his stages. She will just miss being eligible for the 2020 elections but she is pretty politically active.

 

[Cristiano]

Mean Bernie followers? More than the followers of any other candidate?

BTW, my niece is extremely pro-Bernie. She has pictures in both 2016 and this year of her and my sister in the area behind him at his stages. She will just miss being eligible for the 2020 elections but she is pretty politically active.

I am glad your niece is pro-Bernie. There is nothing wrong with that. However, for some reason Bernie in particular has attracted a subset of supporters who go far beyond the virtiol levels you see from supporters of other candidates. There also seems to be some aspects of misogyny to it, as many of their attacks are particularly brutal against women. Bernie is not responsible for how his supporters act, clearly, however, it does affect the perception of him as well.

I freely admit Bernie is not my candidate of choice for a variety of reasons. However, I will vote for him if he does get the nomination, and I don't feel the need to demean others for their choice in candidate (except Trump supporters and people who support Tulsi Gabbard, they fully deserve scorn and mocking). The Bernie Bros thing was bad in 2016, but it seems to have gone next level this time around.

 

[Romana]

Mean Bernie followers? More than the followers of any other candidate?

BTW, my niece is extremely pro-Bernie. She has pictures in both 2016 and this year of her and my sister in the area behind him at his stages. She will just miss being eligible for the 2020 elections but she is pretty politically active.

Not meaner than Cult45, but meaner than almost any “Yang Gang”, Warren, or even Tulsi fan (worked up now as they are) that I’ve seen, anyway.
45 thrives on the hate. That’s what he appeals to.
But Bernie isn’t hateful but passionate. So it’s baffling and a bit disturbing that the mean segment of his fanbase are becoming the face of Bernie supporters.
He’s not responsible for their behavior; he doesn’t egg them on the way 45 does, and I’m not suggesting he should apologize for them or anything. But perhaps he could inspire them to be positive instead. Many Bernie supporters are, of course, but it’s the mean ones that are getting the attention.

 

[Ishina]

Wow, free bait!

 

[Veritable Quandry]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Could it not simply be that any online group that's devoted to supporting a person or a cause (not just political, but fans of bands or actors, or ethics in gaming journalism, of course) is going to have a certain subgroup who are particularly nasty and vindictive trolls?

Bernie Sanders has a considerably larger and more active online following, apparently, than do any of the other candidates, so the group of Bernie trolls and sealions is almost inevitably going to be larger than that of Biden or Warren trolls.

I suspect there may be other factors at work, too; it would surprise me if the flying monkeys from 8-chan didn't think it was a jolly jape to upset the normies and libs by acting like particularly obnoxious Bernie supporters.

I'm no particular fan of Bernie Sanders, from what I've read about him, though I may possibly be prejudiced by his apparent similarity, in many ways, to Jeremy Corbyn, but I do try to be fair.

Corbyn certainly had a large, and very active, body of supporters, some of whom could turn very nasty indeed online to anyone who was less than enthusiastic about him, but the nasty ones were only a very small minority of his supporters overall, and I suspect the same may be true of the Sanders campaign.

 

[Ishina]

He has 10 million followers on twitter. Statistically some of them are literally murdering people.

 

[Free]

Bernie's old.

/me runs!

 

[Kara Spengler]

Yes, I can already predict what the responses are going to be from certain people. Everything even slightly critical of Bernie is a smear and a conspiracy, but criticism of other candidates is perfectly valid no matter what is said.

That is not it at all, criticism should be fair. If people say Bernie has a "mean follower problem" is it just accepted then that nobody else has mean followers? Why should Bernie be singled out?

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Corbyn certainly had a large, and very active, body of supporters, some of whom could turn very nasty indeed online to anyone who was less than enthusiastic about him, but the nasty ones were only a very small minority of his supporters overall, and I suspect the same may be true of the Sanders campaign.

I think that's a pretty safe assumption.

It would be great if there were just certain places the particularly bad Sanders supporters set up shop and hung out at and for the most part you could avoid them by just not going to those places. I mean, the easiest way to not get attacked by wasps is to not walk up and shove your hand into a wasp nest, and all that.

But it's like the entire internet is the wasp nest when it comes to this. It's a very small minority of Sanders supporters, but damned if it's not their life's holy mission right now to comb every corner of the web for less-than-obsequious mentions of Bernie with firehoses in hand.