RE your comment “ And another Hillary troll is heard from. I have heard about these Bernie Bros for months but have yet to see any evidence. paid Hillary trolls all over the place that are manufacturing just these kinds of accusations.”
- Suggesting people who call out the very real “Bernie Bro” dynamic are “paid trolls” is a weak argument. I am a lawyer and business owner but that aside, do you think the national journalists who have talked about the bullying and misogyny are “paid” too?
- You said you haven’t seen evidence so the five links below will be informative:
____________________________________________________
A. Bernie Bros Made Me Finally Recognize Misogyny in America
I hated identity politics. I was like Bernie Sanders, fixated on economic disparities. Until now. I have the Bernie Bros to thank for this. Killary. Shrillary. She who yells too much. And a million other slurs that I see daily on Facebook but which are unprintable in this family publication. When the Republicans did it, it was easier to take. But these young, white men! They called themselves Progressives!
Just as Obama’s election ripped the mask off of the racism that had simmered below the surface, something very similar is happening with sexism during this primary season. And, it is radicalizing women. This past weekend I was at a birthday party where every woman — ranging in age from 20 to 70 — said that even though she agreed with much of Sanders’ platform, he had lost her in the last two months. I have yet to see the media cover this story.
I would never vote for a female candidate based solely on gender. But to vote for someone like Hillary because she’s eminently qualified and because she’s a woman? You betcha. I Am Woman. Watch Me Vote.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thrity-umrigar/bernie-bros-sexism_b_9847092.html
B. Sanders’ supporters are lashing out, but here’s how they might be hurting his campaign
There are the online trolls who have come to be known as “Bernie bros,” who attack journalists, politicians and fellow voters they perceive to be pro-Clinton with misogynistic, often vulgar attacks. There are the campaign surrogates — some of them high-profile — who use language the campaign finds itself having to walk back.
It comes as Sanders, the underdog candidate who trails in the delegate count despite a string of electoral wins in recent weeks, has stepped up his attacks. His increasingly hostile tone can be a combustible mix with a group of supporters who, in many cases, are new to the mechanics of party politics. As a campaign so heavily focused online, it is especially vulnerable to the Internet’s darker impulses.
But others complain the campaign too often looks the other way, particularly in the case of antagonism toward the superdelegates who have pledged to support Clinton at the convention in Philadelphia in July.
“These people are worried someone is going to come to their house,” said Bob Mulholland, a Democratic political operative in California who supports Clinton and recently wrote an open letter to the Sanders campaign accusing it of fanning the flames of harassment. “They have been put on a ‘hit list.’”
A frequent target is Joan Walsh, a national affairs correspondent for the Nation, who is supporting Clinton for president, though the magazine has endorsed Sanders. “They never stop”.
Jill Filipovic, a freelance journalist and attorney who often writes positively about Sanders, said that when she criticizes him, she is subjected to “sort of treating you like you’re a dumb girl.… The degree to which any criticism of this candidate is met with this complete brick wall of rage — it’s like criticizing Jesus,” she said. “It’s truly bizarre.”
http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/la-na-bernie-sanders-supporters-20160415-story.html
C. Bernie Sanders Has a #BernieBros Problem
A dark side of the Bernie Bro has emerged. Women began noticing that a subset of Sanders supporters on the Internet were hateful to those who are critical of their candidate in any way, or who support Hillary Clinton. Journalist Sarah Jeong, a contributing editor at Vice Motherboard and who has written a book about online harassment and free speech on the Internet, had to set her account to private to block all the vitriol coming from trolls who claimed to support Sanders. Ironically, Jeong herself is a Sanders fan. Mother Jones co-editor Clara Jeffery flagged the online harassment of Jeong and the Bernie Bro phenomenon:
The Bernie Bro is not just an Internet phenomenon either. In real life, the condescension and anger inherent in a bro perhaps takes the form of “mansplaining.” Olivia O’Hea, a senior at Iowa’s Drake University who first supported Sanders but switched to Clinton, spoke about her experiences with Bernie Bros in Time.
New York Magazine’s Rebecca Traister wrote of the Bernie Bro phenomenon: “they exist because they describe a dynamic — sexist condescension and dismissal of feminist argument — that is happening online.”
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/news/a52965/bernie-sanders-has-a-berniebros-problem/
D. Sanders Over the Edge
From the beginning, many and probably most liberal policy wonks were skeptical about Bernie Sanders. On many major issues he seemed to go for easy slogans over hard thinking.
Some Sanders supporters responded angrily when these concerns were raised, immediately accusing anyone expressing doubts about their hero of being corrupt if not actually criminal. But intolerance and cultishness from some of a candidate’s supporters are one thing; what about the candidate himself?
Unfortunately, in the past few days the answer has become all too clear: Mr. Sanders is starting to sound like his worst followers. Bernie is becoming a Bernie Bro.
The Sanders campaign has brought out a lot of idealism and energy that the progressive movement needs. It has also, however, brought out a streak of petulant self-righteousness among some supporters. Has it brought out that streak in the candidate, too?
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/08/opinion/sanders-over-the-edge.html
E. What We Talk About When We Talk About Bernie Bros
I’ve tried to avoid the term Bernie bro. I understand why the many women and people of color who are supporting Bernie Sanders for president feel erased by it.
Nevertheless, the term gets at a particular flavor of sneering condescension that some of his acolytes show toward many women — and, I have to assume, many people of color — who are skeptical about Sanders.
____________________________________________________
How revealing that you “assume” professional women are paid shills rather than genuinely recounting our experiences. But it’s not only women — Paul Krugman has also been a victim . Rather than challenging the Nobel Prize winning economist on the merits, he too has been attacked with a vengeance.
I did the work for you — headlines, links, quotes and highlighting key passages. But even without these articles in major publications, I would know it was true because I have experienced it myself for months. If you are honest, you can no longer claim there is no evidence.
