Rolling Stone: Pro-Bernie Trolls on Why They Harassed Nevada's Democratic Chair
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/pro-bernie-trolls-on-why-they-harassed-nevadas-democratic-chair-20160518BY TESSA STUART May 18, 2016
Here's what several men had to say for themselves after threatening Roberta Lange and calling her a "b-tch"
Democrats have been in a froth this week in the aftermath of Saturday's contentious, and at times violent, Nevada state convention. As Rolling Stone reported Tuesday, Bernie Sanders supporters, incensed by the party's handling of the proceedings — and the fact that Sanders failed to hold on to two pledged delegates he unexpectedly gained at the Clark County convention — clashed with Clinton supporters, who in turn called for the Sanders supporters' arrest.
Pissed off Sanders supporters, watching the events unfold online from around the country, began circulating the personal contact information for state party chair Roberta Lange. As a result, Lange became the target of a barrage of harassment, including death threats and threats of violence sent via voicemail and text message. On Monday, the party shared many of those messages — notably, and perhaps regrettably, without redacting some of the senders' phone numbers.
Rolling Stone spoke to several of the men who sent Lange angry, menacing text messages to find out what was going through their heads as they pelted a stranger with epithets and threats, both veiled or explicit, to her and her family's safety, and to find out if — as some diehard Sanders supporters have suggested — they were actually Clinton campaign operatives out to smear Bernie.
They were not. All of the men we spoke to were genuine Sanders supporters, most with well-documented histories online of feeling the Bern. (Although only their first names are used below and their phone numbers have been redacted, we verified all of their identities.)
None of them were present at the convention; none of them even live in Nevada. They watched from their homes in Texas, Georgia and Utah, and felt the brazen theft they witnessed validated their actions. All of the men we spoke to reject the idea that their words could be interpreted as threats or harassment. And all of them were concerned about the media contorting their words. So, in their words — edited only for length and clarity — here is what they had to say for themselves.
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I needed that. I misplaced my sense of humor last night, and...sonofagun, here it is! Thank goodness.
I am going to get in so much trouble for answering this phone call, but since I guess we're bringing the topic up, personally, I don't work for any campaign. I don't know anybody who does. I was not talking to anybody on Saturday. I was watching it with myself and my boyfriend, and we were just watching it in our own home. So just to make it very clear, there's nobody else. When you call me, I'm the only person. Like, I haven't talked to anybody else [who] may have done anything like that. I just want to make sure [you know] that I'm not with any organization or anything like that.
Right, but your social media accounts show you have a long history of supporting Bernie. So are you worried about that?
You're right, stuff like that doesn't benefit the campaign, but it's not necessarily about his campaign, as [much as] it is [about] anger. And I'm not justifying any threats or anything like that, but I would justify people who were upset. Because there is clearly stuff that should not have happened that did happen on Saturday. I can speak for myself: that was very upsetting to me, and the person I was viewing it with, because it felt like democracy was stolen. Like, people weren't getting their voices heard. The DNC is a private organization — they can do whatever they want to do, but if you watch the video, and I'm sure you have (there are several videos and live-streams and news reports), you could understand there were a few different times when [Lange] didn't do the best job of making sure people's voices were heard fairly.
Yeah....
In addition, anyone who thinks online web activity can identify real Bernie Supporters hasn't spent much time
on political sites on the web. Why do people play the games they do? Besides the ones who do it for the pay, I have no idea.
From the article: All of the men we spoke to were genuine Sanders supporters, most with well-documented histories online of feeling the Bern.
So if they didn't have well-documented online histories how did they verify they were genuine Sanders supporters? And again, there are long time self identified Bernie supporters on the web who are NOT Bernie supporters.
Secondly, no discussion of what happened at the convention. To call someone a troll without discussing the events which led people to their actions seems rather unfair.
Did some Bernie supporters send messages? Probably. I think some paid political operatives get a perverse joy of manufacturing uproars in part because they can reel in and use unsuspecting people to push their narrative.
But where they all Bernie supporters who sent messages? Considering that it is the political world we are talking about and the conduct of the NV democratic party members who led the Convention and others, I would find that hard to believe. Also, hard to draw that conclusion from only a few of the texts or calls being looked at.
Interesting how the one person kept disavowing association with any group. And some of the questions..
From the article: I think people are curious about who sends these kinds of messages. There is a conspiracy that these weren't Bernie Sanders supporters at all, but operatives for Hillary Clinton.
Not a conspiracy. But considering the operative paid to work online and the manufactured nature of the uproar it seems like a reasonable suspicion - one this article did not disprove. People were wondering why the Democratic Establishment did this? In part, it seems that the events were intended to upset Bernie supporters, to spread the event so that they could get his supporters to react and then use those actions to feed their narratives about Bernie Supporters. What a wonderful business.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/pro-bernie-trolls-on-why-they-harassed-nevadas-democratic-chair-20160518#ixzz495C0qd5i
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He would have some choice words for a lot of people, I think. 
Good luck with that. 
threaten someone's family. These things happen.
start revolutions.
I believe that guy in the last interview when he said he was hooked by the bird. But what was it? Something akin to Snow White being one with nature? An emotional cue for shared comradery where the specific symbol has no special meaning. Was it being caught off guard at an emotionally vulnerable moment ("full double rainbow -- what does it mean?"
.
There's nothing wrong with critical introspection especially when that individual goes from feeling a shared connection via a finch to texting death threats or least some very negative words.
