With friends like these...

[Bernin4U]

"Bernie's not a real Democrat."
"Bernie's just an opportunist."
"Bernie has no chance."
"Bernie never accomplished anything in the senate."
"Bernie could never accomplish anything as president."
"Bernie supporters are know-nothings and bullies."
"You're with us, or you're with the enemy."

As if we needed further convincing.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. People like those just piss the hell out of me. How dare they?

[Bernin4U]

2. Otoh, I'm still not entirely sure why it surprises me / us.

I mean, I'm not going to stand here and say that all Bernie supporters are intensely politically savvy. Nor do we really need to be, just as it was a small child to point out the obvious fact that the emperor had no clothes.

But it is frustrating that those who've managed to convince themselves that the emperor is indeed fully clothed can say such dumb things and it can still feel so irksome. I guess it's because, like the title suggests, these are people who are supposed to be our friends. So it's not the same as how it felt arguing with, say, a Dubya supporter years ago.

[Duval]

3. It irritates the hell out of me.

Your "guess" is likely correct Re: some who are "supposed to be our friends".

[Baobab]

9. Just like some of the most "annoying Bernie supporters" are almost certainly fake

its also virtually guaranteed that some or even all of the most annoying Hillary supporters are fake too.


We can make some guesses here..

The thing I suspect they don't want the very most is any kind of intelligent, issue based DISCUSSION, especially discussion between the two groups.

[Bernin4U]

4. Taken a step further, can't we then conclude quite decisively that their argument of

..."in the end, we're all Democrats," is complete and utter %*#^* !?

Really, I don't think anyone here expects that every Democrat is going to be a Bernie fan. We know that realistically, each candidate will have their own group of followers.

The issue, to use a sports analogy, is that they seem to see themselves as fans of, say, the Broncos or Patriots or Seahawks. And for us that's no problem. We knew very well going into this that we were the underdogs.

But do they see us as an underdog NFL team, say, the 49ers? No. Based on such comments we've been forced to hear since a year ago, Bernie is not even playing in the same league! As far as they're concerned, our chances of going all the way to the Superbowl are about the same as the LA Lakers.

So if they're playing football, and we're playing basketball, why should we care about coming together now, to suddenly become football fans? Especially after a year of telling us we're playing the wrong sport!

[Baobab]

10. See what I just posted.. I bet a lot of the Hillary folk are fake!

The fake people are trying to divide us even more .

We have to make a distinction here between genuine people and fake people. Also, I think its afe to say that both Obama and Hillary have major issues that speak to their genuinity or lack of it. However that doesn't mean that they are bad people necessarily or even likely.


Being online and at a large site does increase the chances of bad faith blogging.

All in all, I think democracy is under attack by a well organized, well financed opponent who is willing to spend huge amounts of money on divide and conquer tactics.

This person likely wants Hillary to win but in the real world, the Hillary supporters I know dont act like this.

What I think is going on is the trade deals make this election basically an election to determine the future of the whole world, because of the corporate rights which last forever, literally. That sounds crazy and it is, and nobody knows it. some well funded group is trying to take over the world by stealth.

[Bernin4U]

12. Of course real people!

I've seen tons of this over the last year. And not just here, because I tend not to bother with GD-P, let alone other groups. I'm talking about sites like HuffPo, which have general discussions open to anyone.

The problem I see, is that they absolutely can't stand even the idea of having any real competition. To go back to sports, they thought they'd be looking at a light preseason, then going straight to the playoffs (in this case, the GE).

They have a huge contempt for Bernie and for us. They resent that despite her starting off with all name recognition, all the press, all of the party support, Bernie has been able to make a real run for it. They don't want competition. They don't want an exciting matchup. They just want the season to be over, with them on top.

What else can it be besides bad sportsmanship? A good fan goes to see their team play a great game. A bad fan goes to see their team win, no matter how ugly.

We talk about how questionable her record is. And her judgment, character, and relationships.

They can't honestly question Bernie for those things, so they talk about stupid stuff: how he never should have been allowed to run, how he isn't as well known, his unpolished appearance, his lack of entrenched support, his "overly" enthusiastic supporters.

Of course we know there's astroturfing out there. So funny that they'd even admit it. But that did not exist a year ago. She and her fans have a terrible sense of entitlement that has been going on for a long time. For them, it's never been about the better person winning. The idea of healthy competition completely escapes them.

[mooseprime]

5. for me the really scary part

is that none of the statements coming out of that machine pass the Turing test regardless of source

[Bernin4U]

6. At least machines use logic.

Why Bernie is running (Opportunism? Anything but!), why it's in their interest for Bernie to run as a Dem, why Bernie absolutely could win, what he's done and how he'll be able to do a lot more... all of these can logically be explained quite easily.

Of course it doesn't mean they have to be for him. They can dislike the color of his (many pairs of) underwear. Whatever. At least that would be honest. And it wouldn't be trying to frame it as if we're fans of a basketball team at a football game.

[Scootaloo]

7. They're lower than snake shit and twice as slimy n/t

[Joob]

8. "Defeat,Disqualify, Unite Later"

Never forget they said that, Bernie shut it down by calling Hillary "Unqualified" . Then they went all "Tone it down! Omg can't believe he said that" literally the next day. Not to mention the fact that prior to before all of this they always brought up how "inexperienced" he was or how "He never got anything done" throughout the whole campaign....

Never forget that even Bernie himself, very recently acknowledged the entire Democratic establishment was against him, senators, governors,mayors and members of Congress. They all opposed him, and they were Democrats.

...I won't be in this party if Bernie loses. I'd rather find a new one with my values.

[Baobab]

11. Who said that when? That sounds like BS.

hat sounds like the kind of thing its not worth repeating regardless of if its true or not (its likely impossible to know, unless its on tape)

I'm saying that the thing they likely would hate the most would be gentle calm assertiveness and especially, talking about issues. Dont waste time with the divisive - dont let them hijack threads with that stuff, that is what they do. Democratic republican and now hillary bernie. Time is a wasting and where Bernie shines is on the ISSUES.

They are desperate to hide that.

Read up a bit on Robert J. Lifton, cults and his "thought reform" book. You'll recognize that they are behaving like a cult!