Really nasty stuff on twitter right now...

[Drunken Irishman]

I'm very disappointed in how some Bernie supporters are acting and the trash they're getting to trend over there. These people are so toxic. I hope the more level-headed Sanders supporters stand up but holy shit it feels like we're seeing a repeat of 2016.

[mucifer]

1. Could be russian bots

[Scotch-Irish]

3. Very likely.

There's been a lot of that.

[stopdiggin]

4. possibly to seed the situation

but don't forget that it is (and was) 98% American users and accounts who re-tweeted and re-posted all the crap.

[mucifer]

20. As in this very thread

[StrictlyRockers]

57. My first thought was Russian trolls/bots. They want us to fight.

I try to be nice on Twitter, I try to unify. I shill for Bernie. But I don't tear down other Dems. I will campaign hard for whoever wins. Biden is fine! Warren is a bit better.

[Kentonio]

2. If you don't want a divisive primary

Maybe don’t start threads talking about how toxic one candidates supporters are. Unless of course you actually do want a repeat of 2016.

[Drunken Irishman]

6. So just ignore the fact these supporters are calling one of our candidates a cheat?

Interesting perspective. So, just let the toxicity and divisiveness go unchecked. Cool. It's sad that we'll ignore that toxicity out of fear of offending those who are pushing the toxicity.

I am not a supporter of Mayor Pete but the stuff being said about him by a wide range of Bernie supporters is offensive and disgusting and should be called out because of what it is doing to the party.

[Kentonio]

7. If you want to find toxicity on Twitter you can find it from all candidates supporters

I’m happy to stand right alongside you and say it’s all bad, no matter who does it. But when you post threads here about how terrible Bernie supporters specifically are, all it does it feed into a cycle of negativity here, make perfectly innocent people feel attacked, and result in a divisive toxic forum. If the bad behavior is on Twitter, why not call it out there?

[musicblind]

9. Their anti-Buttigieg toxicity was in the top three trends

Plus, two additional Pete bashing hashtags were trending top 20. It's hard NOT to see it when it's that prominent.

I personally don't believe they are real Sanders supporters. I think they are plants.

[Kentonio]

13. Me too.

The internet is full of trolling repukes at the moment, all so ‘concerned’ about Bernie supposedly getting screwed by the DNC. And then these same people go off and talk elsewhere about how how he’s a commie.

We’re letting ourselves get divided by Trump supporters.

[musicblind]

28. Exactly!

The portray caricatures. If that caricature makes someone hate Buttigieg, they got what they wanted. If that caricature makes someone hate Sanders, they got what they wanted.

I do wish there were more vocal supporters like you willing to call them out, but even I'm afraid to call them out. They attack and stalk anyone who does.

[Drunken Irishman]

66. And it's currently the #1 trending topic on twitter.

These supporters are vile.

[Eko]

10. Pointing out toxic behavior

does not feed into a cycle of negativity, it educates us.

[Kentonio]

12. No it doesn't. It's calling out bad behavior on a different medium

Bad behavior that could easily be GOP trolls or just abusive 4chan teens trolling. By bringing it here and assigning it to ‘Sander’s supporters’ it smears a lot of perfectly good people, denigrates one of our parties frontrunners, and creates a toxic environment.

[Eko]

16. No, it was to

"some sander supporters" full quote. There is butt hurt and then there is this butt hurt, geeze.

[Kentonio]

17. Ah come on now.

You think talking about 'some Sander's supporters' doesn't create an atmosphere? This isn't a one off, its done multiple times a day, and it just makes Sander's supporters feel ostracized and unwelcome here. You really think its a coincidence that a forum that four years ago used to be full of Bernie supporters now has very few of them?

[Eko]

19. Nobody called you out at all.

If a Biden supporter acts like an asshole I will call them out, why do you feel that this includes you?

[Kentonio]

25. Do you read 20 threads a day talking about how Biden supporters are assholes?

Or how Biden is dividing the party? Or how every thing Biden does is somehow terrible and immoral, no matter what it actually is? Or how Biden's supporters are definitely going to vote for Trump when he inevitably loses?

It gets really, really old to be honest. This isn't a supportive place to be as a Sanders supporter, and it hasn't been for a very long time. The only reason I still come here is because during the election season its still a great source of information, but already the alert stalking and abuse is in full flow.

[betsuni]

36. Because Biden supporters aren't assholes and Biden isn't dividing the party

and Biden isn't calling anyone corrupt and immoral no matter what it actually is.

[emmaverybo]

38. Hit the nail on the head.

[Eko]

67. Yes I do.

There are posts out there on Biden from the seventies for crying out loud! As if anyone has the same beliefs that they did from over 40 years ago. It is what it is. Its not a supportive place for anyone's pick during the primaries and I tend to stay out of it for the most part. Its toxic as well and if it is getting hard for you just don't look at those posts.

[Cha]

14. It most certainly does.

[hlthe2b]

44. Yes. It does. If you see supporters (or those proclaiming support) of your candidate behaving thus..

the campaign and its surrogates needs to call it out--whether on twitter or elsewhere.

[gab13by13]

52. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones,

the Biden campaign is complaining about the process also.

[Act_of_Reparation]

64. So just ignore your anecdotal experience?

Yes. Absolutely.

[Faux pas]

54. +100000000000000000

It's BS on a stick in our faces.

[lapfog_1]

5. not surprised.

they are not going to unite the party should Bernie get the nomination...

At the end of the day, there may well be Never Trumpers uniting with "No Way Bernie" burners.

[musicblind]

8. The stuff they are making up about Buttigieg is disturbing.

Somehow, as soon as he did well in Iowa, he transformed into a supervillain!

They're claiming insane crap. They're saying he used CIA connections to secretly fund a company named "Shadow" to create the caucus app so he could force it to crash on caucus night and use the crash as an opportunity to steal the thunder from Sander's victory.

These people are as brain-damaged as the MAGA crowd.

To be clear, I do not mean the vast majority of Sanders supporters... I don't even think these people on Twitter are Sanders supporters. I think they're plants, trolls, or Russian bots. The reason I think this is I have never met a Sanders supporter in real life who thinks at all like these Twitter trolls. I've not seen a single Sanders supporter on DU spread anything like this because they are real people.

They've even come up with disgusting nicknames like "Mayor Cheat" ... It's so similar to something Trump would say it makes you wonder if it didn't come out of the same Russian troll farm.

These people have to be Russian trolls. No human being with a functioning brain would believe anything as crazy as the lies they spin.

[tishaLA]

11. Your post made me check twitter and I'm gobsmacked

So, the DNC, Sec Clinton, and the Des Moines Register are all involved in a massive plot, abetted by an app designed by Robby Mook, to undermine the junior senator from VT because of a $21,000 bribe given to the app company by the mayor of a town of 100,000 in IN, who also happens to be a CIA agent.

And this is where we are.

[musicblind]

18. Yes. And they came up with all of that within 30 minutes of his speech last night.

Oh, and they claim the Buttigieg campaign tweeted out the login codes to the app so that anyone can log in and vote.

Again, these are not real people. As a Sanders supporter in this very thread pointed out, these "supporters" are hated by real Sanders supporters.

I do think it's important we call this kind of toxicity out on places like DU because it helps inform and helps us prepare defenses.

[tishaLA]

27. Some are real people though

and some of them even have blue checks next to their names. I saw one of the people pushing it was a reporter from the Intercept; another was Nomiki Konst. David Klion from The Nation added tinder to the conspiracy fire, etc etc etc

Granted, the vast majority is a collection of nobodies like me, but some are also Very Serious People pushing this BS

[Cha]

29. Of course they are.

[musicblind]

31. Wait, blue checks are spreading this stuff?

That's even more disturbing.

[Kentonio]

15. Exactly, Russian trolls and repukes pretending to be Bernie supporters

Actual Bernie supporters loathe these people more than anyone.

[musicblind]

22. I agree with you.

I voted for Sanders in the primary last time. I liked HRC, so it was a hard choice, but I decided Sanders was the best option that go 'round. I was deeply disturbed and perplexed by the things I saw some "supporters" claim. I did not recognize these people. None of the Bernie supporters I knew were like that.

It's almost like their twitter posts are meant to serve two purposes: Make Buttigieg look bad AND make Sanders supporters look bad. What these people really want is infighting.

And sure, there may be a few that are real, but most aren't. One way you can tell is many of the posts were completely ignorant of how the Iowa caucuses even worked. If they were real supporters and not plants, they would at least know about the process they were complaining about.

Knowing that doesn't make reading the posts any less disturbing, though. It's frightening to see a disinformation campaign of that magnitude, regardless of where it comes from. It makes you feel small and defenseless.

But Bernie Sanders and his real supporters are not to blame. They are also victims of these trolls.

[democrattotheend]

70. I think a lot of them are not real Sanders supporters

I've seen more "complaints" about things being rigged against Bernie from Republicans on Twitter than real Bernie supporters.

[Quixote1818]

21. This is counterproductive.

Not helpful at all as we can all see by the upset Sanders voters who are probably really kind, regular everyday folks. Every candidate has a few of these folks. If we are going to clump them together let's give them their own identity and not attach them to a certain candidate.

[musicblind]

24. I know you're referring to the original post.

But, personally, I've tried to be clear that I think these people are plants, bots, or trolls who want to make Sanders supporters look bad just as much as they want to make Buttigieg look bad.

It's still disturbing to see a conspiracy theory spread that quickly. The magnitude of their disinformation campaigns are daunting. It makes me feel helpless and sometimes hopeless. They managed to get this trending number three worldwide and then they got two more hashtags, including a derogatory nickname for Mayor Pete, to trend worldwide. It all happened so fast.

[NCProgressive]

23. We have seen "human" Bernie supporters in action

They are the ones that start the vile messaging - Russian bots only retweet the same messages over and over.

Many Bernie supporters on twitter are unhinged, vile, foul-mouthed and blinders-wearing, koolaid-drinking entitled brats. They have no respect for any alternate point of view.

The Bernie campaign leadership likes it and encourages such behavior.

[musicblind]

26. I have a hard time believing those Twitter "supporters" are real.

They may be humans who are pretending to be supporters, but they can't be real Sanders supporters. NOBODY is stupid enough to believe the stuff they spew. There are flat earthers who would read their stuff and be like, "Dude, get it together!"

[Hortensis]

30. Yes. Some of them are real, like the ones Sanders selected to

chant "lock her up" at our convention last time, and let's not forget happy events like the delegates who rioted in Nevada. They were amateurs, some weren't from Nevada or registered to vote and thus angry at not being seated, and the Sanders campaign gave those who were disinformation and told them the state party was "rigging" the event, and they took it from there. Why didn't the Sanders campaign send the kind of people who on this thread can't believe real people would behave like that? There were a lot more of them...

Of course, most Sanders supporters would not behave this way -- the sorts who are drawn by his high-sounding rhetoric. The Sanders campaign needs those to vote, but to disrupt enough to create a revolution rage and riots are needed.

It does seem very likely Russia (and/or perhaps China, North Korea, Iran) is involved, working to help Sanders get enough of his "revolution" to disrupt the Democratic elections by populist rabblerousing, stirring up the antagonisms rampant among a significant faction of his supporters. Russia was proven involved last time, and Sanders never warned anyone that they were being targeted by Russian intelligence operations.

Those who want to believe this has nothing to do with Sanders supporters, some very real people they're joining with, are fooling themselves. Dirty tactics and vicious behaviors are always important parts of populist campaigns, intrinsic to satisfying and making the strategic most of those drawn to destructive populism itself.

[True Blue American]

34. Please,Fellow Democrats

Quit reading the clap trap you are getting on Twitter. Settle down, concentrate on getting out the votes, work together in the states we know will get us the electoral votes to get rid of Trump and vote for those who will give us a Democratic Senate.

Iowa just buried themselves. 90% white, we do not need them. But get off the toxic twitter and Facebook.

[Hortensis]

37. Behaviorally, Sanders has two general sorts of followers.

The kind his idealistic speeches draw who would never behave this way.

The kind Populist Leader Sanders draws who flock to him TO act out their antagonisms and resentments, including those Sanders has managed to draw away from the other populist leader, Trump. Those who come to riot are encouraged and energized by the kind of fuel discussed here; they want to "win" and whoever and whatever will help them are welcome.

And I don't do Twitter claptrap. Our intelligence agencies warn this is happening. Good people should believe and be very concerned about what they're inadvertently part of. Our intelligence agencies say Putin's trying to join LW and RW populists to defeat his big enemy, the U.S.A., most immediately Democrats.

[True Blue American]

39. And I do appreciate you!

I just woke up to all the posts, oh, my God, Trump is loving this.

McAullife just said it best, pull the curtain, vote and leave, the American way. Having a bunch of excitable people sitting around arguing is not the way.

[Hortensis]

40. I'm with McAullife too. It just feels good to know I'm not

among those frantic on the hot plate tonight. Life is good in my comfy little sitting room. Except for by them, Iowa's mishap will be soon forgotten.

[True Blue American]

42. I agree!

Am looking ahead to what needs to be done, just as we did in 2018!

[NCProgressive]

50. He appeals to their anger and resentment

instead of their optimism and enlightenment.

There is a difference between Sanders' "Look those rich people, they got rich illegally and we'll sock it to them and give you their money" versus Obama's "Look at those rich people and I'll give you the tools to be rich like them. All you have to do is want it badly enough and work hard "

[DanieRains]

32. Putin Having Fun

At Pete and Bernie's expense.

[DanieRains]

33. I Saw The Bots In 2016

Now they are more sophisticated.

Trump isn't doing anything.

Neither is Twitter. Doing much.

[True Blue American]

35. And posters

Are spreading it here.

I may get in trouble for this post but am tired of reading toxic retweet’s here!

[DeeDeeNY]

47. Absolutely true

[Mr. Sparkle]

41. These people are making Bernie too toxic to support.

[Aussie105]

46. Which is the whole point, surely?

Look, anyone who expects the sort of mud slinging, unsubstantiated rumours and 'facts' that flew around in vast quantities before the last election to just stop, is deluding themselves.

Nothing has been done to stop the trolls, outside interests from spreading FUD - fear, uncertainty and doubt.
Twitter won't fact check, Facebook is worse. Media like TV and radio are either propaganda channels, or lost any objectivity that had in the past.

So it will continue. And escalate. And be more sophisticated.

Best thing to do - if it gets to you (which is the aim), get off Twitter, Facebook, and even DU.
Give yourself 2 weeks of no twitter, no Facebook, and no media to work out for yourself what your values are and where you stand.

Works for me, anyway.

Wife's sister said before the 2016 election that she couldn't possibly vote for Hillary. But she couldn't quite vocalize why not. But she now regrets having that opinion at the time.
The anti-Hillary FUD got to her. She won't admit it, but she got her brain well and truly laundered. But she gets angry any time I try to delve past the 'couldn't possibly vote for Hillary' thinking.

[Sienna86]

43. Bots. Like I've said, we please Putin when we're attacking other candidates

Please assume this first before blaming a candidate.

[whistler162]

45. Isn't that normal?

nasty stuff on Twitter sounds normal to me.

[Gore1FL]

48. I feel the same way about what i see on DU daily; It's not limited to Sanders supporters.

In fact, based on that population, I don't see them as the main driver of divisiveness.

[dsc]

49. These people showed themselves as what they are

over and over again. They hate women, they hate gays, they hate blacks. It is who they are.

[dsc]

51. Sanders has shown himself OK with this over and over and over again

One candidate, and only one candidate, has supporters who consistently behave in this way. They are still misnaming the first viable LGBT candidate who ever ran for President. That is OK with Sanders. They are posting outright lies about Pete, OK with Sanders. It is all OK with Sanders. All of it.

[Mike Nelson]

53. When this trash crowd strikes...

... remember the answer is NOT to delete your Twitter (or Facebook) account. You have to stay and keep a sane, positive, and supportive social media voice for your candidate.

[Codeine]

56. It was ever going to be so. nt

[KPN]

58. If we lose in 2020, it will be because of

Sanders supporters!


Nothing to do with Russian trolls/bots, doing our job as a party.

Let’s keep a level head folks! We all want to win. We all need to rise above this noise and commit to being unified in accepting and supporting whoever the eventual nominee is regardless of circumstances and “controversy” along the way. If we do that, we will win so long as the vote isn’t hacked or suppressed significantly further than what we already know it is.

[handmade34]

59. just have to look at Nina Turner

to know what we are looking at

[highplainsdem]

60. RWers are pushing the conspiracy theory that Iowa was rigged against Bernie.

One of the first tweets I saw searching Twitter for

iowa

was from the co-founder of the Federalist pushing this nonsense: "We all knew Democrat leaders were going to cook the books to roast Bernie Sanders in Iowa."

[rockfordfile]

61. a lot of un-American right-wing and Russian propaganda

[samnsara]

63. lets hope they are bots.. i really hoped the sanders people were not going to disrupt..

..most dont even know what they are voting for and just want to join some kind of 'movement'

[grossproffit]

65. They did the same to Warren less than a few weeks ago. It's 2016 all over again but meaner.

[Cha]

68. +1

[unitedwethrive]

69. While I give a pass to most things I read on social media (given the Russian influence), real life

experience with Sanders supporters has always left me angry. I don't know why they have to be so aggressive. Our local Democratic Party holds debate viewing parties, and I have stopped going because of the vitriol from them.

In 2016 I thought it was just circumstantial, but now it seems that this is who they are. I don't mind most of what Sanders has to say, but have never seriously considered him because the mean-spiritedness of his supporters is just so distasteful. I wonder if they realize how many people they are influencing away from their candidate?