Fascinating that Sanders' supporters are a mere 8% here

[Decoy of Fenris]

41. Lots of folk, Clinton and Sanders alike, got blown up in the 2016 wars.

It got bad enough that during the worst part of the wars, the most vocal proponents of both sides were FFRed, leading to a relatively large void in new and recurring posts. This led, in part, to the mass unbanning amnesty of everyone who had been FFRed by the admins, admitting a flood of incredibly toxic posters all at once. The worst and most obvious were banned again within days of their amnesty, but not before the GD: P was ripped apart anew post-Convention by a large degree of mocking, scorn, derision, et cetera from the Clinton camp against the Sanders supporters. This continued for a substantial time and, although it was not one-sided by any means, the Sanders camp slowly migrated to other sites or were re-banned. Some to Kos, some to JPR, some to HuffPo, still others into the depths of Reddit itself. In their eyes, the mocking and scorn directed at them, deserving or not, on D.U. was representative of the "Democratic establishment" not wanting to integrate them into the party.

Likewise, some Sanders supporters came to the seemingly accurate conclusion that wearing Sanders tags on here as a preference makes one a target. While most of the most toxic elements of 2016 have been banned again, there are several trollish stragglers that are thoroughly entrenched and, to quote one of them directly, "have long memories." With continued covert overtures of harassment and the omnipresent threat of alerts sent on innocuous posts (and as an aside, this is -not- exclusively targeting Sanders supporters, I've seen as many alerts on other supporters as Sanders), many of the former Sanders fanbase on D.U. are currently rolling with either Undecided tags, or tags of another candidate. True, this is possibly because they are actually undecided or supporting another candidate, but it is also possibly to avoid becoming a target yet again until post-Convention this primary. I know of at least a few cases where the latter is indeed the motivation.


Also, in relation to feeling "Stifled", simple fact is that Sanders is getting the most media coverage ATM, outside of Biden's buildup to announcement. The candidate who has the most media coverage will naturally be one of the most posted-about here on D.U. I think it's leveled out nicely with Buttigieg, and hopefully Biden will also help level the media presence.