“It certainly harkens back to what we saw in 2016, and what we know happened in 2016, which is that there was a lot of fuckery going on. And there’s no reason for us to think that the same disinformation efforts that happened in 2016 aren’t happening right now,” said Syracuse University professor Whitney Phillips, who studies media literacy and online ethics. “And so it creates this low level of paranoia with what you’re even looking at.”
There is something fairly amusing reading an academic in a serious discussion referring to “fuckery,” but I agree that this controversy is being elevated by some dishonest players to damage both candidates and the Dems as a whole.
Fuck you CNN for gunning up this whole divide-the-left faux controversy.
It’s such tiny potatoes compared to the heinous outrages committed every damn day by Trump and other Republicans.
Following the debate, progressive activists worried that escalating tension between Warren and Sanders could divide liberals. One activist and writer used a Lord of the Rings analogy. “Frodo and Samwise are approaching Mt Doom, and instead of finishing the darn mission they’re fighting each other when at the end of the day we need to defeat Sauron,” said Julian Brave NoiseCat, a Guardian contributor and strategist for the thinktank Data for Progress, in an interview with Democracy Now.
This is exactly the right analogy. We need to get our shit together and not allow media shills and Russian bots to distract us from what is of truly monumental importance to our viability as a democracy and potentially as a species.
I’d add to that the Dem establishment, which would love to see the Warren and Sanders camps destroy one-another, leaving the nomination in the hands of their preferred Third Way nominee. I’ve already seen Biden and Buttigieg supporters concern-tr0lling about this spat showing that neither progressive candidate would be able to beat Il Douche in the general election.
We will take small victories, for the moment at least. They will not stop trying, but if we can hold them off until November, we may have at least a chance to save the country. Probably our last chance, though.
For progressives, the need for a Sanders-Warren united front is crucial. Yes, there are some significant differences between the two candidates, especially on foreign policy (which is one of the reasons that I actively support Sanders). Those differences should be aired in the open, while maintaining a tactical alliance.
Sustaining progressive momentum for both Sanders and Warren is essential for preventing the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination from going to the likes of Biden or Buttigieg — a grim outcome that would certainly gratify the 44 billionaires and their spouses who’ve donated to Biden, the 40 billionaires and their spouses who’ve donated to Buttigieg, and the oligarchic interests they represent.
“#NeverWarren” is so fucking stupid coming from Bernie supporters. If your candidate doesn’t get the nomination then your default position should be to support the remaining candidate who best matches your preferred candidate’s positions. Who would that be if not Warren?
No, they don’t need to be combative, they need to be able to let this picayune BS wash over them without effect. There’s much bigger BS on the horizon come November.
I’m pretty sure Sanders is up to it. I think Warren is as well. As to their followers, I’m not so sure.
BernieBros are part of the wider Brocialist problem. They will latch onto any left wing cause as long as they can warp it into being white cis-man focused. Women, POC, LGBTQ? They will all have to wait until after the Revolution when things will magically fix themselves.
On the other hand, there are false accusations of brocialism from the centre-right, which make it harder to deal with actual brocialists. But that is the point, get the left bogged down while the centrists get on with the hard job of making the world burn at a slightly slower rate than the right wing.
Yes. That was a speciality of Clinton’s more rabid supporters in 2016: any criticism of her neoliberal-lite policies from progressives was met with false accusations of “misogyny”.
Still, we need to call out the brocialists when we encounter them, which is an all too regular occurrence on this BBS.
