Trolls of various stripes have been trying to stir trouble in the Democratic ranks for months now. For a long time, they got no traction. Now, unfortunately, they are succeeding all too well. This is my urgent plea to all Democrats to recognize this, and freeze out the trolls.
The Bernie-Hillary rivalry started very civil. Not surprising: they’re both decent people. I have been in the Hillary camp for a long time, but I never disliked Bernie, I just preferred Hillary.
Over the months, there was a steady increase in the level of rancor. From my perspective, this started with the Bernie camp: all that crap about shilling, corruption, speeches, email, etc. All innuendo and CT, since NOBODY has ever found any evidence, let alone proof, of any wrongdoing. But I recognize that many Bernie-supporting Democrats on DKos think that the vitriol started in the Hillary camp: he’s not a real Democrat, he never achieved anything, etc. Understandable, and doesn’t really matter to my point here.
My point is this: we have had documented instances of trolls deliberately stirring trouble. For every inept troll who gets caught, there have to be many others who sneak by long enough to sour the tone here a bit more! As with any terrorist attack, the point is not the immediate harm they cause, the bigger damage lies in ruining the ethos of the place they attack!
And those are the outright trolls. Harder is the case of the Greens. Some Greens are so committed that they were never with the Democratic Party in any meaningful sense. A loss to us, but those are their views, and you have to respect them for that. But there are also the lighter shade of Greens, who sympathize with the aims of the deep Greens, but believe that as a practical matter it is better to make common cause with the Democrats.
A subset of these “light” Greens have a known tendency to abandon the Democratic Party at crucial times. For instance, there are some DKos users who voted for Nader in 2000, and have acknowledged that that didn’t turn out so well in the end. I can understand their viewpoint: they are Democrats in that they’re not Republicans, and pragmatic enough to recognize that these are the only two choices on the menu. The more cynical of them would call us the lesser of two evils!
A smaller subset of these “light” Greens are what I call Naderites. Some of them are old enough to have voted for Nader in 2000, but it’s really the attitude that sets them apart. We’ve seen a few of them recently in various comment threads. If they actually voted for Nader in 2000, they deny that it had any effect on Gore’s loss (“it was the Supreme Court!”, “Gore was a lousy campaigner!”). And this time round, they are the ones who insist they’ll never vote for Hillary under any circumstances. This particular mix of antipathy to Democrats, and refusal to acknowledge the harm they do to their own cause, is what sets them apart in my mind.
Then there are the Libertarians. I don’t really understand them, but I’ve noticed that they come in two variations: they’re either conservatives who are smart enough to recognize that the Republican Party sounds insane, and hence they want a fig leaf to cover themselves in polite company. Or they’re that strange breed who don’t really support the conservatives’ social agenda (you know, anti-choice, “America is a Christian nation”, etc.), but aren’t really liberal, in the sense that they don’t want to pay the taxes necessary to support a social safety net, provide education subsidies, children’s welfare, etc. For some reason which I can’t understand, these non-conservative Libertarians like Bernie, despite his openly-declared socialism!
I believe the Naderites and the Republican trolls are the enemy. They are assholes, have no business being here, and will do all they can to fuck up the tone on this site and any Democratic institution they can infiltrate.
Worse yet, by being slightly subtle, they can sour the light Greens and the left-leaning Libertarians, and hence amplify the damage they do. The Republican trolls obviously want to just damage Democratic morale, fundraising, and peel away voters to help the Republicans win in November. The Naderites can’t acknowledge that’s what they are doing, since they can’t face the reality of what they did in 2000 (those that were old enough to vote for Nader then). The younger ones, I guess, have bought into the revisionist history of the older Naderites (“It wasn’t us, it was Gore!”).
WE HAVE TO STOP THESE BASTARDS!
Already we see the damage caused. Go into a Hillary/Bernie diary, and you see a single nasty comment derail the discussion thread. Even long-standing sane members of either faction have been known to react angrily to such provocation, and you can see the simmering resentment for days and weeks afterwards.
And yet, as a Hillary supporter, I’ve managed to state my position in many comments in many Bernie diaries without drawing any fire or raising animosity.
So here’s my first plea: DON’T FAN THE FLAMES! I sincerely believe that both Bernie and Hillary are great candidates, and I prefer Hillary. Maybe you prefer Bernie. Hell, maybe you even hate Hillary! But for all Democrats here, or those who make common cause with Democrats (e.g., Bernie!), there can be little doubt that either Hillary or Bernie are way the fuck better than any random rethug. I won’t list the issues: they are so many, someone could write a book!
My second plea: IGNORE the assholes! Just say “I’m ending this conversation”, and refuse to be drawn back in! The person may be a true troll, or may just be a Bernie/Hillary partisan who’s been poked too hard by a troll in the past. No matter, there’s just no upside to engaging them. I know it’s hard: when I see some of the nastier crap thrown at Hillary, it really gets me fired up. But over time, I’ve learned to just state my disagreement and walk away. I feel better for it afterwards, and hopefully you will, too!
I really prefer Hillary, and I’ll be disappointed if she loses the nomination. But it doesn’t come ANYWHERE CLOSE to the devastation I’ll feel if a rethug wins in November! Let’s stay focused, please. Vote your choice in the primaries, but please reserve your heavy ammunition for our November opponents, not each other.
Above all, don’t feed the rethug and Naderite trolls!