So, OK.
So.
I understand it came out in that Senate Intelligence Committee hearing yesterday that the Russians employed thousands of bots to influence the 2016 American general election in favor of Voldemort. And that the “Bernie Bros” were used in this endeavor, in order to drive a wedge in the Democratic Party between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders supporters.
I don’t doubt that the information gathered from the Senate Intelligence Committee is real and accurate.
Nevertheless, I have a few problems with the findings because it makes some automatic assumptions that probably shouldn’t be there. (Or, at least, other people make the assumptions and then they go on TV to talk about them or write about them on the intertoobz.)
First of all, Bernie Sanders supporters were not generally that gullible. Most of us did our homework and were rather internet friendly. Every piece of Bernie literature I came across had his website address on it, and people were often encouraged to go to both berniesanders.com and feelthebern.org, to get a more in-depth look at his policy positions. Generally speaking, Bernie Sanders supporters were fairly educated, and had a pretty good grasp on the issues. We helped Bernie organize a YUGE! grassroots campaign online, and we could have not done with without passion and smarts.
I mean, I’m sorry that you think we’re stupid?
Second, the Russians didn’t need to drive a wedge in the Democratic Party: that wedge was already there and it was growing like a weed. It’s still there, plain as day. I see it all the fucking time on this website.
Come to think of it, the wedge has existed at least since I came to Daily Kos in 2008. I wasn’t very politically active in campaigns before then, so I can’t speak to that, but I can confirm (because I’ve lived it) that The Wedge has been there for at least 8 ½ years. It’s only gotten worse, too, never better.
That being said, was The Wedge exacerbated by Wikileaks airing the DNC’s dirty laundry? Yes, most definitely. Was The Wedge exacerbated by David Brock’s outfit, Correct the Record? Yes, most definitely.
The Wedge was exacerbated by a lot of things over the past year, but it was there long before the Russian bots even got here.
Third, the people who hated Hillary Clinton (for reasons both legitimate and total crap) were never going to vote for her, anyway. They didn’t need any bots or fake news to tell them how they already felt about Hillary; their minds had been poisoned by 30 years of FOX News bullshit and right-wing radio. These people were the same ones who believed that Secretary Clinton was a lesbian and she killed Vince Foster and was totally cool with Bill having sex slaves and shit.
I would venture to guess that there are zero Democrats who believe that kind of crap, but probably a fair number of independents who believe it. You cannot recruit someone to vote for Hillary Clinton if they are stupid enough to think she is running a child sex ring out of a goddamned pizza shop!
Lastly, I think I’ve seen a good portion of these Russian bots myself. I think most Bernie supporters have seen these bots, if they spend any kind of time online at all. Those bots were the ones who would post really awful stuff about Hillary in our WI4Bernie and GB4Bernie Facebook groups.
And then the admins would delete the really awful stuff and remind people they would be booted from the group for saying really awful stuff. If there was fake news, same thing.
I’m just not sure how convinced I am that the Russian bots made much of a difference, overall.
So, if you’re wondering why some Bernie supporters appear to blanche when you mention those Russian bots in the same sentence as “Bernie bros”, that’s why.