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Yeah, Russia was also pumping up the Bernie Bros and the Jill Stein campaign. Not that there weren't plenty of people who legitimately wanted to see Bernie win
by paulmd 8y ago
Yeah, Russia was also pumping up the Bernie Bros and the Jill Stein campaign.
Not that there weren't plenty of people who legitimately wanted to see Bernie win but the goal of the Russians was to do whatever made Hillary lose - hurting her campaign directly with hacking, as well as pumping up both her Republican and Democratic competitors. In the US system, spoiler candidates hurt their competitor more than their opponent, so pumping up Bernie is another way to hurt Clinton.
The whole "they just want to cause chaos" trope is true in a sense, but they were very obviously going about it by sandbagging Clinton and pumping up her competition wherever they could. Clinton was very obviously the major-party candidate that would have produced the strongest, most stable US out of that election, and that's really what Russia was trying to avoid, that's the whole "chaos" trope. It's not truly random in the sense of uncontrollable monkeys, it's whatever they think will cause the most damage, and keeping Clinton out of the White House was a specific and key objective. It was quite obvious that Trump was a moron (and very possibly in the early stages of Alzheimer's) and that he'd be the candidate that caused the most chaos.
(Sorry Bernie Bros, but if Bernie had won the primary, he would have been an easy target for Trump and the Russians as well, and even if he won the general the country would have been highly polarized, even if his actions would have been a lot better than Trump's. People in that timeline wouldn't have gotten to see the mess Trump caused in this one. His continued campaign sandbagged Clinton into the general and was a major contributor to Trump winning. The primary was obviously over and Bernie dragging it out was doing nothing but weakening Clinton. And I say this as someone whose personal politics most closely align with Bernie's, out of the three, and who voted for him in the primary.)
- ng12 8y ago> Bernie Bros I think this (blatantly sexist) term is just as divisive as anything the Russians did.
- nasredin 8y agoSMH. No. A girl can be a "bro" or a "dude" just as much as a guy. A group of girls can be "guys". English language is peculiar! I am just amazed nobody Godwin'd this thing so far.
- ng12 8y agoContext matters and in context the term is decidedly male. The article Wikipedia credits with coining the term has this to say: > The Berniebro is not every Bernie Sanders supporter. Sanders’s support skews young, but not particularly male. The Berniebro is male, though. Very male. > The Berniebro is someone you may only have encountered if you’re somewhat similar to him: white; well-educated; middle-class (or, delicately, “upper middle-class”); and aware of NPR podcasts and jangly bearded bands. Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/10/here-comes-the-berniebro-bernie-sanders/411070/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/10/here-co...
- nasredin 8y agoJust for perspective: When I hear "Berniebro".. . I think of gym bros, frat bros, New Jersey residents, surfer "brahs", and not sexism.
- ng12 8y agoDo you think of women when you think of those terms or only men? If those terms were used in a dismissive, derogatory way, would you not agree that the term is sexist?
- nasredin 8y agoI think of the "bro"/"brah" stereotype. Yes, almost all of the bros who fit the stereotype are male, but I've seen a few skateboard and surfer ladies who are just as "bro" as the men. If there was a term for girl Bernie supporters, would that make this better? Berniechick? One can't win this. Man is gonna be argue about genders until the Second Cumming.
- paulmd 8y agoI like how nobody replies to this thread with anything except "Bernie Bros is sexist! Just as bad as a foreign power throwing an election!". A+ discussion, guys. Say, isn't that a copy of Pravda over there? What, did you read a script?