Sanders Has a Big Problem: His Supporters

[Content Note: Misogyny; racism; harassment.]

The Sanders Stans are awful, and the media is starting to take notice.

Last night, I read this at the BBC: "Bernie Sanders supporters get a bad reputation online."

And this morning, I read this at Mashable: "The bros who love Bernie Sanders have become a sexist mob."

Sexist, and racist, and ageist. And I've seen plenty of LGB and/or trans people who criticize Sanders being 'splained at that they're ignorant or stupid or in some other way wrongity-wrong for their insufficient support of Sanders, too.

Naturally, people will say this isn't Bernie Sanders' fault!

And, sure, he's absolutely not explicitly directing his supporters to harass people who criticize him and/or support Hillary Clinton.

But when the central premise of his campaign is an aversion to "identity politics," and his primary line of attack on his female opponent is inherently misogynist, and his response to criticisms of playing into misogynist narratives is to accuse Clinton of looking for things to get mad about, and he reacts to criticism of his careless comments about major women's health and queer rights organizations by gaslighting critics and putting targets on their backs, and all he can muster in response to his campaign manager's gross misogyny is that the comments were "inappropriate," and when he's asked to center Black Lives Matter activism and deflects by talking about "all groups," and and and...

Well, maybe Sanders has earned some of the responsibility for how many of his fervent supporters are behaving. This shit isn't happening in a vacuum.

[NOTE: If you're fixing to respond by going in on Clinton supporters, save it. I have been doing this a long time, and I'm well aware every candidate has some supporters who behave in terrible ways. And because I criticize Clinton, too, I get my share of shit from Clinton diehards. But nothing, nothing, in all the years I have covered presidential politics has even come close to the garbage I get and have seen directed at others by Sanders Stans.]