Flying Squirrel
Flying Squirrel's JournalBurying the Lie of the Alt-Left
BRANKO MARCETIC
It's time to stop pretending that the same people fighting white supremacists are somehow exactly like them.
(snip)
The term was always intellectually lazy and dishonest, but veracity was never its point. Rather, it was an evolution of the “Bernie Bro” slur, a way to dismiss left-wing critiques of centrist Democrats by claiming those espousing them were racist, misogynistic, white men, even when they were people of color, women, or both. The insertion of the “alt” label was key — without needing to say a thing, the term drew up an affinity and connection between modern, rebranded white supremacists and those campaigning for universal health care and a higher minimum wage.
(snip)
Well, the neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville took place, and the same people who some have spent months dismissing as closet racists were on the front line, risking bodily harm to stand up against white supremacy. The International Socialist Organization (ISO) and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) were part of the counter-protest, and their flags flew high after the alt-right marchers had gone. The DSA started a fundraiser to cover the injuries sustained by those attacked at the event, which has raised $138,000 as of the time of writing. Two of its members were injured in the attack on the protests. So were the family members of a staffer at Truthout, a publication that was critical of Clinton during the 2016 election, and one of whose journalists has featured on the “Trumpian Leftism” Tumblr as a “Bernie Bro” and alt-left member.
Or let’s look at Heather Heyer, the murdered young woman who is so far the only casualty of Saturday’s right-wing attack. Heyer was a committed civil rights activist, whose mother, Susan Bro, said “always had a very strong sense of right and wrong.” She was also a Bernie Sanders supporter.
(snip)
The Left are neither supporters of white supremacy, nor supporters of Trump, and they never have been. But if liberals join the Left, they can help take the fight to the far right and end the seemingly neverending string of political violence committed by white supremacists. Uniting around this issue is a moral imperative.
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Full article:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/08/charlottesville-alt-right-left-bernie-bros
I am not now, nor have I ever been a member of the Republican Party.
I have never voted for a Republican in my life, nor will I ever.
McCarthyism is running rampant against anyone who would dare support Bernie Sanders on Democratic Underground for the 2020 nomination -- particularly if they also post (and recommend posts) on jackpineradicals.com. Recommending a thread there is turned into the equivalent of a blood oath. It's absurd and extreme, but that's apparently where we are now.
So, in this bizarro environment, where the accusations of being a non-Democrat are flying left and right from people who were not even members of this website when I joined in 2007 (or even years later), I have to make a journal post in a safe haven group to point out the obvious: If I were a right-wing troll, I would not still be here.
Since I expect the attacks upon myself to continue, I'll just post this here and link to it from now on whenever anyone tries to smear me as a Trump supporter. If the post is hidden, which also would not surprise me (although on what grounds I can't imagine -- I am only defending my right to post in support of Sanders 2020 without being viciously attacked in violation of DU's TOS -- I'll just have to copy and paste.
Thanks.
I am a Democrat who supports Bernie Sanders.
I have voted Democratic my entire life (my first vote was for Dukakis in 1988). I am the democratic base, and so are other Bernie supporters.
To call me a misogynist because I support him is hurtful and divisive.
To say I am not part of the party's base because I support him is hurtful and divisive.
To imply I am racist because I do not support the Establishment's latest challenger to him is hurtful and divisive.
To say Bernie is "too old" is ageist and a violation of DU's Terms of Service.
To attack Bernie and his supporters within the Democratic Party is a violation of DU's Terms of Service. To continue to reference his supporters as "bros" is hurtful and divisive.
I am still a member of this website, until such time as the administration decides otherwise; and on behalf of all Bernie supporters on this site, I demand that the TOS be followed with regard to us.
As far as I can tell, there is only one side re-fighting the primaries on this website and trashing those they disagree with. It needs to stop.
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No divisive group attacks
Do not smear, insult, vilify, bait, maliciously caricature, or give disrespectful nicknames to any groups of people that are part of the Democratic coalition, or that hold viewpoints commonly held by Democrats, or that support particular Democratic public figures. Do not imply that they are fake Democrats, fake progressives, conservatives, right-wingers, Republicans, or the like.
Why we have this rule: Substantive disagreement on important issues is always welcome on this website, but our members should not be made to feel unwelcome simply because they hold a different point of view. Democratic Underground welcomes all people who are members of the Democratic coalition, including the full range of center-to-left viewpoints and supporters of all Democratic public figures.
No bigotry/insensitivity
Members are expected to respect diversity and demonstrate an appropriate level of sensitivity when discussing related topics. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or other forms of bigoted intolerance are not permitted.
Why we have this rule: Democratic Underground is a diverse community which includes people of every race, sex, religious belief (or lack thereof), sexual orientation, gender identity, body type, disability, age, etc. We want to promote a welcoming atmosphere for all of our members, and do not want to provide a platform for bigotry.
Don't bash Democratic public figures
Do not post disrespectful nicknames, insults, or highly inflammatory attacks against any Democratic public figures. Do not post anything that could be construed as bashing, trashing, undermining, or depressing turnout for any Democratic general election candidate, and do not compare any Democratic general election candidate unfavorably to their general election opponent(s).
Why we have this rule: Our forum members support and admire a wide variety of Democratic politicians and public figures. Constructive criticism is always welcome, but our members don't expect to see Democrats viciously denigrated on this website.
This rule also applies to Independents who align themselves with Democrats (eg: Bernie Sanders).
Don't keep fighting the last Democratic presidential primary
Regardless of whether you supported a winning candidate or a losing candidate, do not prolong the agony of the last Democratic presidential primary by continuing to pick fights, place blame, tear down former primary candidates, bait former supporters, or do anything else to pour salt on old wounds.
Why we have this rule: Most of our members want this to be forward-looking, friendly community that is focused on creating a better future for our country. Continuing to rehash old fights that have already been resolved is divisive and counter-productive.
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This post is a request for civility and the following of DU's TOS. It is not flamebait.
Thank you.
Official "Goodbye DU" post
I was going to wait till the 15th, but it is clear that the wolves are howling at the door and the DU I knew will be pretty much toast after tomorrow, regardless of the results in CA. Better to just start settling into a new home now (that would be JPR of course).
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Edit: JPR = Jackpine Radicals:
https://jackpineradicals.com
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Official "Goodbye DU" Post
1. We won't let the door hit us on the way out -- thanks for your concern.
2. We won't be returning while Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the presumptive or actual Democratic nominee -- and perhaps not even after her inevitable fall. That should comfort many of you, which I guess just goes to show you were never really our friends.
3. We won't be voting for Trump, but have fun with that talking point.
4(a). We may not be voting for Hillary -- deal with it. If that means we were "never Democrats anyway", so be it (just ignore all our previous votes for Obama, Kerry, Gore, Clinton, et al.)
4(b). Oh, and Bernie Sanders and Ralph Nader are in fact two completely different people.
5. We're not magically going to disappear, nor are the many others who showed up to Sanders' rallies, phone banked for him, put up bumper stickers and/or lawn signs, or just honked at people standing on the corner with a Bernie sign. We will grow more numerous and more powerful, and we will eventually win. (And we will do so without throwing chairs.) You are on the wrong side of history.
6. Many, many of us are African American, women, Latino, elderly, LGBT, you name it. And some of us are young white males, not that there's anything wrong with it. Oh, and some of us are young independent millennial women with our own minds who don't choose a candidate based on who young men our age are supporting. Lol.
7. We leave sadly, not gleefully or spitefully. We sincerely wish more of you had not become so blind, deluded, jaded, fearful, peer-pressured, militant, or whatever it was that could cause you to support such a flawed individual or candidate for the Democratic Party nominee for President. For you, not for us.
8. Mostly, we leave because there's no use even talking to you anymore. We know you feel the same way about us. Call it irreconcilable differences.
(If I missed anything, please add it below.)
Well...
Bye!
Q: What do the following 46 DU'ers have in common?
2naSalit, alp227, annabanana, appal_jack, Arger68, Bibliovore, BlancheSplanchnik, bullwinkle428, calimary, Canuckistanian, Catherina, Cooley Hurd, Demo_Chris, Dragonfli, Fire Walk With Me, flamingdem, Flashmann, freshwest, fromVT, Hissyspit, hwmnbn, jeff47, Lugnut, me b zola, MH1, Mnemosyne, monmouth3, pacalo, PADemD, phantom power, pinboy3niner, ProfessionalLeftist, progressoid, raouldukelives, rbilick, ReRe, Rhiannon12866, riverbendviewgal, silverweb, StrictlyRockers, summerschild, tk2kewl, valerief, WillyT, Wilms, ybborA: During a 48-hour period preceding this post, they all recommended at least 7 of the same posts that I did (20% of the 35 total threads that I recommended over this two-day period.)
Now if there were only a DU function which could quickly and easily compile that stat for me (without identifying the actual DU'ers as I've done above) then recommend other threads for me to read based on other threads recommended by a majority (or some other percentage) of those same posters! That would be heaven.
If I was in a hurry and the list of posts generated was too long, maybe in the Options I could increase that to 30% of the same threads I had recommended. Or if I was planning on spending a few hours, drop it to 10%.
If I didn't visit DU that regularly, I could increase the search option to include recommendations for up to the past 7 days.
Whatcha think?
(Please Recommend if you think the idea warrants serious consideration... Thank you!)
Sorry for the multiple threads.. Skinner says they may be able to tweak the jury selection process
So that those of us who have stopped being selected have more opportunities to serve.
I have less confidence in the jury system now that I'm no longer part of it.
Anyone else having a similar experience? Before the change, I was serving on a jury every 2-7 days. My last jury service was December 24th. I have not been selected for a jury since then. I had a post hidden on January 13, well after the selection process changed; and my supposed 80 percent chance of serving on a jury is still double what it was before I bought a star, at which time I was serving on a jury at least once a week.
The jury process has changed. Who is now serving on them? I don't know anymore and it gives me less confidence in the system.
The Jury system needs serious overhaul.
It's the only reasonable conclusion I can possibly reach at this point. MIRT doesn't get the trolls fast enough, and many people are now purposely hiding under the radar so they can be allowed to vote on a jury. It's unconscionable and it's getting worse by the day, you can see it in the jury results more and more. The site cannot be self-policing, at least not the way things are going. Also - despite being on this site for hours a day (usually reading, not posting) I have not been on a jury ONCE since they changed the jury selection rules. It makes me wonder who IS being chosen to serve. Something needs to change soon or I will be outta here like last time I left over the Unrec function. (Not that my leaving will make the slightest impact on DU, of course, but there were many who left over that same disagreement and in total that DID affect DU.)
Edit: I was chosen to serve pretty often before I bought my star. Now? Not so much. Something weird is going on, maybe I'm paranoid but it almost seems like a hack of some sort.
Edit 2: Ok, maybe it doesn't need to go, but it does need to be overhauled.
Is there a Satire forum? (If not, how about making one?)
Perhaps in the "Offbeat" Topic forum. And we could start strongly suggesting to people who post Onion, Daily Currant etc. stuff as being real, to post them in that forum instead of GD.
It has been a source of personal pride for me that I put nobody on "Ignore"
But after seeing the PPR's lately, it seems apparent that Skinner has been taking into account the number of "star members ignoring" a DU'er when deciding to PPR them. If that's what it takes to get some of these long-time disruptors (or people who otherwise just seem to be on the wrong website) out of here, then that's what I'm gonna start doing.
There will always be a few left who can (and will) leave them off ignore and alert on their posts - and I thank those people for their service to DU. For my part, I'm going to start ignoring them.
Profile Information
Name: Skinner Sucks ShitGender: Do not display
Member since: Fri Aug 20, 2010, 05:40 PM
Number of posts: 3,041