Bernie Sanders supporters becoming online grifters

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I mean, what evidence, whatsoever, is there for your “grifters” accusation? Many of these people are, to one degree or another, repulsed by what they see as the Democratic Party’s embrace of a neoconservative-type foreign policy and insufficient regard for civil liberties and free speech. Are some of them contrarians? Maybe, who knows. So what?

Cannot speak for every example here but as soon as a “left wing” or “civil libertarian” online personality gets Thiel-backed funding, you know that their ideology is the green, and I don’t mean the Green Party.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, what evidence, whatsoever, is there for your “grifters” accusation? Many of these people are, to one degree or another, repulsed by what they see as the Democratic Party’s embrace of a neoconservative-type foreign policy and insufficient regard for civil liberties and free speech. Are some of them contrarians? Maybe, who knows. So what?

Cannot speak for every example here but as soon as a “left wing” or “civil libertarian” online personality gets Thiel-backed funding, you know that their ideology is the green, and I don’t mean the Green Party.

Who is getting such funding on the left? If you are going to look at it that way, one would also need to examine the funding of never Trumper groups, etc., etc., no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, what evidence, whatsoever, is there for your “grifters” accusation? Many of these people are, to one degree or another, repulsed by what they see as the Democratic Party’s embrace of a neoconservative-type foreign policy and insufficient regard for civil liberties and free speech. Are some of them contrarians? Maybe, who knows. So what?

Cannot speak for every example here but as soon as a “left wing” or “civil libertarian” online personality gets Thiel-backed funding, you know that their ideology is the green, and I don’t mean the Green Party.

Who is getting such funding on the left? If you are going to look at it that way, one would also need to examine the funding of never Trumper groups, etc., etc., no?

PP here. This is why is asked for a principled way of distinguishing these so-called grifters from genuine interlocutors.

Should these leftists condemn themselves to a life of penury for their viewpoints?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, what evidence, whatsoever, is there for your “grifters” accusation? Many of these people are, to one degree or another, repulsed by what they see as the Democratic Party’s embrace of a neoconservative-type foreign policy and insufficient regard for civil liberties and free speech. Are some of them contrarians? Maybe, who knows. So what?

Cannot speak for every example here but as soon as a “left wing” or “civil libertarian” online personality gets Thiel-backed funding, you know that their ideology is the green, and I don’t mean the Green Party.

Who is getting such funding on the left? If you are going to look at it that way, one would also need to examine the funding of never Trumper groups, etc., etc., no?

PP here. This is why is asked for a principled way of distinguishing these so-called grifters from genuine interlocutors.

Should these leftists condemn themselves to a life of penury for their viewpoints?

Probably not wise to start assessing people’s motives. Better to assume good faith.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry this is so funny.

Do you not understand how much grifting the republican party has done which has increased taxes, defunding the police and firefighters?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry this is so funny.

Do you not understand how much grifting the republican party has done which has increased taxes, defunding the police and firefighters?

Ouch, probably not the best choice of examples given all of the leftist grifters associated with defund the police lol.

Funny is right.

[Anonymous]

Why do you say 'supporters'. Bernie was the original grifter. Look at the leaked Hillary campaign e-mails from 2016. In one of them, they talk about how Bernie was acting contrary to the 'arrangement.'
It looks like they had a deal where he would get a lot of money for an endorsement, but he wasn't allowed to criticize Hillary too much.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:While I think you have identified a real phenomenon on the left, I am not sure it is fair to describe that group as "Bernie Sanders supporters". Certainly some are, but the group goes beyond that. What I've seen is that some folks get so used to being against everything that they don't know any other mindset. Then, the backlash to their positions only reinforces their opposition and pushes them into even crazier stances. The most well-known example is Glenn Greenwald.

I think the answer has to be blackmail or violence-based extortion, and/or a lot of people who are playing along with Russian agents because that’s what the FBI told them to do.

I don’t believe there are that many people who are all that corrupt or disloyal. But there are probably a lot of people out there who can be scared by credible threats of harm.