Combating Artificial Narratives in Social Media Related To The Sanders Candidacy

 Too Radical

•  There is nothing radical about catching up with the rest of the world.  I can attend university tuition free in dozens of countries without even being a citizen, and if I were a citizen there would be further benefits (e.g. stipend for living expenses in Finland).  This is another boogeyman to make people afraid of positive progress for their benefit, and doesn’t hold up to reasoned scrutiny.Besides, can you imagine if our founding fathers had taken that position?  Can’t break away from England, that’s “too radical.”  We should try to negotiate better terms.
•  The “overton window.”  The Overton Window is a political phenomenon where a radical fringe continually redefines the limits of what is “left” and “right,” and then pulls the center toward them until what was once firmly centrist is seen as “radical.”  The process is very subtle and executes over an extended period, and it’s been happening here for several decades now.  We need it to stop; at this point the “left” is where the middle used to be, the right is off the edge of the scale, and anything that is genuinely in the people’s interests is treated as though it’s fringe lunacy.  Wanting a nation of healthy, educated people is not fringe lunacy; it’s the only way to have a strong country

 “The American People Don’t Want Revolution”

•  Perhaps the american people who own corporations and pay tens of thousands of dollars to have dinner with candidates other than Sanders don’t.  The rest of us are in a somewhat different boat.  There are half a million people sleeping on the streets right now who don’t just want a revolution, they need one.  Two and a half million schoolkids report being homeless at some point during the school year.  Eighty-seven million people have no meaningful access to health care.  Meanwhile you’ve got a candidate telling you that just getting back to the compromise position we already had in place four years ago represents a victory, and that’s just not true.

 “People don’t want to change too quickly”

•  Perhaps that shrinking group of people who enjoy the privilege of material security don’t.  For everyone else, time is running out.  Millions of us no longer have the luxury of being able to wait for a pleasant negotiation with profit interest who can, do, and will continue to take any sign of compromise as an indication that they can go for the throat.

 “Bernie has no plan to get us there.”

•  Of course he does.   It’s on his website, go read it.  It’s right there.

 “He’s hiding information about his medical condition”

•  How much information do you have about Joe Biden’s health?  Donald Trump’s?  Bet it’s less than you know about Bernies.

 “He’s too old”

•  Ruth Bader Ginsberg is the same age now that Sanders would be when finishing a second term, she seems to function well.

 “He’s a hypocrite because he rails against the wealthy but he’s a millionaire”

•  The Sanders’ have an estimated net worth of about 2.5 million, most of which has been acquired in the last few years through sales of a best-selling book and the inheritance of his wife’s parents’ home.  The man never said he hated money; it’s the abuse of power that comes from great inequality of wealth that’s the problem.

 “He’s a divider, not a uniter”

•  This is an old tactic.  The only thing that makes Sanders a “divider” is that he opposes the power being abused by the oligarchy that currently holds sway in this country.  This is similar to accusations that Obama was a “divider.”  Obama wasn’t a divider; the people who hated him were the dividers, and they gaslighted a bunch of people into thinking it was his fault.  They’re doing the same to Sanders.  Don’t fall for it.

 “He can’t expand the base.”

•  He has expanded the base, and continues to do so by reaching out to the 90 million eligible voters in this country who don’t bother voting because they don’t feel like they have a voice.
•  Is your loyalty to the nation and its people, or to a political party?  Why?  What has the Democratic Party in and of itself done for you or anyone you know?

 “He has no experience in international politics”

•  Neither did Obama.  Neither did Reagan.  Neither did Carter, or Ford, or Nixon, or Kennedy, or Roosevelt before they were elected.  Besides which, Sanders has traveled outside the country extensively – to at least forty-one other nations – and met with world leaders on multiple occasions.  When he does so and is quite rightly critical of some of our less-savory engagements (like the Iran-Contra affair), then people turn around and complain about that.  This, again, is just an empty complaint with no substance.

 “Bernie Bros”

•  Sanders supporters represent every corner of American society.
•  Some of them are pretty angry, and frankly with good reason.  They’re starving, they’re dying of preventable illnesses, and they’re hearing their friends and neighbors say, through their support of Trump and Biden, that those friends and neighbors don’t really care about them.  Meanwhile, poor people, people of color, and others continue to waste away and die while we’re trying to negotiate a “civil discourse.”  I’m pretty mad, too – why aren’t you?