 So I'm sure that by now most of you have noticed that as Bernie Sanders continues to surge there's been an increase in pearl clutching as of late not just by corporate news pundits but by his 2020 rivals as well because they're terrified and they realize that at this point Bernie Sanders may be unstoppable. In fact one political article describes how other democratic candidates are privately conceding that at least when it comes to Nevada they're basically competing for second or third place. So it's crunch time. You've got to do something. If they don't act, if they don't attack Bernie Sanders they're done. So they're hanging on for dear life but they realize that if they just directly attack Bernie Sanders that's not going to land because I mean he's just more trusted on a lot of policy issues, immigration, healthcare. So you can't really attack him based on policy and if you try to criticize him based on Medicare for All or something like that he has this huge base of support who will dispel myths and misinformation. So what do they do to attack Bernie Sanders? They try to take on his biggest strength, one of his biggest assets, his supporters. So their goal seemingly is to attack Bernie Sanders supporters and demonize them in hopes that we'll all shut up and be quiet because if we self censor and we don't defend Bernie Sanders then that gives them a huge advantage. And look I'm not saying that corporate news pundits and 2020 Democrats all met in one big smoke filled room to discuss this strategy but it's a narrative and narratives tend to catch on when one person says it and others find it persuasive and they all just kind of parrot it. That's what happens. So now everyone is basically attacking Bernie Sanders supporters. Last week after bosses from Nevada's culinary union claimed that they were swarmed by vicious Bernie bros after they of course lied about Medicare for All and were corrected while all of Bernie's rivals almost simultaneously including Elizabeth Warren jumped at the opportunity to attack Sanders supporters even knowing that this could hurt them because you know they may need these people down the line if they do win the nomination but I mean still they attacked Bernie Sanders supporters. You had Mike Bloomberg call out Bernie bros after we uncovered countless videos of him saying disgusting racist and sexist things and after Joe Biden called on Biden bros to defend him on social media he actually decided that you know online attacks are actually bad and he told NBC News look if any of my supporters did that I disowned them. Sure. And this is my favorite story because it was just a couple of weeks ago just at the end of January when he was saying can I please have some Biden bros please and now all of a sudden he's looking around and everyone is saying Bernie bros are bad now he's saying yeah Bernie bros are bad but please defend me online because I'm getting in a lie because I have no supporters it's just it's pathetic and it just reeks of desperation but I get it Bernie's the front runner we were prepared for this we knew that as he solidified his status as the front runner these attacks would ramp up but it's just interesting how aggressive they're being at attacking Bernie Sanders supporters and it's not just 2020 candidates because pundits have been doing this as well for example reporter David Atkins clutched his pearls in response to a Nevada poll where a Bernie supporter dared to poke fun at the other candidates by calling Biden gropey and Warren a snake and Buddha judge a rat to which he responded can you imagine if any other candidate supporters behaved like this hmm yeah I can't imagine a situation where anyone is worse than Bernie supporters especially in 2016 I mean it was definitely the case that Bernie supporters were way more aggressive online than Hillary supporters correct oh right that's a load of horseshit and this is just a bullshit narrative to persuade you to be quiet because they want you to think that you calling out bullshit dispelling misinformation and just fact-checking people is going to hurt Bernie Sanders but it's not and in fact we have to push back against the mainstream media and other 2020 Democrats because they are beholden to the same multinational corporations who are hell bent on taking down Bernie Sanders but I mean I don't want to be overly unkind to David here because he's not alone there were certainly a lot of pundits at MSNBC who agreed that Bernie Sanders supporters really are the worst you know certainly look the Bernie the so-called Bernie bros are out there those of us who have said or written anything negative about Bernie Sanders have heard about heard from them at least on occasion certainly the other candidates do but I myself have members of your communications team blocked on Twitter just because of even before this campaign going back to 2016 just the nastiness gets so bad that you that it's it's unbearable and you've got Sanders supporters these are real humans not bots who will sick the Sanders legion on you if you just say Bernie Sanders in a non-smiling tone of voice like you if you're not lauding him you do get attacked by Sanders supporters that's a real thing most of the black journalists I know who cover politics have experienced it especially journalists of color. Now when Joy Reid says that journalists of color other main targets of Bernie bros she's making that up she's pulling that out of her ass she doesn't have statistics she doesn't have data and second of all the 2020 Bernie bro demographically speaking and statistically speaking is a woman of color so this narrative that it's all white bros who are brigading women of color that's bullshit it was bullshit in 2016 and it's especially not true now that Bernie Sanders has created the most diverse coalition out of all the candidates he is winning among non-white voters so you can't keep parroting the lies that you said in 2016 and second of all when it comes to Bernie Sanders supporters I wonder Joy do they really have a legitimate reason to push back against you why would they criticize someone like Joy Reid hmm I just can't figure it out Bernie Sanders does have a sort of physicality you know when he when he talks that is a shaking your finger yes at Hillary Clinton shaking your finger shabby weirdy you know his physicality makes me think yeah he could have said you know listen I think in this environment a woman can't win that doesn't seem like a well first of all I think I think Bernie's lying we see him he slouches forward anyway Joy but here he turtles if you look at his eye level where he normally answers questions when he makes the denial his whole shoulders come up like a little kid getting caught his eye level is below his shoulders this is trying to hide in plain sight listen I've said this once I'll say it again this is nothing more than a narrative they want to be able to viciously smear Bernie Sanders and spread misinformation pro corporate talking points about his policies and not have anyone call them out right they're the media they're the ones who have the authority they're the ones who have a monopoly on political information so how dare you criticize them for lying about your candidate I mean the thing about this is look liberals they have this vision not incorrectly of Democrats and whenever they face even the most minimal amounts of scrutiny they roll over and died but the thing about leftists the thing about progressives and democratic socialists and Bernie Sanders supporters is that we're not like traditional Democrats we don't just roll over and die we actually stand up and defend ourselves because guess what we're the good people you're not the good people we're the good people we're fighting for justice you're fighting for corporate profits that's what you're fighting for so when we call you out because you lie about something like Medicare for all we're not inherently evil for calling you out you're the evil ones because you are the ones protecting this pro corporate capitalist status quo that is literally killing people and we are fighting for the policies that would save lives or change lives for the better so go cry about it some more you rich fucking babies and see the thing about social media is that they hate it because it evens the playing field like back in the early 2000s they could lie about candidates they can spread misinformation about certain policies and they get zero pushback but on social media it evens the playing field we're actually able to call them out and respond directly to their lies about Bernie Sanders and they hate that they like being able to viciously smear a candidate bring on body language experts to prove that they're lying and not have any pushback but those days are gone the peasants are revolting because we are absolutely done with the system no more incrementalism no more milk toast neo-liperals i'm sorry but people who have been hurt and oppressed by the system are not going to remain quiet and that's what we're seeing in real time is rich people try to grapple with the fact that poor people actually kind of have a voice and even if they think they can drown us out with their propaganda we're not going away and we're not going anywhere and they hate it so much they're seething they're crying about it because they can't take it they can't take it they don't like the fact that poor people have voices they'd rather just rich-splain and tell us to shut the fuck up and listen but they can't do that anymore those days are over so this is why the bernie brometh is so pervasive because we have a voice and they don't want us to have a voice they want to be the only ones with the voice but again those days are done and if you're not angry then you're not paying attention or you haven't been hurt or oppressed by this disgustingly capitalist vicious system now michael moore explained i think beautifully in an msnbc segment that people have a right to be outright just not just bernie supporters that are angry everyone is angry because we are hurting not so much they're bernie supporters that are angry the country is angry they're angry that they're having to live under the rule of donald j trump they're angry because they they have to live from paycheck to paycheck they're angry because they can't afford the daycare they can't they don't know whether if they end up in the hospital they're going to have to lose their home as a result of it yeah people are angry and and they don't want half measures anymore obama care was great for what it did you know got rid of pre-existing conditions the kids get to stay under their 26 but it does it did not it didn't go all the way we have to go all the way we can't no more half measures on these things yeah no more half measures the half measures have not been working we've been dealing with half measures for decades now and we're more desperate more demoralized than ever so what we're saying now is enough is enough we are drawing a line in the sand and we're saying either you're with us or against us we're not going to accept anything but a fundamental reshaping of this entire system now you can cry about that you can say that we're being mean and overly aggressive but that's where we're at Bernie Sanders supporters and poor people in general who have checked out of the process they can't afford anything less but fundamental reform these types of nibbling around the edges these tweaks to the system it's not going to work we've tested that theory we've tried it your way and now we are demanding that we're going to do it our way and look maybe it's the case that individuals like joy read they just really are ignorant maybe they're not actually you know angry that poor people finally have a voice through twitter and what not because bill mar recently explained that he also thought that that stereotype of the bernie bro the white angry bro was real but he was educated and realized that no actually that's not true and promola jai paul kind of helps shed light on this and explain that this coalition is huge it's not just white men online this is a diverse working class rainbow coalition and we need to acknowledge that because trying to pretend as if bernie sander supporters are just white pros that is erasing the diversity that is huge in this movement like this is what democrats have been saying they want like a diverse multiracial multi-ethnic working class coalition and now that they've got it in one candidate well because it's not the candidate that they like they're shitting on him but promola jai paul explains that this really is something that's special tell me about something that i've been reading about lately that there is a myth of the bernie bros i we had this image i must admit i did too doesn't look like me no but you know that it was mostly these younger in-celly white men and i i read the statistics and no in fact bernie does worse with white men than anybody and it's more women who are forum more latinos well how did we get it wrong twitter i mean i do think twitter is a big part of it people look at that and think it means everything right but bernie sanders has assembled the most diverse coalition there is he is energizing young people he's got tons of women of color he's got tons of people of color more broadly but he is also playing to a forgotten group of blue collar workers who really believe he's gonna fight for them and that combination of this very diverse coalition of voters that have not turned out before that frankly any other candidate would be thrilled to have this kind of coalition he's got them but he is also speaking to a lot of people that really feel like he will fight for them i mean just in 2016 we lost michigan for the first time in 28 years democrats lost michigan we lost wisconsin for the first time in 32 years guess who won 71 of 72 counties in wisconsin it was bernie sanders so when you look at the appeal of bernie sanders i think it is really unusual to have somebody who can do both things really build that broader but also play to these trump some of them trump voters and she's exactly correct look rather than telling angry bernie bros to stop yelling maybe try listening because the bernie bros which now the average bernie bro is a woman of color they're hurting and as erin stigl explains on twitter i hear a lot about angry bernie bros what i don't hear a lot about is how the most diverse working class campaign in this race has the right to be mad because many of our livelihoods depend on bernie sanders becoming president that is exactly it to a lot of people millions of americans this election is literally life or death because some people don't have health insurance and they need it and they are hoping that bernie's elected and is successful in passing medicare for all a lot of people can't spend any money because they are overwhelmed with student debt like this is a fight for our lives so much is at stake so for people in the mainstream media and other democrats to just minimize this pain and suffering and just you know reduce it down to angry bernie bros online it's not just you know a gross oversimplification but it's downright immoral because you are ignoring the voices of people who are crying out who need help and you're saying no no we're gonna do it my way we're gonna tweak around the edges a little bit more and that's the way it's going to be in perpetuity because uh fuck you that's why because we have corporate profits that need to be made and i don't want to cut into those corporate profits because then these corporations might be mad at me for doing that and they won't donate to my campaign just listen to people listen to people and even if you disagree at least try to understand where bernie supporters are coming from these are normal people who are hurting who need a candidate who they believe will fight for them that's why you see so much passion you may think that it's anger and vitriol but this is passion from people and maybe at times we do get a little bit angry i have been a little bit angry on twitter and you know i've snarkly tweeted at the candidates but understand that there's so much at stake literally life and death for a lot of people literally about the habitability of our planet like if we don't elect bernie i don't see any other candidate with a platform that will save the planet like let alone the country but the planet we're talking about so there's so much at stake so at least try to understand and for those of you who refuse to understand or still don't care well if you're an elitist then i have nothing left to do but offer you the wisdom of anakasparian you can't take the heat get out of the kitchen and just log off so i'll leave you with that damn right we're online i'm i'm i'm considered a bernie bro and we're angry get over it log off twitter log off twitter or grow a set of balls and move on with your life okay it's a campaign and if they can't handle us emphasizing policy that makes him a superior candidate then you're not cut out for politics log off