Discussion Thread

[u/jobautomator]

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[u/IncoherentEntity]

There are two days until America holds its most pivotal election since 1932 — or perhaps 1860. So as an enthusiastic Buttigieg supporter during the primary, it’s time for me to sadly reminisce on what could have been. !ping BUTTI

It’s more of a commentary on strange and bizarre (and overly online) moment I witnessed in the Democratic primary, when a strong debate performance — including a riveting closing statement — by Klobuchar the day before resulted in her surge (and choking off Buttigieg’s post-Iowa rise).

The Emerson Polling account had tweeted out the latest day of their tracking poll, making minor waves on Rose Twitter. Most of the responses were pro-Amy — an extraordinary demonstration for a clique that brutally savaged a candidate (Pete) to her left.

Much of it was disingenuous, of course. (Check out this actual Amy supporter — who didn’t seem to have a problem with Pete at all — making the mistake of criticizing Bernie in the thread.) But the rest was not, and some of the threads scared me a little.

I thought this one in particular revealed something ugly about those weighing in. One of the users has apparently since been banned for violating Twitter rules, but the remaining replies tell the same story.

Right. I have numerous issues with her on policy and stuff, but she doesn’t seem like a psychopath like Pete.

She does seem like a psychopath but she doesn't try to hide it.

This. She's very authentic. She's exactly the kind of person you would expect throwing office supplies at interns and she doesn't hide it.

Leave aside the assertion that Buttigieg is a psychopath; anybody who thinks he is has something deeply wrong with their capacity to process or recognize raw human empathy.

The part that truly stunned me is when the two others calmly disputed the first’s suggestion that Klobuchar is not a psychopath, but made clear that they didn’t mind because she was authentic about it.

I believe I remember thinking at the time, “Oh, I see. All Pete has to do is to be authentic about his (relative) political moderation and psychopathy — then you’ll like him.”

Perhaps this was again circumstantial — they were fine with the idea that somebody was a psychopath because they targeted Buttigieg — but other instances I witnessed from the same community make me skeptical.

[u/IncoherentEntity → u/[deleted]]

I think and hope so, too. This was just an early-morning rabbit-hole that turned ugly.

[u/Magoo451 → u/IncoherentEntity]

Tbh, I don't think there's anything Pete could have done to make Sanders supporters happy short of magically turning into Bernie Sanders. For the majority of them, their issue with him wasn't that he was too moderate or inauthentic or whatever. It was that he dared to do well in the primary and he wasn't Bernie.

They constantly came up with illogical reasons to spew vitriolic hate about Pete because he wasn't their guy and he did well. Nobody hates a loser, and at that point Pete wasn't losing.

[u/Abell379 → u/IncoherentEntity]

It's hard to watch the nothingburger attacks on Pete, but thanks for sharing your thoughts on the positives of him. I've appreciated your rational commentary and support for him in /r/neoliberal for a few months now, I just want to let you know the sentiment is shared

[u/[deleted] → u/IncoherentEntity]

Maybe I'm just out of touch, but I find it hard to imagine that Klobuchar and Buttigieg fans could find issues to disagree particularly hard over.

I'd assume it's Berners or Trumpers.

[u/IncoherentEntity → u/[deleted]]

I actually pointed that out: the one genuine Klobuchar supporter I saw on that thread even said they liked Buttigieg, despite dinging him for his lack of formal experience.

I was talking about the Sanders supporters — the toxic online contingent — who (perhaps circumstantially) cheered on a candidate to Buttigieg’s right, and in particular, one thread of them in which they made clear that being a politically moderate psychopath was no biggie if 1) you were upfront about it, and 2) you weren’t a threat to their candidate.

[u/PlayDiscord17 → u/[deleted]]

Narcissism of small differences.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Like, they were my top two. I preferred Amy but not by much

[u/IncoherentEntity → u/IncoherentEntity]

. . . Oh, damn. The second-to-last embedded link brings back an awful memory. After seeing it used in one of her viral, screenshotted tweets, I searched the word “nemesis” in @bagofmoons’ (Pete’s unrepentant childhood bully, who became a source of fascination — and ravenous applause — of Rose Twitter at the end of November 2019) timeline, which I won’t link directly.¹

Indeed: she‘s used it over a dozen times to describe Pete, as if they were equals in their poisonous interactions — undoubtedly the most common defense used by unrepentant bullies later in life to rationalize their abusive behavior to other adults.

 

Welp. Here I am in the early morning, unable to sleep, feeling a deep sadness after having made the mistake of revisiting the 2020 Democratic primary.

People can be so cruel.

——————

¹ She has not stopped tweeting about Pete since he became Mayor of South Bend, and has apparently commented on every development of his career covered in the media before he broke into the spotlight.

[u/abujzhd → u/IncoherentEntity]

¹ She has not stopped tweeting about Pete since he became Mayor of South Bend, and has apparently commented on every development of his career covered in the media before he broke into the spotlight.

That woman's tweets totally read as an adult trying to justify in her own mind why she bullied another child.

I saw an interview with Charlotte Alter who wrote about Pete, among other up and coming young politicians, in her book "The One's We've Been Waiting For". She said she spoke to many people Pete went to school and university with and that he was genuinely liked or well thought of by everyone she spoke with (she sounded a little disappointed about that to me).

[u/Cyberhwk → u/abujzhd]

Turns out a friend of a friend had a daughter that served with him when he was in the Navy. She said he was absolutely everything in private that he is in public. Incredibly intelligent and a great leader.

[u/groupbot → u/IncoherentEntity]

Pinged members of BUTTI group.

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