The DNC Online War Against Bernie

The DNC launched a massive attack online yesterday. All of a sudden posts from strangers appeared in progressive and Bernie groups across Facebook. They proclaimed that that we had to "vote blue no matter who". Their use of phrases like "Bernie Bros" was another giveaway. The whole thing was blatantly coordinated. One day nothing, the next day a flood of David Brock's trolls. It was just like 2016.

Do you remember 2016? I do. Every online group for progressives was hit by wave after wave of trolls, supporting each other and parroting the latest line of attack. Admins were approached to sell control of their groups; the going price was reportedly $10,000 for a healthy group. Many of them DID sell out, and those groups quickly converted to Hillary groups. New mods were brought on, and anyone who protested the new policies were purged without warning. Posting histories were reviewed and used as a basis for purging, too.

In groups where the admin wouldn't sell out, mods would get in somehow and abuse the hell out of their powers. They'd suspect or censor pro-Bernie posts and posters, and protect pro-Hillary and pro-DNC posts. Or new members would appear, post child pornography, and then report the group to Facebook. The groups were usually shut down. It was, frankly, frustrating as hell.

But it was effective. The DNC put at least $10,000,000.00 into online action - probably much more - and they shut down or crippled the vast majority of Bernie groups online. Progressives became refugees, a people without a home.

Today's attack shows that the DNC is sticking with the old playbook. We can expect them to escalate. We can protect ourselves somewhat by reporting DNC trolls to the admins - NOT to Facebook - and by the admins acting vigorously to ban the trolls. It won't be easy. But it has to be done.

Here's the key takeaway: The DNC is doing this for a reason. They want to see if they can shut us down again. *That means that they are planning to cheat us (and Bernie) out of the nomination again.*

We can't let them do that. We have to fight back and stay strong. We need to become good at recognizing enemy action and agents. They're not that good at disguising themselves, so this is something we can all do.

Social media is just one front of our political revolution. But it matters. If we show them that they can't silence us, can't get us to attack each other or accept their sleazy framing of issues, we can win. And that just might make them thing twice about cheating us out of our votes.

We need to make them afraid of us. We need to stand up against them. If we don't, they'll crush us into the dust. And that means the end not just of Bernie's campaign, but almost certainly the end of a future for the human race.