Thread by @HootHootBerns

Pardon the overused meme, but...

IT'S A TRAP!

What on the surface seems like a pleasant article highlighting Bernie's consistency is actually more like a cute-looking piñata full of muddy hit piece candy for the establishment.

THREAD!

https://twitter.com/SavageJoyMarie1/status/1125921512215674881

This seems good...but...we'll come back to this later in the article, when it's expanded upon and cast just a bit differently.

Note how they keep waxing about his consistency. While they throw the occasional blip how he's "softened" (lol), the overall intent aims to use his consistency against him.

At first, this isn't all that obvious, and the points of prescience just get more and more striking.

Bernie's analysis based on talking to real people at the time about George scumbag Wallace is just mind-blowing.

It also shows he's no stranger to phony right-wing populism.

TFW you get dragged off mid-thread lol.

As we continue, total sidenote: this reminded me of Bernie's Today show interview from 1981, where he warned Reagan would not be the "alternative" people were led to believe he was.

So basically the positive takeaway before we get into the mud in this piece:

Bernie's well-studied in the ways and tactics of the faux-populist right. He's learned how to counter and combat them for literally decades, provide sound alternatives, and demolish them in tactics.

OK, enough gawking at this dude's still-sharp mind and how insanely well-placed his views and skills have landed at this precise moment in history.

So, here's where the CNN piece starts to dip its toe into false equivalency between good prescience and "abolish drug laws."

Now we're back to straight positives for a lot of people on stuff he supported way back in the 70s--was anti-war, pro-LGBT rights, pro-choice...ah, insert a wedge issue, I see...calling out our broken criminal justice system...

...wait. Here's what I said we'd get back to.

Oh HERE WE GO! How convenient in light of certain other candidates I won't name and their desegregated busing woes.

Remember, he's super-consistent! Maybe he's secretly racist! /s Based on an article about what he said somewhere from the 70s that likely lacks context. 🤦‍♀️

Worst case scenario, his skepticism in government was still a little too strong at this point and this was a fairly young Bernard misread.

This does NOT compare in any rational way to how certain other candidates opposed it, and does NOT make him racist. Do NOT let that fly!

Going on, we're back to the more positive things again. Oh, you are quite a funny little article!

Hey, remember once more how CONSISTENT HE IS and how hard it is to get him to shift!

MSM really don't like it when Bernie critiques them lol. Surprised they didn't throw a comparison to Trump's self-centered crying in there while they were at it.

OK, everyone, he's according to Bernie staff less radical now, though we just hinted about his consistency some more.

We're totally not trying to give you an impression he might secretly still believe some extreme things, honest!

"Distance himself" from "communism."

Fun editorialization, "nationalize certain private industries."

Oh, let's point hard at him wanting to legalize all drugs and using heroin as an example of why, and make sure to highlight that ahead amidst a current opiod epidemic.

His reasoning isn't even that wrong, even if the solution reached may technically be poor. Nowadays his argument is to treat it as a health issue, which it is, rather than one solved by throwing someone in a cage.

Well duh, you were so damn vague and hacky with the question, it wasn't effectively something he supported! 🤦‍♀️

Oh, aren't you just cute as hell with this! Conflating nationalization in a few specific things with public ownership AKA democratizing the workplace.

Hope you know for a number of young people, you're literally making Bernie sound cooler than he is with the "seize the means of production" stuff.

HE ISN'T EVEN WRONG HERE!

Um...where did he say that?

I'm looking around here for where he suggested doing what you describe.

Here's what you linked to. Nope, still don't see it.

Closest I see is thinking *monopoly* utilities should be run by the state as nonprofits.

Oh, no, not a successful boycott!

And oh, THAT's where you hid the link about not compensating private utility shareholders. I mean, that's pretty much the worst thing I see around this section, but I'm not lost on the array of mud ammo you're building up, hence this thread.

Are you writing a serious article, or a damn oppo paper for Trump?

People sleep on couches at friends' houses. We heard this drivel in 2016. Get over yourselves.

Obligatory use of "rumpled" when describing Bernie. 🤣

Oh, no! Whatever will we do when Republicans run ads mocking Bernie for hitchhiking?

And now we get to some character mud. See!? Bernie's a SEXIST! /s

If only I could see the source, because this description makes Bernie sound like he was truly ahead of his time by channeling a @jimmy_dore routine! 😝🤣

Oh, look, this crap from 2016 is brought back up because why not? We needed to make him sound crazy as possible, so let's leave out that he's basically interviewing (like a reporter) a hippy commune friend where they literally do weird stuff like eat afterbirths.

Mind you, this interview was basically about giving birth in a typical hospital setting vs. in this weird at-home commune environment and such.

Also, this was in the 70s for God's sake!

Article ends by suggesting "he's changed" again, even though they kept screaming at us about his consistency so they can work us up with "he might be secretly closet crazy pants." Guess all the mud candy is finally emptied from the piñata now.

Finally, this ridiculously long thread is done with. But as you can see, there's a lot of hot garbage wrapped in there for others to fixate on and run with.

So get out the umbrellas--even more mud is flying in an attempt to stop the guy best suited to save the country. /END

@threadreaderapp Unroll please, especially since the last one was before I completed this wild train.

cc: @LeftwardSwing