The NYT has a pretty lengthy piece on the allegedly abusive tactics used by some Sanders supporters against his critics, especially toward women. There's a lot there and imo this is an important conversation to have as we work through the primaries. The article is more than an op-ed-- it's sourced fairly well and incorporates a response from the Sanders campaign.
When Mr. Sanders's supporters swarm someone online, they often find multiple access points to that person's life, compiling what can amount to investigative dossiers. They will attack all public social media accounts, posting personal insults that might flow in by the hundreds. Some of the missives are direct threats of violence, which can be reported to Twitter or Facebook and taken down.
More commonly, there is a barrage of jabs and threats sometimes framed as jokes. If the target is a woman, and it often is, these insults can veer toward her physical appearance. For some perceived Sanders critics, there has been mail sent to home addresses — or the home addresses of relatives. The contents were unremarkable: news articles about the political perils of centrism. The message seemed clear: We know where you live.
Some progressive activists who declined to back Mr. Sanders have begun traveling with private security after incurring online harassment. Several well-known feminist writers said they had received death threats. A state party chairwoman changed her phone number. A Portland lawyer saw her business rating tumble on an online review site after tussling with Sanders supporters on Twitter.
Other notable targets have included Ady Barkan, a prominent liberal activist with A.L.S. — whom some Sanders-cheering accounts accused of lacking decision-making faculties due to his illness as he prepared to endorse Senator Elizabeth Warren — and Fred Guttenberg, the father of a shooting victim from the 2018 Parkland massacre, who had criticized Mr. Sanders's statements about gun violence.
"Politics is a contact sport," said Bakari Sellers, a former South Carolina State legislator who supported Ms. Harris in the Democratic primary. "But you have to be very cognizant when you say anything critical of Bernie online. You might have to put your phone down. There's going to be a blowback, and it could be sexist, racist and vile."
In recent days, he said, one man sent a profanity-filled private message on Instagram, calling Mr. Sellers, who is black, an "Uncle Tom" and wishing him brain cancer.
Interviews with current and former staff members and major online supporters make clear that top advisers — and often, Mr. Sanders himself — are acutely aware of the bile spread in his name.
In February 2019, shortly after announcing his second presidential run, Mr. Sanders emailed a letter to surrogates. "I want to be clear," he said, "that I condemn bullying and harassment of any kind and in any space."
That he felt compelled to append this note to his national reintroduction was perhaps as telling as its contents.
His allies also argue that online combat is not unique to the Sanders side, with some high-profile women who support the senator saying they have been attacked, too.
"The same folks who want to complain that Sanders supporters are more vicious than anybody else never come out to chastise the supporters of other candidates," said Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator and Mr. Sanders's national campaign co-chair.
But many political veterans outside the Sanders operation fault the campaign's handling of the vitriol.
Jess Morales Rocketto, a progressive strategist who worked on campaigns for Barack Obama and Mrs. Clinton, said Mr. Sanders had empowered aides and surrogates who "have a tendency to aggressively amplify things that a campaign would normally shut down amongst supporters."
"There are always people who say things that are problematic. It's not that that is unique to Bernie's campaign," she said. "What's unique is it is a consistent problem in the universe of Bernie Sanders."
Bernie Sanders and His Internet Army (Published 2020)
At the start of his 2020 bid, the Vermont senator told his supporters that he condemned bullying. Is it his problem if many don’t seem to listen?
www.nytimes.com