What’s Next?

Part of the trouble of relying on sites like reddit for news is you have to wade through the piles of crap and misleading links the Obama Fan base throw up. No smear is too demeaning, no summary so misleading that it won’t get voted up. This, sadly, is my generation.

Story one the day after Clinton wins Pennsylvania: NY Times: It’s time for the superdelegates to end Hillary’s destructive campaign.

Note that’s not exactly what the article says, tt says that to maintain support with superdelegates she might have to tone down the negativity. To my mind the most destructive thing going on is that lots of people keep voting for Clinton, which is crazy really: don’t they know she can’t win and they should vote for Obama so their vote makes a dif- oh hang on a minute.

Honestly to read sites like reddit you’d think that Obama was utterly above all this but corrente makes the case for the divisiveness of the Obama campaign:

But as the primary wore on, a bitter irony appeared: the Obama campaign turned out, itself, to be extremely divisive: It’s the Obama campaign that smeared the Clintons as racist, not the other way round. And it’s the Obama campaign that’s struck a constant theme of misogyny, not the other way round. It’s the Obama campaign, with the “cling to” remark, that dissed Democrat working class voters, by denying them the same “complex” and “nuanced” choices that Obama, and his “creative class” supporters, are all too aware of having themselves. And it’s Obama’s online supporters who don’t consider Hillary a real Democrat. What happened to the Unity? Apparently, “unity” only applies to Obama supporters. Aren’t we all too familiar, already, with what happens when whoever’s in the White House has an attitude of “You’re with us or against us?” And if the Obama campaign and the creative class think they can win in November by dissing half the base, they’re delusional.

Something spot on there is the real problem with the ‘bitterness’ remark, which has given everyone a chance to go out to these rural places and find out that, wow, these people are bitter after all! Obama can do no wrong! Of course, the real problem isn’t ‘bitterness’ (that wasn’t a surprise to anyone) but the ‘cling to’, which says that their culture and beliefs is something they wouldn’t bother with if they were just that bit richer. Thus the most stupid bit of this manufactured controversy that they keep reporting on the uncontroversial part!
Next good one today is: Clinton won by stoking the fires of racism. I will not vote for her. Which is interesting, seeing as the article linked doesn’t even mention Clinton.

My favourite one which was a few weeks ago (I can’t find the link) was a story about how Clinton supporters on reddit were voting down anti-clinton stories. First off, you’re doing an awful job with that guys! Second: That’s…exactly the point of sites like reddit, people vote up and down stories, that’s how it works. The best bit was when a commenter called ‘censorship’ on people using the site the way it’s designed to be used.

I’d find the Obama campaign much more attractive if my main interaction with his supporters wasn’t with the glazed eyed denizens of the internet. Now to be fair, there are commenters who call bullshit on the more dubious stories, but they tend to be in the minority. Occasionally you even get someone skeptical about ‘change’ and ‘hope’! HOPE HATERS!