Both Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders have attracted a small, but extremely fanatical group of supporters. They’ve both drawn a committed group of people that like to clog up Facebook stories or online news with their comments, usually multi paragraph rants.
Ron Paul’s supporters tended to post long rambling conspiracy theories about mistrust of the Federal Reserve and a mistrust of government in general. They generally distrusted paper currency and preferred precious metals, usually advocating a return to the gold standard. As nutty and as long winded as they were, I didn’t run across then nearly as often as Bernie Bots.
Sanders’ ardent supporters are really getting on my nerves. Maybe they think that if they scream Feel The Bern loudly and often, that’ll increase his less than zero chance of getting the nomination. I almost lost my lunch reading about how “Our Bernie can’t be bought…” followed by the usual Big Banks bad, Wall Street bad drivel.
Right now, I’m going to say I find Bernie supporters more obnoxious than Ron Paul’s, probably because Sanders is drawing many young people who are more active on social media. I do still see some of Ron Paul types, usually in the comments section of financial news articles. But the feared hyper inflation hadn’t occurred and gold prices are dropping so they seem to have retreated. Also Rand isn’t using Ron’s economic doctrine during his campaign.
Well, it ain’t drivel, is it? There are plenty of well-documented ways in which Big Banks and Wall Street have been very very bad, even if they ain’t bad things essentially and ontologically. That’s just the difference. The Paulbots’ end-the-Fed shit is drivel, essentially and ontologically.
I’d say Paul’s are the most annoying. Given that Bernie’s policy choices would make us into a typical first-world democracy. And Paul’s policies would turn us into Bartertown from Thunderdome.
I don’t see many Bernie supporters, but I do think Trump supporters are very obnoxious. I haven’t heard one yet that I don’t want to punch in the face.
I’ll just mention a good distinction I’ve heard drawn between the two campaigns. Ron Paul encouraged many of his supporters to read about the philosophy and to continue their learning. Sanders coddles his supporters by telling them whatever they already believe in is true.
Paul name dropped giants like Mises, Rothbard, Hayek, and Bastiat. Who does Bernie talk about? FDR and Lyndon Johnson? Lol. Bernie is a perfect candidate for Generation Wimp, a generation afraid to grapple with tough realities like scarcity and supply and demand.
FDR and LBJ really were giants – unlike Mises, etc. Paul is in no way encouraging his supporters to further their education if he is encouraging them to waste their time on pseudoscientific dead ends like Austrian-school economics. He might as well encourage them to read Dianetics and get e-metered.
The “young people” who follow Bernie Sanders are trying to get the world to pay attention to things like scarcity (aka running out of oil*) or to make the ‘tough’ decision to listen to scientists about climate change or to fix the giant disparity between old and young.
I don’t see these kids as wimps, but as people who are finally standing up to and trying to fix the abuse their elders have put this country and world through.
*eventually
Ron Paul:
Wolf Blitzer put a terrific question to Rep. Ron Paul at last night’s CNN/Tea Party Express Republican debate in Tampa, Fla. What should happen, the moderator asked hypothetically, if a healthy 30-year-old man who can afford insurance chooses not to buy it—and then becomes catastrophically ill and needs intensive care for six months? When Dr. Paul ducked, fondly recalling the good old days before Medicare and saying that we should all take responsibility for ourselves, Blitzer pressed the point. “But, Congressman, are you saying the society should just let him die?” At that point, the rabble erupted in cheers and whoops of “Yeah!”
This was indeed an appalling, mob-mentality moment—more medieval, even, than the crowd applauding Gov. Rick Perry for winning the death-penalty derby at the previous debate.
Bernie Sanders:
Bernie believes that the challenges facing the American healthcare system need to be addressed immediately–they are a matter of life and death. He has always believed that healthcare is a human right and should be guaranteed to all Americans regardless of wealth or income. http://www.ontheissues.org/2016/Bernie_Sanders_Health_Care.htm
I can’t recall actually running into any Sanders supporters online, so Ron Paul wins this by default for me (but libertarians drive me batty, so it’s unlikely I’d personally vote any other way even if I had run into Sanders supporters)
No contest. Ron Paul’s supporters were stark raving bonkers for each of his many runs for the presidency. Of course Ron Paul himself was a combo plate without any tacos. Gold standard! OMG The Federal Reserve! Even without his ranting racist rants from his newsletters, he was totally nutso, so much that he makes his son almost look normal.
I’ve only got one person on FB who mentions Paul (Rand, mostly) and several who [del]occasionally mention[/del] like every. single. new article about Sanders, so at least by the personally relevant metric Sanders people are more annoying. A potential confound might be that 4 years in the future brings out more potential people to post about it.
American lefties know exactly and painfully how fringe they are – and also (in light of Sanders’ amazing-polling-numbers-all-things-considered so far, among other things) exactly how fringe they aren’t.
