1/ https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đź§µ" title="Thread" aria-label="Emoji: Thread"> I want to take a moment to talk about hate & abuse that& #39;s directed at those of us who work in progressive politics or policy....
2/ I& #39;m struggling with how to frame this thread. I don& #39;t want to come off as just complaining about some nasty comments at a time when there are so many larger injustices that folks -- particularly women and people of color -- confront every single day
3/ But I also don& #39;t want to stay silent. I don& #39;t want to normalize coordinated online attacks against me for simply being who I am. I don& #39;t want to accept daily directed hate as part of the cost of speaking out in our democracy. I want to find a proactive way of combating it.
4/ Here& #39;s what I& #39;m talking about... every so often a right wing influencer posts content "debunking" or addressing some argument I& #39;ve made about gun violence. Often times, they insert slurs about me being gay, Jewish, or Russian. And then their fans take it from there...
5/ Their fans email you. They slide into your DMs. They even try to go after your loved ones on social media. Their message is clear: I don& #39;t deserve to participate in the free exchange of ideas because I& #39;m gay or Jewish or whatever.

Take a look.
6/ To be clear, I& #39;m happy to engage in a good-faith policy debate with almost anyone. But that& #39;s clearly not what these folks are after.

Their goal, it seems to me, is to attack you *for who you are* in an effort to wound you personally and run you off the stage entirely
7/ I& #39;ve been working in progressive politics since 2008 & focused on many hot button issues -- health care, LGBTQ rights, immigration, guns.

I& #39;m used to receiving this garbage & generally speaking it doesn& #39;t bother me.

But I would be lying if I said it has had no impact on me
8/ I would also be lying if I said this problem of coordinated online hate isn& #39;t getting worse. It is.

When I first started working on Obamacare, I often appeared on Fox News or CNBC to argue with conservatives about this or that provision of the law....
9/ Yes, I would get some hate mail in response, but nowhere near the kind of volume and vitriol I now receive on a pretty regular basis.

Certainly there were far fewer coordinated online swarms designed to dox you or get pretty close to it...
10/ It& #39;s far worse now and so many folks are impacted by it.

So, I want to shine a light on this kind of activity so that we can see it, so we can confront it, and ultimately figure out how to fight against it.
11/ Because ultimately these coordinated online smears are damaging to our democracy, to our values as a country, and of course to us as individuals.

Thanks for hearing me out on this. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="❤️" title="Rotes Herz" aria-label="Emoji: Rotes Herz">
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