Bernie Sanders' Second Life Headquarters Besieged by Trump-Supporting Swastikas (vice.com) 230
Wagner James Au, writing for Motherboard (edited and condensed):As Donald Trump continues to ride roughshod over much of the United States, there are multiple reports that Trumps' virtual fans are riding roughshod on Bernie Sanders' unofficial headquarters in Second Life as well. Sanders' spot is in the sim (Second Life region) of Caspoli, with a Bernie 2016 banner that can be seen from satellite. It's a Roman-themed hangout space in a peaceful meadow, where Bernie supporters often gather to share news of their favorite candidate. But lately, the place has been besieged by pro-Trump griefers. [...] During a Bernie rally in Second Life, Sanders support group member Macaria Wind goes on, Trump-supporting demons flew around Bernie's rally, endlessly typing "TRUMP! TRUMP! TRUMP!" into text chat.
False flag? (Score:2, Insightful)
Sounds like something Bernie would do for sympathy.
Re:False flag? (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah, without some evidence that these are actual Trump supporters (whom I imagine don't envision themselves to be appropriately represented by *demon* avatars), this really smells of a Something Awful-style false flag attack.
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You mean, Second Life has a lower bound on user IQ too? Now that's something new. It's hardly above Facebook!
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I forgot that Second Life even existed, for at least two years but probably more, until I read this.
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That was my reaction to the headline. "Second Life is still around? Huh?"
Re:False flag? (Score:5, Insightful)
It sounds like something Linden Lab would do to let people know that Second Life still exists, apparently.
Re:False flag? (Score:5, Insightful)
Second Life still exists?!
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Yes, but I think a good portion of the users are just there to look at crude 3D porn and semi-literate roleplays now.
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Sounds about right, I must have sunk three whole hours into SL before losing the will to live there.
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It sounds like something Linden Lab would do to let people know that Second Life still exists, apparently.
Until I noticed that it was his "unofficial" headquarters (#), I was surprised that politicians like Sanders were even bothering with something whose cyber-savvy-bandwagon-jumping potential peaked a decade ago and which most people have almost forgotten existed.
Thing is, even then I saw no real evidence that its latest-hot-thing media prominence was matched by the number of people actually using it, no sign that it was remotely mass-market popular in the way that Twitter and Facebook became (or even that
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Exactly.
Now get off my Second Life lawn!
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Or hillary clinton. maybe even the GOP.
The GOP only hope to stop trump is an contested convention. Or some kind of the 3rd party candidates that needs to take electoral votes so that no ones get's 270.
Re:False flag? (Score:4, Insightful)
You are delusional.
https://img.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]
Re:False flag? (Score:4, Interesting)
You are delusional.
https://img.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]
How does that picture refute what he says? False flag operations are part and parcel of the looney left. Hell, this just came across the wire today:
http://college.usatoday.com/20... [usatoday.com]
Re: False flag? (Score:2)
I suppose '92 Republican presidential hopeful and noted white supremacist David Duke was put up to endorsing Trump by Democratic party operatives. Your reality sounds really soft and cushy with all those pesky sharp corners filed off.
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David Duke never endorsed trump.
I would imagine that the misinformation about what was said and your beliefs that there was actually an endorsement is the result of the democratic party though.
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I suppose '92 Republican presidential hopeful and noted white supremacist David Duke was put up to endorsing Trump by Democratic party operatives. Your reality sounds really soft and cushy with all those pesky sharp corners filed off.
What does that have to do with it? Do you really think someone as polished as David Duke (note that I don't say this in an approving manner) would be so crass as to give a Nazi salute? I highly doubt the picture is an actual Trump supporter, regardless of all that. It looks like a lefty trying to make Trump look bad.
Same with the 2nd Life griefing. Do you really think actual Trump supporters are using Nazi imagery? Doubtful. I'm not saying there aren't neo-nazis supporting current candidates, Trump in
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That's really funny. Here's an excerpt from that article:
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Was it or was it not a Nazi salute?
Look, I understand you're trying to shill for Trump here, but there's a reason Trump is so popular over at Stormfront and the Daily Stormer. There's a reason why David Duke supports him.
Re:False flag? (Score:5, Informative)
How about this Trump campaign worker with the Nazi tattoos? Is she a Hillary plant too?
http://www.nydailynews.com/new... [nydailynews.com]
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And McCain had a fundraiser who had a meth lab in her home [azcentral.com]. Let's blame the candidate for anything one of their fans does!
Maybe I should go around saying "I love PopeRatzo" while kicking puppies and wearing a shirt with pictures of dead babies on it. By your logic, it's a reflection of YOUR character, right?
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Since I have so many asking for some evidence of this sort of thing:
http://www.wnd.com/2016/02/des... [wnd.com]
https://theconservativetreehou... [theconserv...ehouse.com]
http://www.washingtonsblog.com... [washingtonsblog.com]
http://redstatewatcher.com/art... [redstatewatcher.com]
Generally the first thing I hear is an attack on source - all of them if possible. That's just someone who's established a position and has made up their mind no matter what. Usually I try to get both left and right wing sources when I'm trying to give evidence to a point. It's a little harder to do it this
Re:False flag? (Score:5, Funny)
I still half-suspect that Clinton asked Trump to run in order to screw up the Republican party so she had a better chance of winning (which explains his "I-don't-give-a-shit-about-electability-or-the-moral-event-horizon" rhetoric), but then the strategy backfired when Trump realized he had an actual shot to win.
Re:False flag? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but I confess this is one I have a hard time completely dismissing. He's literally pulling the party to pieces, and with his own real competitor (and not even much of that anymore) being a vile sociopathic hard right troll named Ted Cruz, if this wasn't a secret plot to completely fuck over the Republicans, then Hillary Clinton may very well be the luckiest Presidential candidate in modern times.
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Given the backfiring plus the unexpected competitiveness of Bernie Sanders (not to mention stuff like the still-possibly-pending email indictment), I'd say Clinton might be an exceptionally unlucky candidate! I mean, considering how much of a shoe-in the media declared her to be back six months ago (let alone in 2012), how much worse could she have possibly fucked it up than she has?
Simpler explanation: GOP has jumped the shark. (Score:3)
Trump is not some aberration, he's the next logical step in the evolution of the current GOP coalition.
Naw, just trolls looking for attention (Score:4, Informative)
Re:False flag? (Score:4, Insightful)
If I wanted to be mean and hex Bernie's SL presence, swastikas would be the last thing I would put up. I would poke fun of his platform by doing something like have a set of unicorns chained to a capstan, labeled Bernie's Energy System. Or how about a theme park called Venezuelaland, with hopeless peasants shooting each other over the last few rolls of toilet paper.
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But then, you're not some dickhead 8chan/pol type. They would absolutely throw up swastikas, because they're Trump supporters and neo-nazis (I'm sorry, the new term is "ethno-nationalist")
Not one of them is capable of giving an opinion about Sanders without mentioning that he's Jewish.
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Which theory is flawed? Obviously, Marxism doesn't work, I think most of us can agree. What Sanders wants is nowhere near Marxism, but something like many Western European countries have, and those countries seem to be doing pretty well in general. One thing I like about Sanders is that he explains the economics of his platform in reasonable detail, showing where he'd get the money for free college tuition, etc. The utopians (like Marx) generally assume that everything's going to work, and don't get in
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Bullshit.
But you're probably right about it being a false-flag operation: it was most likely staged by the Hillary campaign. After all, her campaign already pays shills to spew propaganda on social media sites. With Sanders obviously preparing to exit the race, Hillary is looking ahead to the general election where she'll most likely to fighting Trump, so she's doing her usual dirty tricks to try to make him look bad.
It could also have been done by the Cruz campaign. After all, they resorted to dirty tri
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Or it's just trolls who don't support either candidate but are just selecting the most provocative subject for trolling purposes.
I doubt any genuine trump supporters would want to associate trump with hitler.
Re: False flag? (Score:2, Funny)
At least he was in a TV station so he didn't threaten any innocent people.
....wait....SecondLife is still a thing? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:....wait....SecondLife is still a thing? (Score:5, Insightful)
That's actually the real news here.
Why the fuck is /. wasting our time with this?! (Score:5, Insightful)
What I want to know is why /. is wasting our time with such a stupid submission.
Come on! As I look through the Firehose, I see numerous stories far more relevant, interesting and newsworthy than this pathetic one is.
And don't suggest that I submit stories. I tried that, and they must have been too relevant or something (they had to do with computing), because they ended up silently discarded. I'm not going to waste my time doing that again!
Editors, can we please avoid these pointless political submissions? Yeah, they generate a lot of comments, but they're typically useless comments. They're a lot like YouTube comments or Twitter tweets; they're voluminous but extremely low-quality comments. They're far more harmful to Slashdot than they are beneficial.
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Come on! As I look through the Firehose, I see numerous stories far more relevant, interesting and newsworthy than this pathetic one is.
Which ones?
Re:Why the fuck is /. wasting our time with this?! (Score:4, Funny)
How about the one where I kept getting killed by some idiot who would camp at the spawn points? Or how about the one where my neighbor got duped out of a bastard sword or whatever.
I mean seriously , this story isn't much more than people being mean in a game. Does slashdot need its safe space or something?
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I mean seriously , this story isn't much more than people being mean in a game
Good summary lol
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Yeah the Trump swastikas suggest that its probably the patriotic nigras /b/tards.
Unless its genuine, in which case, uh, get your shit together America.
But its almost certainly just adolecents having fun trolling the true believers.
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Both they and Sanders are begging for attention. It's almost sad to watch. The democrats are desperately trying to keep people interested. But what's left to say about Clinton that we don't already know? They should switch their focus to congress, so even if Trump wins he won't get past them.
Re:....wait....SecondLife is still a thing? (Score:5, Insightful)
It doesn't work that way. The problem is that the Presidential election is normally how Democrats get voters to come vote for Congresspeople; it's largely why they do so poorly in the mid-term elections.
Bernie is the one who's actually gotten the youth excited about voting; there's some strong parallels between his campaign and Obama's in 2008. Obama won largely because the Democrats got the young voters to turn out, after being inspired by his speeches. However, this didn't quite happen this time: they were inspired by Bernie (but this time there's actually substance because Bernie actually has a long track record in Congress supporting his rhetoric, unlike Obama; the youth learned this lesson), but apparently not enough to win the Primaries for various reasons (too many voters thinking Hillary is "entitled" to be President, dirty tricks by the DNC to help Hillary, blatant fraud in some of the primaries such as Illinois where hand recounts proved the machines lied).
What could quite possibly happen is that, with the DNC coronating Hillary and pushing Bernie aside, the young voters will be pissed off and disillusioned, and not bother voting. This means the Dems will lose Congressional seats too. The DNC has really shot itself in the foot here IMO. Only appealing to dried-up retirement-age feminists and conservative blacks and then adopting a condescending tone towards the 35-and-under crowd is not a recipe for success in the general election, unless they've engineered some fraudulent results with the voting machines in many places.
The Democratic Party's biggest problem is voter apathy. They try to pitch themselves as the party for left-leaning (and farther left) voters, minorities, working and lower classes, etc. But then when in office they just kowtow to their big corporate donors, mainly Wall Street and Hollywood, and then whine about how they can't get anything done even when they have control of Congress and the White House, and adopt very centrist and pro-corporate policies. This isn't inspiring to the people they claim to represent, and definitely isn't inspiring to young people who are more idealistic. Polls show that Hillary is downright despised by these young voters. So I really don't see this turning out well for the Dems.
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The apathy is because we vote for their candidates and they turn around and screw us over. Obamacare was really well appreciated, but he didn't really get much else done,
It's also been a punch in the nuts to the middle class, which has seen health care costs skyrocket, as usual. Meanwhile, the rich get to opt out in one way or another, and the poor get some shitty, substandard health care and feel grateful for it. Since the middle class is at its smallest size since... what was that depressing thing called again? I guess that won't affect voting much. Meanwhile, it should galvanize the poor, who think they're getting a great deal when they get the equivalent of table scraps
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The apathy is because we vote for their candidates and they turn around and screw us over. Obamacare was really well appreciated, but he didn't really get much else done,
It's also been a punch in the nuts to the middle class, which has seen health care costs skyrocket, as usual. Meanwhile, the rich get to opt out in one way or another, and the poor get some shitty, substandard health care and feel grateful for it. Since the middle class is at its smallest size since... what was that depressing thing called again? I guess that won't affect voting much. Meanwhile, it should galvanize the poor, who think they're getting a great deal when they get the equivalent of table scraps of the rich, but taken from the middle class.
When Obama took office, there were two problems with medical care in the US:
1. Access
2. Cost
He decided to tackle access, and has basically succeeded at that. He decided to ignore cost, and things have not gotten better.
I think this was actually probably the correct move. Once people have had access to medical care for a while, taking it away will be difficult, so it was essential that this be done early.
The cost problem will need to be solved, and it will continue to get worse until no matter how conservati
FU Censors (Score:2)
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I suppose, since the pardon, should it be necessary to use, has already been drawn up. An indictment won't last all of five seconds.
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This is possible, however if Obama pardons her, that's going to (IMO) guarantee she'll lose the election.
Again IMO, it'd be a lot smarter for the Democratic Party to figure out how to get rid of Hillary and nominate Bernie, because he doesn't have all this baggage, and polls much better among general voters than Hillary does, and he'll also get the under-35 crowd to show up to vote for him (and other Dem seats). But with DWS and friends running the DNC, I don't see this happening. I think we can look forw
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The US elections will be fascinating to watch. We have already seen the corruption with Democrats and Republicans, with purging of polls and shutting down polling stations in areas where they do not get votes. The laughable part because they are both as corrupt and corporate controlled as each other, they can not honestly complain about each other, (they have both proven that with blatant electoral scams), it will be an ugly screaming match and enormously long voting queue (idea being, to crowded for you t
Pardons (Score:2)
As Ford so often consoled himself, accepting a pardon is an admission of guilt. [wikipedia.org] I wouldn't be sure that, if offered, a pardon would be accepted. If it were offered and accepted, I am quite sure that the Republicans would be delighted to hang her in the court of public opinion for being guilty of a felony, pardon or no. Which is not to say that she would not deserve that; I don't think there are many Americans who would for a moment accept electing a known criminal to the Presidency, but her political oppone
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Nixon was pardoned by Ford before he was indicted.
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I used to spend a lot of time there... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's somewhat comforting to know that nothing has changed in ten years. :)
What a time to be alive (Score:4, Insightful)
Doubtful (Score:5, Insightful)
There are two things I find unlikely about this story.
1. That Second Life is still a thing.
2. That these are actual Trump supporters.
It's just trolls getting a two-for-one deal. They get to disrupt the Bernie supporters while at the same time painting Trump supporters in a bad(worse?) light.
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I agree, its unlikely these where Trump supporters. The use of the Swastika would not be something that a real supporter would want associated with Trump.
So the question is who would benefit from something like this?
I've got two suspects right off the top of my head, in order of likely hood;
supporters of Hillary or supporters of Cruz.
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The use of the Swastika would not be something that a real supporter would want associated with Trump.
Ah, the old "No True Stormfront User" argument. Pretty darn naive.
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The use of the Swastika would not be something that a real supporter would want associated with Trump.
Ah, the old "No True Stormfront User" argument. Pretty darn naive.
Taking the story at face value is also pretty naive.
Most people saw how Trump not instantly condemning the klan (even though he did so many times before and after) hurt him. Any supporter of his, even if they were zombie nazis, would know to keep that part under the radar.
Trump is in fact backing Bernie saying that Bernie is being screwed out of winning the primaries by Hillary and the democrat party.
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Trump is in fact backing Bernie saying that Bernie is being screwed out of winning the primaries by Hillary and the democrat party.
Trump was right on the money with that comment, however I wouldn't call it "backing Bernie": he could very well want to see Bernie run as an independent in order to "split the vote".
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That's EXACTLY what Trump wants.
Much as it pains me to say it, the only way Sanders should mount an independent run is if Trump ends up running as an independent due to GOP finding a way to deny him the nomination.
Jane Sanders gave an interview where she discussed Trump's campaign advice...
http://www.salon.com/2016/04/2... [salon.com]
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"Pretty darn naive."
Yeah, recent events in my life have kept me from really keeping up to speed on everything that is going on in the world.
:)
So what is your take on this story? From your comment I get the impression that you feel you have a better grasp on whats going on.
Or am I just being naive again thinking you know what your talking about?
(but seriously, that do you think about it?)
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for certain things SL is still very much a thing. Like music.
will give you #2 though. SL is the internet, people troll just for fun. I personally would have gone in as Cthulu to voice support for Trump.
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Oh second Life is still a thing. As for number two well that I dont know.
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I didn't think Trump supporters were smart enough to know of or use Second Life!
*ducks
Only kidding! But seriously folks...
Smart enough? I'm pretty sure the only winning move is not to play. [wikipedia.org]
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Second Life still exists? (Score:5, Funny)
Are we sure that all of this wasn't a PR stunt designed to let people know that Second Life is still a thing that apparently still exists?
The Internet is full of jackasses... (Score:5, Funny)
In other news, water is wet.
Wheee (Score:2)
Am I just too old? (Score:2)
Am I old, or do most young people find this fucking ridiculous, too?
Satire, not "Supporters" or "False Flag" (Score:5, Insightful)
Instead, this was done by people satirizing Trump supporters as brash bullies and mocking Trump's rhetoric as Nazi-reminiscent.
It's not a hard distinction to understand, but apparently the article's author had some difficulty making the connection.
"False Flag" means something else here (Score:2)
In a political context, "false flag" is different from its normal meaning of recruiting unwitting double agents; it means slandering your opposition by associating them with something disagreeable. As a result, a false flag attack on Trump would be people waving swastikas at his rallies, and a similar attack on Bernie would be people waving Soviet fla
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AC: If the New Black Panthers supported Barack Obama, would that mean... (oh snap, your entire argument fell apart!)
well..at least this is an honest posting (Score:4)
"As Donald Trump continues to ride roughshod over much of the United States,"
There's nothing like opening up with a preamble showing your bias..
Expect more of the guilting by association (Score:3)
Many of the Bernie supporters spend a lot of time with computers and on the internets.
Expect more and more association by guilt. I will not be voting for Trump (I will not be voting for anyone, as a matter of principle), but trying to tie Trump is with nazis is absurd.
I am also getting sense, that anyone who is perceived as Trump leaning gets zero pointed here /. pronto.
I'll just leave this Second Life nugget (Score:2)
Cove Story for Realtor Magazine, 2007
http://realtormag.realtor.org/... [realtor.org]
Meh (Score:2)
I don't think that swastika flag is pro-Trump (Score:3)
Yeah, I don't think that Swastika Trump logo flag is pro-Trump, looks more like 4chan messing around. No doubt next it'll be invaded by flying penises and afroguys chanting "Pool's closed due to AIDS".
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They were invaded by penises when Trump's supporters arrived. Whether or not some of them were pilots, I really couldn't say.
I really hope.. (Score:2)
..this never ends up as one of those many cases of life imitating art.
To those protesting Trump's innocence... (Score:4, Insightful)
Is there any doubt at all in the minds of sane people that 100% of White Supremacists and neo-Nazis who actually intend to vote in the coming US federal election will cast their vote for a Republican?
This certainly shortens the list of suspects in this situation.
VR? (Score:2)
When is Second Life going to work in Oculus Rift????
I think that happened in real life too. (Score:2)
Metaphorically at least.
Wild (Score:2)
I'm confused (Score:2)
How exactly does a swastika support Trump? A swastika is an image, it doesn't have a brain or anything, so isn't capable of making decisions or supporting campaigns.
I don't believe it. (Score:2)
Re:False flag? (Score:5, Insightful)
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I don't know about that. There was the Trump supporter with the stupid hat that yelled the comment in the video where that girl was (deservedly) pepper sprayed. I'm cool with the pepper spraying, but that comment was out of line.
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I'm sorry, you accidentally quoted Metapedia and expected to be taken seriously.
MOD PARENT UP (Score:3, Insightful)
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Except for the KKK support endorsement...
but trump supporters like to ignore that one...
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Re:Joe job? (Score:5, Informative)
Not at all. The Trump campaign is littered with nazis:
http://fortune.com/donald-trum... [fortune.com]
Also, who could forget this nice lady working for the Trump campaign with stormfront tattoos and "88" tattooed on her hand.:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new... [nydailynews.com]
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Swastikas sound just a tad suspicious, innit?
Not at all. The Trump campaign is littered with nazis:
Indeed, they attract more nuts per capita than any other campaign, and by a long shot.
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The Fortune Magazine article is by Ben Kharakh and Dan Primack. Or do you only believe what you read on Breitbart?
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Nothing to say about the Fortune article?
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"giving the Nazi salute ironically".
That's really funny.
Find me someone who's using "whitegenocide" that's not an "ethno-nationalist" (aka Nazi).
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Yes. Absolutely. She supports Trump, so what other context could there be? She got caught and made famous, so she tried to backtrack. Next time, keep your mom away from Trump rallies.
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But most likely, by far, is that it actually is Trump supporters. In fact, we can pretty much take it as a certainty.
Only in Perry Mason is the guy standing over the corpse with a smoking gun in his hand an innocent victim of cruel circumstance.
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Clinton is so far ahead she could only be hurt by turning Sanders into a martyr. Face it...it's Trump's mouth-breathing imbeciles going after a target that can't fight back.