This reaction to a simple domain name forward is all too common.
My headline is purposely inflammatory and isn’t fair. This post is more a commentary on the state of knee-jerk reactions and associations. More on that later.
If you type BernieSander.com (missing the last ‘s’) in your browser, it will forward to a donation page for Joe Biden.
Bernie Sanders supporters on Reddit flipped out about this, saying it is a sneaky tactic by the Biden campaign.
And Fox News picked up on it, only admitting at the end of its story that the Biden campaign might not actually own the domain.
In fact, it looks unlikely that the campaign owns it. Historical Whois records show that the domain was owned by someone in Houston for a long time. It actually forwarded to BernieSanders.com during at least some of that time. Then, someone in California acquired the domain before adding Whois privacy to the domain name.
But I suppose that doesn’t matter. In this knee-jerk world, Bernie supporters blamed Biden.
Now, back to that headline. I’ve noticed is that whenever someone that supports a political party or candidate does or says something stupid, their competitors often associate every one of their followers with this. So, saying Bernie Sanders supporters are stupid because of their reaction to this domain name forward is wrong. It’s just some of the supporters.
I see a lot of “liberals think this” or “conservatives think this”, often because one person who says they speak for liberals or conservatives says something. Just because one person who identifies as liberal or conservative (or Democrat or Republican) says or does something, doesn’t mean everyone in that camp agrees.
I wish people would just think for a second before jumping to snap judgments.
OK, that’s the end of my soapbox.
[Update: someone has been trying to sell the domain name on NamePros, adding further evidence that the Biden campaign doesn’t own the domain.]
Michael says
This one is also interesting 🙂
https://bernie-sanders.com/
John says
Another interesting concept is what it means to really be “stupid.” Often that depends on context and intent, and doesn’t always simply mean “unintelligent.” For example, you can be highly intelligent, even what people would generally agree is “genius” level, and yet still be mind-bogglingly stupid.
For example, in many cases I would stand by the following assertion:
Anyone who supports Joe Biden for President is extremely and tragically stupid.
However, I also recognize that a person can be free from what I and others would consider “culpable stupidity” in such a matter by being an honest well-intended dupe. In that case, they may really be starting from the platform of a victim. They have been “stultified.” However, the more you expose them to the truth and light about the matter, if they continue to reject the truth and light then they become culpably stupid if they also have the normal intelligence that would not prevent them from understanding the “truth and light.” Then it is a moral/spiritual issue, not a capability issue.
Stupid is really about being culpably foolish, but in our society as we grew up and even now it is often flippantly used to convey the idea of just being unintelligent, as in not gifted.
John says
People blame Biden because of the current trend of holding the candidate responsible for the actions of their supporters. Sanders faces constant criticism about his supporters being “mean” online (despite overwhelming evidence that Sanders supporters don’t behave any differently that the supporters of other candidates do). So the same should be true for all candidates, no? If a Biden supporter pulls this kind of sneaky, malicious nonsense, then it’s obviously a reflection of Joe Biden’s character, just as a mean comment from a Sanders supporter is apparently a reflection of Sanders’ character.
Joseph Peterson says
“I wish people would just think for a second before jumping to snap judgments.”
Think? Who has time? I want my 1 marshmallow yesterday!
Bite Me says
Bernie Sanders supporters are the height of stupidity!! We have Trump in the White House because of THEM!! Don’t try to deny it … a recent poll says that 15% of Bernie’s Bros will vote for Trump in the 2020 Election … Bernie Sanders is the worst thing to happen to the Democratic party in decades!!
Stevan Nahrwold says
I never liked Biden, but Sanders makes comments even more ridiculous than Trump. After his ridiculous one time billionaire tax idea today, he showed just how embarrassing he would be. I make $50,000 per year, but I am glad Sanders is out, so that I don’t have to vote for Trump again