Thanks for reading. I’m not defending toxic Bernie supporters, whoever those people may be. In fact, I think we actually agree. You write, “I don’t blame Bernie for that. I blame his small band of radical supporters (out of the millions or reasonable supporters) who throw grenades and then can’t handle criticism of their candidate ever.” This is correct.

Which leads to two issues:

1. How people behave and interact, particularly on social media
2. How this issue of toxic supporters is manipulated to gaslight or suppress a candidate

I’m sure, given your own experiences, someone suggested to you that Hillary Clinton had toxic supporters too, who were mean on the internet. Almost every candidate has people who don’t know how to let it go when others do not accept their point of view.