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Perhaps I'm not up to speed, but she was one of the first reps to call Israel's actions a genocide. What gives?
It's more bad-faith horseshit to get leftists to destroy one another, which a lot of leftists love to lap up because their critical thinking isn't real strong and they love nothing more than being "holier than" some kind of previously respected icon.
MTG's amendment left intact the funding for offensive weapons, but cut the funding for defensive weapons for Israel. So there is literally no way AOC could win. Leaving aside the fact that it was a kooky MTG amendment that was never going to pass in the first place... If she voted for the amendment, then everyone who is currently screaming that she's a fake leftist who supports genocide could say "See? SHE VOTED FOR KEEPING ISRAEL'S FUNDING INTACT, SHE SUPPORTS GENOCIDE!" Since she voted against it, they are currently screaming "See? SHE VOTED AGAINST DEFUNDING ISRAEL, SHE SUPPORTS GENOCIDE!"
It's just more can't-win, let's-eat-the-leftest-person-because-we're-super-leftist-I-promise horseshit.
Here's AOC voting against funding for Israel, in an actual bill that was actually a non-Hobson's-choice opportunity to vote against aid for Israel: https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/biden-meets-with-aoc-in-wake-of-her-vote-against-military-aid-for-israel/
And her voting against the actual funding bill providing aid to Israel: https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2025212
I've also seen people say Bernie is a Zionist, because he says "ethnic cleansing" instead of "genocide." Both Bernie and AOC's vocal opposition to genocide doesn't matter to these people. Actually, it's that genuine leftism that they represent that makes them dangerous, and worthwhile to engineer cooked-up horseshit to use to get other people to turn on them, so the Marco Rubios of the world can take over un-contested.
I mean... it really doesn't take much to get people on the left to turn on each other. It's kind of a historic problem with leftist ideological groups in general - they're awfully quick to declare each other the wrong type of leftist, or not leftist enough, and then refuse to cooperate.
There certainly are outside provocateurs, but I wouldn't leap to that conclusion in every occasion. Hanlon's razor applies.
Maybe. It's real hard for me not to notice the pattern recognition of "Kamala Harris supports genocide!" "AOC supports genocide!" "Bernie supports genocide!", basically literally any person in American politics who's trying to do some kind of leftist thing with any level of popularity, there's some kind of bizarre moon logic whereby they must support genocide and we've got to start screaming it at them and never support them again.
I will agree with you that some stupid features of the left tend to provide some nice dry powder for this kind of thing but I don't remember this kind of thing happening in American politics any time previous to the social-media-mass-shilling age of political discourse. Like circa 2000, there was a super vigorous protest movement, but it was aimed at shadowy neoliberal quasi-governments, fascist police, war machines... you know, the enemy. No one was out screaming at Al Gore for destroying the climate and throwing red paint at his offices.
Al Gore may not have really invented the Internet, but when he was in politics we haven't figured out how to really weaponize it for political purposes yet. It's not bizarre moon logic, it's active manipulation.
"Genocide" is one of those hot button terms that short-circuit people's critical thinking whenever someone invokes it, that's why provateuers online like tossing it about. ("Pedo" is another one, which has been in the news lately). Turns out getting lasting peace in the region is difficult and can't be reduced to slogans....
Which, to point out, he never actually said. He said "creating" - which is actually accurate, since he pushed the policies that allowed for it to exist. Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn support his stance that he was a primary driver behind its development from a policy perspective. I believe they even said no other politician has been as important to the internet (rough paraphrase, someone else can grab the exact quote) as Gore.
The claim that he said he "invented the internet" came from dirtbag pundits, of course.
It was a very, very early instance of the horseshit lie that is easy and bite-sized, and sort of reality adjacent, where anyone who's trying to explain the reality sounds like they're making some kind of lame excuse and is easy to shout down and dismiss. In retrospect, it should have been an all-hands-on-deck emergency to make sure that strategy didn't work and take hold.
I think we need to acknowledge that left-wing groups (especially online) have just as much of a problem with extremists as right-wing groups do. It's not quite as systemic and weaponized as what's described in Innuendo Studio's excellent video, but it is there and it can just as easily result in violent behavior.
Whenever a community turns into an echo chamber, the ideological aspects of that community switch from principles to performances. The members of the community start trying to prove that they're holier-than-thou, usually to gain nothing more than attention.
I think you're right, but I think this has less to do with some false-flag conspiracy and more to do with the accelerant nature of social media in general. I think a lot of this kind of behavior is driven by the one-upmanship impulse, and the effect of online communities is to concentrate a self-selecting group of people with similar interests. The larger the group becomes, the more an individual has to work to stand out and receive recognition from the rest of the group. Frequently the easiest way to do that is to demonstrate some extreme form of whatever the group's ideology is.
Basically I think a lot of this is just people looking for an ego-stroking. It's attention-seeking behavior, the kind you see in teenagers. They fall into some community or other and then find a community-acceptable way to exhibit their narcissistic tendencies.
here is a solution, make it clear you don't support a genocide ! how is that hard is beyond me. If you are okay with "war crimes" and "using food as a weapon" and "apartheid state" and "illegal occupation" then how people should "trust you".
This like saying "I am okay with giving Hitler weapon to defend German while he is committing a genocide" or "I am okay with giving apartheid South Africa weapons to protect white people while discriminating against black"
If your morality change based on who is affected do not breach morality.