Hillary Supporters Can Now Go Public on Facebook [View all]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/16/fashion/closet-hillary-clinton-supporters-facebook-secret-groups.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0


FYI: if you can read the New York Times because you have been there over their allotment for free looks... use the incognito option if you have one. I use Chrome.



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They have names like “Wise Women for Clinton,” “Cool People for Hillary,” “Bros 4 Hillary — #GiveEmHill” and one that rhymes with witch.

Some are small, with just a couple of hundred members, while others number into the thousands. All of them began as a “secret” — or, as secret as one can be with an invite-only Facebook group.

The groups are “safe spaces,” members say: a way to discuss policy and celebrate good news without having to defend; a place to bring up doubts about their candidate — What’s the deal with the emails? What about her changing stance on gay marriage? — and work through them together with a nuance not typically afforded on the internet.

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And those were just the people you knew in real life. Online, the vitriol was worse. Moderating comments on a single Facebook post was like “a master class in nonviolent communication,” said Lori White, 33, a writer at Upworthy and a founder of “Cool People for Hillary.”

Strangers commented on your feed. Trolls spammed your wall with threats, called you “a warmonger, a corporate whore,” and many terms reserved for female supporters that were far worse, said Laura Bogart, a writer in Baltimore.

Older supporters were not immune either. Robert Stanton, a 53-year-old actor, had a friendship severed after he “liked” a photo of Mrs. Clinton and Courtney Love on Facebook. His former friend told him “he couldn’t be friends with someone for whom he had no respect, which was quite a blow,” Mr. Stanton said.

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