Critics of Sanders use the gestalt of “The Bernie Bros” to create a shibboleth of extremist misogynists. From my experience, such a group doesn’t reflect the breadth and diversity of Sanders supporters.

Defenders of Sanders use the gestalt of “The Bernie Bros” to discredit any attempt to pinpoint sexism / misogyny / violence among Sanders supporters. From my admittedly limited experience, there is misogynist subgroup, but its members are not as numerous as those in the Bernie Bros group.

I believe that Sanders critics overestimate the pervasiveness of misogyny among Sanders supporters, and Sanders supporters underestimate this phenomenon.

For convenience, let’s call the misogynists within the Bernie camp the “Bad Bros.” The Bad Bros I’ve encountered probably make up a tiny proportion of Sanders supporters, maybe as little as 1%. They’re so obnoxious that they are probably not as numerous as some may think. Here’s an example of the Bad Bros in action: Pro-Bernie Trolls on Why They Harassed Nevada’s Democratic Chair

Sanders himself may or may not be a misogynist. We can argue about that till Doomsday. But I don’t think anything about his messaging solicits misogyny directly (the way Donald Trump solicits xenophobia, for example).

Still, there don’t seem to be so many misogynists among the supporters of the other Democratic candidates — even the moderates. (And for the record, the feminists who support Clinton or Warren or Gillebrand have none of the malevolence of the Bad Bros.)

If my presumptions are valid, something is wrong somewhere, and dismissing the fake phenomenon of Bernie Bros doesn’t explain it away.