Attention Jill Stein supporters: You are not crazy. You are not stupid. You are not living in a fantasy land.

The primaries were rigged. The mainstream media is obscenely biased. The progressive vote is actively being dismissed, ignored and marginalized as the Democratic party moves further into bed with neoliberal policies of imperialism and corporatism. And there most certainly is a deliberate attempt from the Democrats to attack, undermine and obliterate the support for your candidate, who is most certainly a very sane voice in an extremely corrupt political environment.

Protesters inside the media tent touch their hands to those locked outside pic.twitter.com/xtVi8Swn2e — Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) July 27, 2016

If you’ve been a Stein supporter for any length of time, you already know why I’m saying this.

The relentless deluge of vitriol, mockery, and derision coming at the Green party from the establishment Democrats and their pundits can be difficult enough to stand up to, and far more difficult when that vitriol, mockery, and derision is being passed on to you from the neoliberal think tank through your friends, family, and social media acquaintances. It’s one thing when it’s coming from a bunch of talking heads on TV and attack editorials from the Washington Post, but it’s quite another when it’s coming from your own tribe. So I’d like to make this quite clear and unequivocal for you right here and now:

You are right. They are wrong.

The political establishment is terrified of the new progressive movement Bernie Sanders awoke during his historic campaign, and the Democrats are already proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that they’re willing to do anything, up to and including rigging primary elections, to prevent a progressive takeover of their party. They will use every bit of their all-pervading political and media leverage to try and stomp out every spark of life from this progressive awakening, and to try and gaslight progressives into believing that Hillary Clinton is, and always has been, their gal. If progressives don’t agree, it’s because they’re crazy, ignorant, or haven’t done their research.

Gaslighting is a very common abuse tactic wherein an abuser attempts to convince his or her victim that they aren’t mentally sound enough to evaluate reality on their own, and are better off relying upon the abuser’s interpretation of reality than their own. This not only makes the victim feel dependent upon the abuser, but also keeps them from realizing that they’re being abused.

But we are being abused. We’re being bullied and cajoled from all sides into supporting a political movement that will inevitably lead to more war, more ecocide, more corporatism, more economic disparity, more insane trade agreements, and more wage slavery. Both the Democrats and the Republicans have demonstrated a cult-like loyalty to this agenda, and whenever one party inches toward it, the other party is that much freer to move further in that direction as well.

And yet our candidate gets asked how she sleeps at night? Right.

@andrewfader who framed that Q 4U. Why the skeptical facial reactions when Jill raised Deportation,Honduras ????fishy pic.twitter.com/nvUWh2fzW3 — Chuck Ross (@ChuckRoss33) August 18, 2016

What is the definition of insane? According to Einstein, insane is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Trying to vote for the “lesser evil” in the desperate hope that this will somehow move us away from evil. Trying to vote for a woman who has shown us time and time again that she will push for military aggression at every opportunity in the desperate hope that this will somehow lead to less needless destruction and chaos. Trying to vote for a party that has already clearly demonstrated hostility to the progressive agenda in the desperate hope that this will facilitate a progressive agenda.

That’s what’s crazy. You are healthy, wise, and right. Keep fighting the good fight, my bright-eyed brothers and sisters. You’re the only thing keeping things sane.

[Photo by Fotolia/AP]