Liberal Twitter Emoji War

Overview

Liberal Twitter Emoji War refers to infighting amongst democrats and leftists on Twitter who make their political stance known via certain emojis.

Background

Rose Emoji

The trend started in the 2016 Democratic Presidential Primary, as supporters of Bernie Sanders added a rose emoji to their Twitter display name. The rose is a symbol used by the Democratic Socialists of America,^[2] who use the symbol because it was used in the 19th century by socialists and trade unionists as a show of solidarity.^[1] Keith Spencer explained to Mashable:^[2]

"I thought it seemed like a good idea to help us find each other. It has the added benefit of being subtle enough that you can identify yourself as a socialist without, say, a random stranger noticing and then trolling you for it."

Developments

Wilted Rose Emoji

Hillary Clinton supporters, frustrated at Sanders supporters because they believe the Sanders campaign played a large part in her defeat in the 2016 United States Presidential Election, mocked the rose emoji by adding a wilted rose emoji to their handles. This was in turn mocked by leftists who believed the wilted rose was fitting as it illustrated the lack of conviction in the neoliberal left.

Corncob Emoji

The corn cob emoji became a pejorative emoji mocking political centrists in the summer of 2017 when Corn Cobbed became slang meaning to lose a social exchange and insist that you have not lost the exchange. Its origin is a Dril tweet posted on November 20th, 2011 (shown below).

"Corn cobbed" began becoming popular slang towards the end of June of 2017 as it caught the attention of political pundits who did not understand the meaning of the term. On June 26th, 2017, Twitter user @_Chilladelphia responded to a thread by centrist pundit Candice Aiston regarding health care with an image of her eyebrows replaced by corn cobs (shown below, left). Aiston responded by dismissing the poster as a Berniebro. User @ironghazi reposted her tweet with the label "CORNCOBBED ONLINE" written over it (shown below, right).

Discourse around the term grew popular again in the beginning of August of 2017. On August 2nd, journalist Yashar Ali tweeted an image of Kamala Harris, a rumored democratic candidate for the 2020 Presidential Election, that called her the "Centrist Corncob" candidate. Ali noted how it was remarkable how the "Bernie Sanders Crew" had mobilized against Harris (shown below, left). Centrist pundit Al Giordano quoted the tweet stated that the term had homophobic and rape culture origins (shown below, right). The same day, Neera Tanden, a chief strategist on the Hillary Clinton campaign in the 2016 United States Presidential Election did the same. Both were mocked for misunderstanding the term.

Donut Emoji

Neoliberal and centrist tweeters adopted the Donut emoji as a symbol following an event in which Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, a political group which aims to continue the progress made by the Bernie Sanders campaign, was barred from entering the Democratic National Committee's Washington D.C. headquarters on July 25th, 2017.^[3] Turner recounted how the group was blocked from entering via a barricade, but was handed "donuts and water," which she particularly found insulting.

“They tried to seduce us with donuts and water. They’re pompous and arrogant enough to say to the people, 'you’re not good enough to be on our property -- and, oh by the way, we’re just gonna hand you donuts and water over the barricade.' That is insulting. Absolutely insulting.”

After Buzzfeed^[3] broke the story, Twitter account @HillaryWarnedUs^[4] encouraged "proud Democrats" to add a donut to their Twitter handle (shown below).

This trend was intensely criticized by leftists who saw the donut emoji as a celebration of the silencing of a politically prominent black woman, particularly when the same people had recently accused those who criticized Kamala Harris, a black woman, of being racist.

The history of the so-called "emoji war" was covered by The Daily Dot^[5] on August 17th, 2017.

Search Interest

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External References