As Joe Biden’s vote count climbed ever upward above Donald Trump’s this week, denizens of one of the most notorious pro-Trump forums convened to ask an important question: how can we blame this on Libertarians?
Regulars on 4chan’s Politically Incorrect (/pol/) board credited themselves (somewhat dubiously) for memeing Trump to the presidency in 2016. But with Trump’s reelection prospects looking dimmer by the hour, this hotbed for conspiracy theories and casual Nazism went looking for a scapegoat. Some members appeared to find it in people who voted for Libertarian Party presidential candidate Jo Jorgensen instead of Trump.
Things are, predictably, deteriorating even further, with 4chan users threatening to murder each other.
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Jorgensen, a psychology professor, has received approximately 1 percent of the national vote, a common percentage for the third party. She held her greatest vote share in Alaska and the Dakotas (just over 2.5 percent), but Trump won those states handily. Even if Libertarian votes might have made the difference in swing states—Jorgensen’s vote total was far larger than Biden’s lead in Pennsylvania on Friday afternoon—there’s no evidence Libertarian voters would have preferred Trump over Biden. As the libertarian magazine Reason notes, a survey of Libertarian voters in 2016 found that, in a two-party race, more preferred Hillary Clinton to Trump, although most would not have voted at all.
But among some /pol/ stalwarts, Trump cannot fail, only be failed. This camp set about blaming Libertarian voters (who are highly visible on the forum) for their impending woes.
“If you voted for libertarian, I actually fucking hate you more than anything right now,” one /pol/ thread began. “YOU FUCKING RUINED EVERYTHING. BIDEN HAS FUCKING WON AND ITS ALL YOUR FUCKING FAULT, 3RD PARTY HAS NEVER, EVVVERRRRRRR FUCKING WON.”
“I FUCKING HATE YOU,” another /pol/ user seethed. “ALL OF YOU I AHTE YOU YOU MOTHER FUCKERS”
One user attempted to consolidate the various anti-Libertarian threads, creating a “Libertarian hate thread” where they could all rage together. Others tried, belatedly, to argue electoral politics.
“Voting Libertarian is the stupidest thing you can do,” one person opined. “There is never any reason to vote Libertarian. You accomplish nothing except for your own vanity and selfishness.”
As is typical of /pol/ threads, the various rants melted down into threats to physically harm Libertarians alongside various other political, religious, and racial minorities.
The tantrum drew attention from /pol/’s sizable Libertarian contingent, which assembled to point and laugh.
“LIVES IN YOUR HEAD,” one taunted, probably intended to be sung to the tune of “Zombie” by the Cranberries, “IN YOUR HEAD RENT-FREE, RENT-FREE, EE-EE-EE”
Some claimed to have voted for Jorgensen in critical swing states that Trump appears likely to have lost.
“Voted for Jo Jorgensen in PA. I regret nothing,” one said.
One particularly sore point between the two factions was guns. Republicans and Libertarians frequently oppose gun laws, in contrast to Biden, who supports registration for gun owners and voluntary gun buy-back programs. Some pro-Trump /pol/ users accused Libertarian voters of being turncoats and supporting a president who would seize all their guns (Biden does not advocate for this).
That was beside the point, one Jorgensen supporter told a Trump supporter.
“I don't need guns to kill you, you dumb fuck,” the person wrote.
