Are You Really Surprised Some Leftist Men Hate AOC?
It was just a matter of time before a subset of the men in the online left turned on the progressive movement’s most visible woman
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t owe anyone her story, and yet she talked on an Instagram Live on Monday about her experience as a sexual assault survivor, explaining how the trauma resurfaced during the U.S. Capitol insurrection. Her honesty and vulnerability when discussing her own trauma and how she feared for her life resonated with colleagues and constituents alike — unless you belong to a mostly male-dominated subsection of the online left.
To certain leftists, Ocasio-Cortez’s Instagram Live was evidence that she’s in fact a “sociopathic imperialist politician” with “shitty politics,” someone who had just given a “masterclass in emotional manipulation” and who seemed to think she was “special” because she received death threats. The venomous backlash is hardly surprising, given the growing chorus of voices that began turning on her shortly after she entered Congress. To her detractors on the left, AOC was the supposed socialist savior, a woman who was somehow going to upend the whole system; they now view her as a sellout and con artist, the latest in a long line of female tricksters who seduced their way into power only to betray their marks.
In these leftists’ minds, there are plenty of reasons to distrust Ocasio-Cortez. They suspected she wouldn’t back Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic primary (she did). It upset them when she was polite to other (female) liberal lawmakers. They hated how she was willing to work with establishment Democrats in order to push her agenda. They were angry she wouldn’t support a gimmicky move to force a vote on Medicare for All. They thought she was being self-centered when she shared her lived experiences. The list goes on and on.
The backlash comes in part due to a misunderstanding of what role she plays in politics. Her…
