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How #ApologizeForWhat Made A Total 180

by Stephanie Casella

It looks like DJ Snake and Lil' Jon's 2014 hit song "Turn Down for What" hasn't turned down just yet. The parody hashtag #ApologizeForWhat was brought about by Reddit and Twitter supporters of Hillary Clinton after Bernie Sanders recently asked Clinton to apologize for saying his campaign — which he has stated time and again, does not run negative advertisements — is lying about her. This began after a previous parody tweet — #ToneDownForWhat — trended after Clinton's strategist made a statement about the negativity of Sanders' tone. To mix it all up, Sanders' supporters began using #ApologizeForWhat as a reverse attack on Clinton, pointing out things for which they believe she should apologize.

It's all getting weird 'round the Twitterverse, tbh. Tensions are high among Democrats, which is pretty unusual considering the party agrees on human rights, labor standards, and equality issues, among plenty of other pressing concerns. The big divider at the moment is Hillary and Bernie, really — and in that, things have gotten ugly between proponents of each candidate. Clinton doesn't believe she should apologize for her remarks toward Sanders, and clearly, neither do her supporters. And naturally, there are plenty of tweets to support her side of the argument.

On the other hand, Sanders' supporters are coming at Clinton's people with a vengeance, criticizing some of the darker parts of Clinton's career, such as her support for fracking methods of producing oil, for taking money from big fossil fuel companies, and for championing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) during Bill Clinton's presidency.

That's quite an earful on both sides, and it doesn't look like this debate is going to resolve until at least the primaries are through. Hopefully, it won't get any uglier than this.