Gus Walz won over the internet wearing his heart on his sleeve at the DNC. But the bullying that followed is what kids experience every day, some say.

A tearful, unscripted moment between Tim Walz and his 17-year-old son, Gus, has unleashed a flood of praise and admiration – but also prompted ugly online bullying.

Gus Walz, who has a nonverbal learning disorder as well as anxiety and ADHD, watched excitedly from the front row of Chicago’s United Center and sobbed openly Wednesday night as his father, the Democratic nominee for vice president, delivered his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.

…

Conservative columnist and right-wing provocateur Ann Coulter mocked the teenager’s tears. “Talk about weird,” she wrote on X. The message has since been deleted.

Mike Crispi, a Trump supporter and podcaster from New Jersey, mocked Walz’s “stupid crying son” on X and added, “You raised your kid to be a puffy beta male. Congrats.”

Alec Lace, a Trump supporter who hosts a podcast about fatherhood, took his own swipe at the teenager: “Get that kid a tampon already,” he wrote, an apparent reference to a Minnesota state law that Walz signed as governor in that required schools to provide free menstrual supplies to students.

  • psivchaz@reddthat.com
    73·
    2 months ago

    I’m more irritated that so many people use his disability as an “excuse.” If he were the most average, neurotypical boy in the world, it would still be perfectly normal and acceptable to get excited and emotional about his father potentially being the next vice president.

    • EleventhHour@lemmy.world
      76·
      2 months ago

      Maybe, maybe not.

      It’s irrelevant because that’s not what happened.

      I get what you’re saying, but I find comparisons like this - although founded in fairness- to be ultimately unhelpful because they draw consideration away from what did happen: bullying and otherism. This isn’t about what might have been, it’s about what happened. And we can say how it would have been unacceptable under this or that circumstance, but that, I feel, detracts from us all uniting behind saying that THIS, under THESE circumstances was wrong.

      I’m not trying to criticize you at all, your intentions are good here. I just don’t think that we should lose focus of criticizing the bullies for the reason why they were bullying in the first place. They were bullying this kid because he is different. Because he is an other. If he wasn’t, they probably would not have, or they would not have attacked his otherness.