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.
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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.
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.
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.
The person you replied to wasn’t disagreeing that they would bully him for being different. I just see them as saying no matter who or how someone is it should be ok for anyone to cry while being proud of their parent. I wish I could cry for being proud of mine but they’re on the other side and probably mocked him as well.
I don’t think you need to try to be dismissive of the commenters opinion, it’s perfectly valid just as yours and mine. You can get yours out without having to say “I think you’re wrong.” Anyways 3rd party perspective over.
I wasn’t dismissing or even criticizing them— I think you misunderstood my comment.
Well not to be overly pedantic just because you say you’re not trying to criticize them doesn’t mean you weren’t. As for your message it seems to be lasered focused the kid’s level of ablelism which is a valid point but it doesn’t invalidate the above comment.
If you’re claiming to know my intentions and thoughts better than I, myself, do, then I suggest you open a psychic hotline.
Otherwise, perhaps acknowledge that, perhaps, you might just be wrong.
Or just become hostile and defensive that works too. Hopefully the rest of your day goes better.
You’re the only one who’s hostile, making false accusations and pretending to be able to read minds, then refusing to admit that you might be wrong
Go troll someone else
Well I wasn’t attempting to troll just have a dialogue like but I’ll go look for a bridge to go under then.
Edit I just noticed you went through and down voted like all of my comments. That’s kind of petty.