Insofar as the definition of 'white supremacist' includes Bernie Sanders, the term is not going to retain significant stigma, or even be understood by most of America. Insofar as attempts to point that out are met, by academics on social media or opinion journalists at left-of-center outlets, with the most uncharitable, dubiously accurate construals possible, followed by disparaging insults and performative stigmatization––well, if you’re a progressive who is incapable of constructively engaging with a Mother Jones staffer, what possible hope do you have of reaching the swing voters who will decide the outcome of the 2018 midterms?
Conor Friedersdorf, “The Scourge of the Left”: Too Much Stigma, Not Enough Persuasion [The Atlantic]
“Performative stigmatization”.