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.

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[+] 273 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)
  • [–] 167 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    They don't understand kids loving their parents.

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago

    Ann coulter literally said “talk about weird.”

    “That kid really loves his dad. Is no one else seeing this?! What a strange relationship.”

    The conservative mindset in a nutshell.

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  • [–] 36 points 2 years ago*

    I like how the one lady tried to flip the "weird" label onto it and failed so spectacularly she had to delete it because it turns out normal people don't think it's weird for guys to cry or to love your parents.

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    [–] 203 points 2 years ago* (12 children)

    They think him crying for an extremely emotional event is beta yet this is alpha:

    At least Gus was crying with happiness. Rittenhouse was crying in fear.

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  • [–] 153 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I was hoping this picture would be on this thread.

    Crying is only allowed by men if you're a conservative under oath I suppose.

    Let's add another one.

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  • [–] 33 points 2 years ago*

    Some of us are old enough to remember John Boehner before he showed everyone that he stands for nothing and became a pro-cannabis lobbyist after retiring from his position as the GOP Speaker of the House of Representatives (fucking scumbag. Put people in prison for decades because of it while you have the power to change that, and then immediately becoming a lobbyist for cause when you lose that power.

    Dude used to cry all the fucking time. It was like his trademark.

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    [–] 144 points 2 years ago* (6 children)

    My god the media is rubbish, "Trump came under fire in 2015 after he appeared to mock a New York Times reporter with a disability". Like, are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me? Appeared my ass, he did mock a man with a disability, it isn't a debate, or a perception, or the appearance, he did that shit.

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  • [–] 49 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    Pretty sure media writes that way to be lawsuit proof. Everything is allegedly, supposedly, reportedly, according to sources, and so forth. Only things a court of law has confirmed are safe to report as facts.

    Though I of course agree it is ridiculous as you suggest. There is video evidence of trump doing it, they might as well call it as it is. Attacking a young neurodivergent man for loving his dad is also despicable.

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  • [–] 114 points 2 years ago (33 children)

    The summary doesn't even mention that the poor kid has a nonverbal learning disability, anxiety, and ADHD, and these clowns are mocking him.

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  • [–] 84 points 2 years ago (21 children)

    It shouldn't matter whether he is LD. No one should be bullied.

    Research shows that bullying behavior often stems from a combination of factors such as a desire for social dominance, a lack of empathy, or modeling of aggressive behaviors at home, said Kristen Eccleston, a former special education teacher and advocate for children with social-emotional needs.

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  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago (10 children)

    Too bad some people just don't know about or choose to not follow the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

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  • [–] 25 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Most probably don't even think those things are real.

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  • [–] 33 points 2 years ago (3 children)
  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    Correct. I was not diagnosed 10 years ago.

    I can’t believe that the sudden rise in diagnoses’ is being seen as anything other than the first generation of adults that take mental health seriously finally reached a point in life where they had health insurance and disposable income to focus on their own mental health.

    I have had ADHD all my life. When my mom died, I found letters in her things from my school counselor advising I be tested. I found letters from pissed off family members telling her to get me tested.
    She didn’t do any of that. But I do remember the time she told me she never got my sister tested for dyslexia because she knew “none of [her] babies were retarded.”

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    [–] 92 points 2 years ago* (6 children)

    How the fuck it's related to his disability or anything?

    Imagine your father, like a not deadbeat one, a caring one, having his once-in-the-life moment at the state-wide convention. It's not weird to cry. It's weird not to.

    Men do cry, men do have emotions, men aren't a fuel for a vehicle you hop on. And men are well capable of anger. The anger against a fucko who laughs at other man's kid.

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    [–] 85 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Of course their reasons weren’t love…

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    [–] 78 points 2 years ago* (13 children)

    Don't listen to the "we didn't know he had a disability" crowd. They knew what they were doing.

    Give them a few terms in power and that kid advances from "having a disability" to "being euthanised for the good of the nation".

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    [–] 69 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    "Fellas, is it gay to be proud of your parents?"

    Repubs are bullying this kid for being proud of his father because they've never experienced it themselves. In either direction. They are weak and pathetic losers.

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  • [–] 50 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I feel like that's not the win they think it is. A young man is passionate and loves his father dearly, and has been raised in a loving environment that allows him to express himself openly. The cum cups and diapers are fine, but genuine emotion?: "Weird."

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    [–] 49 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    I am not surprised that conservatives find open signs of affection, and the general feelings and expression of love between a child and father, to be "weird".

    These comments come from people whose kids hate and/or resent them. Love, in general, is seen by them as weakness. These people need therapy, they are mentally ill.

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    [–] 49 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    A kid is incredibly proud of his dad and they mock him? The fuck is wrong with the world.

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    [–] 46 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Tangential to the point, but any writer that unironicslly uses the phrase "broke the internet" in a headline needs to be sent to a gulag.

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    [–] 43 points 2 years ago

    I love Anne Coulter tried to call him weird and then had to delete her Tweet because making fun of kids it's actually the weird thing.

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  • [–] 42 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    But…. conservatives are the party of family values. /s.

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  • [–] 37 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    Fuck anyone who even says anything about this kid.

    I WISH my teenage kid loved me like that 🤣 These internet bitches are just jealous.

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  • [–] 36 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    Adults bullying a teenager is cringe.

    They are mentally stuck in middle school.

    It's weird. It's pathetic.

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    [–] 34 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Doesn’t matter if he was normative or not.

    There’s no excuse for treating someone like shit for having real emotions that harmed absolutely nobody.

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    I mean, Republicans are usually deep in the throes of toxic masculinity these days, so as shitty as it is that they’re responding this way, it’s not surprising.

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  • [–] 32 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Conservatives bear their teeth at the sight of happiness. Happy people aren't subjugated, scared, and in line.

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    [–] 32 points 2 years ago

    These people are the living embodiment of daddy issues.

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  • [–] 30 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    Anyone who claims something broke the internet should be shot

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    [–] 25 points 2 years ago

    They're so used to their own children either hating them or having complete indifference towards them that they think that's the norm.

    They're psychologically abusing children from behind their keyboards and phones, for fucking nothing. Like, it does them no favours, but they just can't help themselves.

    We should be compiling lists of such people and their bullying tweets, and sending them to anyone who advertises with them or employs them. This shit needs to stop.

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  • [–] 24 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    What Ann said was not good.

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    [–] 20 points 2 years ago

    They thought about making fun of duckworth for not having legs but then they realized she would kick their ass legs or not.

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