Weird #walkaway video going viral on the right seems to be phony -- and a bad case of astroturfing
I get criticism from leftists on this forum that I don't call out wrongdoing or lies on my own political side. Well, I'm doing exactly that in this thread.
The #walkaway campaign was at first of interest to me. It appeared in 2018, and seemed to be a grassroots campaign of frustrated Democrats walking away from their own party because of the growing extreme left-wing politics. Having known some actual former Democrats who walked away (or came close) during the last 4 years, I thought this was an interesting movement.
Even better, it was headed by a gay former liberal named Brandon Straka, who was disgusted with what his own party had become.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51UGcghHZsk
However, I quickly lost enthusiasm for it when valid questions about #walkaway were raised. Photos of people "walking away" were proven to be manipulated stock photos. Straka had difficulty proving that he had any kind of large or semi-large following, and he started holding paid events for it. Here's a good article about #walkaway from October 2018, claiming that it "has all the signs of a grifting operation": https://thinkprogress.org/is-the-rig...-95dbce937e2a/
For the past two years, I had forgotten about #walkaway, until this viral video appeared on my YouTube suggestions tonight -- one I'm seeing increasingly shared on social media:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flp7gKg5G4E
This was posted 2 weeks ago, but is rapidly gaining traction.
"Georgia H" is supposedly a former liberal teacher who "walked away" from Democrats in late 2018, after experiencing far-left indoctrination of both students and other teachers at her school. She claimed to have been disgusted by identity politics, and concerned that her students were being taught to be think like victims, rather than simply striving to be their best. At first, her story seemed credible, and in fact quite realistic. It is true that education -- both higher and lower -- is infested with radical left-wing brainwashing. It seemed very possible that a liberal-but-logical teacher might get disgusted with the extreme left racial politics, and want to stand up against it.
However, as it went on, I became suspicious and looked a bit more closely. Now I'm convinced it's BS, and is all astroturfing.
Here's why:
1) "Georgia H" has no other videos on YouTube except this one. She does not identify herself. We have no idea if she is who she claims, or if what she says is true.
2) Conveniently, she ticks all the boxes of being pleasant to watch. She's pretty, but wholesome and not high-maintenance looking. She's intelligent and speaks well on camera. She can speak for 47 straight minutes (longer prior to editing) on the topic! She's a teacher who cares about her students! Notice that she's not a fat older dude, an ugly/trashy woman, or someone with a grating/irritating speaking presence. She has no piercings, crazy hair, or tattoos. Also notice that she has the perfect profession for such a video -- a teacher! She isn't a greedy businesswoman or someone else who would materially gain from Republican policies. In short, "Georgia" is exactly the type of woman you'd want to bring home to mom.
3) Her story starts off reasonably, but then contradictions come quickly. She claims to have "walked away" at the end of 2018, but in the middle she talks about having been moved by something in the 2000s said by George W. Bush. Then she mentions that she was supposedly enraged by the media's handling of Ferguson in 2014, as well as Hillary's "hot sauce in my purse" incident in 2016. What?! Sounds like she walked away over a decade ago.
4) She has an earpiece conveniently dangling during the video. Why? Likely talking points are being fed to her. I'm guessing "Georgia" is an actress. How often are YouTube videos done by someone wearing an earpiece?
5) The second half of her video descends into a lot of detailed right-wing talking points, and don't seem to be the words of a former Democrat who just became frustrated with some major flaws in her old party. She's way too detailed, and by the middle she sounds like a FOX News co-host.
Unfortunately, much like how a good "victim" story fools the sharpest minds on the left (see Smollett, Jussie), a good story of "charismatic former liberal realizes the error of their own ways" fools a high percentage of Republicans.
Almost all of the comments are positive, and it seems nobody suspects a thing.
After all, we WANT a person like Georgia H on our side. She's eloquent, sounds intelligent, softspoken-yet-logical, caring, and changed her political mind because she concluded that it's really Republicans who care about helping people, while Democrats are just performative. On top of that, she's attractive and a good speaker. She's pretty much every Republican demagogue's wet dream -- a liberal schoolteacher finally realizing the error of her progressive ways, and all of the goodness of conservatism.
Too bad she's highly likely to be fake.
In 2018, some outlets claimed that Russia was somewhat sponsoring #walkaway, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a Russian operation. Those reports could also be wrong, as there have been a lot of false "Russian propaganda" accusations over the last 4 years.
I'm really curious who or what is really behind this.
In the meantime, I've tried to politely advise conservative friends to quit sharing this, as I think they'll end up looking like fools when it's all done.
I will say that this was pretty effectively done, and I can see how people are falling for it if they aren't approaching it with skepticism, like I do with pretty much everything nowadays.
