Minnesota mom fights QAnon plots, one Instagram story at a time

McMahon said she thought it was “people’s innate desire to make sense of the world” that made them cling to anything, even if it was “straightforward lies on Twitter” .

While she says it’s easy to laugh at some of the most absurd lies circulating online, the ‘horrific’ January 6 insurgency proves how conspiracy theories can become a ‘real security threat national ”.

It seems that McMahon’s straightforward and straightforward ‘just the facts’ approach to fighting such lies resonates.

In January, she said she heard from 10 people who revealed they used to believe some of QAnon’s conspiracies until they hit her page.

“I understand that I can’t reach everyone,” she says. “But those 10 people will no longer be there to spread disinformation.”

And that, she says, is a victory.

More and more ‘governors’ as ‘teachers of the US government’

When she started posting her Daily Lessons on Government in late October 2020, she had been on Instagram for nine years and had amassed 14,000 followers.

In just four months, his account grew into a community of 400,000 people, who began to call themselves “governors”.

McMahon said the number of people flocking to his page gives him hope.

“There are people who are interested in the facts and who are interested in the truth, even if that is not what they want to hear,” McMahon said.

That kind of influence, along with McMahon’s warm, humorous, and self-deprecating personality, could easily make her a social media influencer. Instead, she likes to call herself “the teacher of the American government”.

The kind of government teacher who shares her favorite finds on Amazon sweaters, tells you about her husband’s recent kidney transplant, and sometimes gives lessons in her bathrobe while putting on makeup.

Part of McMahon’s appeal is that she never reveals her political leanings, although people constantly ask her. A follower even offered her $ 1,000 to tell her who she voted for. And unlike traditional media, it isn’t beholden to the odds and doesn’t try to make money.

“I do not swear any allegiance except facts, reason and human decency,” she said.

McMahon has given us reason to believe that, despite what the polarizing headlines might say, human decency abounds.

Since gaining so many followers, she galvanized “Governors” into philanthropic efforts that included a thank-you letter-writing campaign to the Capitol Cleanup Team, whose job it was to clean up the mess. left behind the January 6 riot.

The community has also raised more than $ 700,000 in the past five months – including more than $ 560,000 last week, which will be used to pay off more than $ 56 million in medical debt by default through RIPMedicalDebt.org.

She said the generosity of her “governors” is proof that Americans are aligned with what matters.

“We all want very similar things of peace, prosperity and freedom,” McMahon said. “We want to help others and we just have differences on how we want to get there.”

Recently, McMahon was asked if she could invite anyone to dinner. In her typical bipartisan style, she said the late Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Antonin Scalia, as well as former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Michelle Obama.

She said these two sets of duets show exactly what she hopes her lessons can teach: that it’s possible to disagree and still find an affinity for each other.