“It was terribly wrong,” McMahon, a mother of four in Minnesota, told CNN. “Like, not at all right.”
Armed with a passion for constitutional law, along with more than a decade of experience in teaching government and classroom law, McMahon decided he wanted to tackle the untruths with education.
She started posting videos of herself on Instagram, dispelling some of the myths she saw online and giving non-partisan classes on basic government principles, like how bills are passed in Congress and how the Electoral College works.
“I really just wanted Facebook to sit and shut up,” said McMahon with a laugh.
McMahon said he believes it is “people’s innate desire to make sense of the world” that makes them cling to anything, even if it is “direct lies on Twitter”.
Although she said it is easy to laugh at some of the most absurd lies circulating online, the “horrible” January 6 uprising proves how conspiracy theories can become a “real threat to national security”.
It seems that McMahon’s simple and straightforward “just the facts” approach to fighting such lies is resonating.
In January, she said she heard from 10 people who revealed that they used to believe some of QAnon’s conspiracies until they accessed her page.
“I understand that I can’t reach everyone,” she said. “But these 10 people will no longer spread misinformation.”
And that, she said, is a victory.
Growing a retinue of ‘governors’ as ‘teachers of the government of America’
When she started posting her daily government classes in late October 2020, she had been on Instagram for nine years and had 14,000 followers.
In just four months, his account grew to a community of 400,000, who began to call themselves “governors”.
McMahon said the number of people who visit your page gives you hope.
“There are people who are interested in the facts and who are interested in the truth, even if it is not what they want to hear,” said McMahon.
That kind of influence, coupled with McMahon’s warm, good-natured and self-deprecating personality, could easily make her an influencer of social media. Instead, she likes to call herself “America’s government teacher.”
The type of government teacher who shares her favorite sweater findings from Amazon, talks about her husband’s recent kidney transplant and sometimes teaches robe classes while putting on makeup.
Also part of McMahon’s appeal is that she never reveals her political inclinations, despite people constantly asking her. A follower even offered her $ 1,000 to say who she voted for. And, unlike traditional media, she is not indebted to the ratings and is not trying to make money.
“I don’t swear loyalty, except for facts, reason and human decency,” she said.
McMahon has given us reason to believe that, despite what the polarizing headlines may say, human decency abounds.
Since gaining so many followers, she galvanized the “governors” in philanthropic efforts that included a campaign of letters of thanks to the Capitol cleanup team, whose job was to clean up the mess left behind by the January 6 riot.
The community has also raised more than $ 700,000 in the past five months – more than $ 560,000 of which was raised last week and will pay more than $ 56 million in defaulting medical debt through RIPMedicalDebt.org.
She said the generosity of her “governors” is evidence that Americans are aligned on what matters.
“We all want very similar things of peace, prosperity and freedom,” said McMahon. “We want to help others and we just have differences in how we want to get there.”
Recently, McMahon was asked if she could invite someone to dinner who it would be. In her typical bipartisan style, she said the late judges Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Antonin Scalia, as well as former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Michelle Obama.
She said that these two sets of pairs exhibit exactly what she expects her lessons to teach: that it is possible to disagree and still find an affinity with each other.
FIX: This part has been updated to correct the RIPMedicalDebt web address. It’s RIPMedicalDebt.org.