Jeff Jarvis: #fuckyouwashington: The Story Of A Hashtag And A Movement

[Hissyspit]

Just FYI, for those who don't look at DU over the weekend and wonder what this is about, I first posted about this here about 24 hours ago: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1561784

And then Raw Story reported on it here, linking to the DU thread (Thanks, Muriel!): http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/07/24/fckyouwashington-hashtag-takes-twitter-by-storm

CBS Blog and then The Washington Post picked up on it.

It all started with... explained here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-jarvis/fuckyouwashington-the-sto_b_908117.html

Jeff Jarvis
Author, 'Public Parts', 'What Would Google Do?'

#fuckyouwashington: The story of a hashtag and a movement
Posted: 7/24/11 03:09 PM ET

So I was angry. Watching TV news over dinner -- turning my attention from scandals in the UK to those here and frankly welcoming the distraction from the tragedies in Norway -- I listened to the latest from Washington about negotiations over the debt ceiling. It pissed me off. I'd had enough. After dinner, I tweeted: "Hey, Washington assholes, it's our country, our economy, our money. Stop fucking with it." It was the pinot talking (sounding more like a zinfandel).

That's all I was going to say. I had no grand design on a revolution. I just wanted to get that off my chest. That's what Twitter is for: offloading chests. Some people responded and retweeted, which pushed me to keep going, suggesting a chant: "FUCK YOU WASHINGTON." Then the mellifluously monikered tweeter @boogerpussy suggested: ".@jeffjarvis Hashtag it: #FUCKYOUWASHINGTON." Damn, I was ashamed I hadn't done that. So I did.

And then it exploded as I never could have predicted. I egged it on for awhile, suggesting that our goal should be to make #fuckyouwashington a trending topic, though as some tweeters quickly pointed out, Twitter censors moderates topics. Soon enough, though, Trendistic showed us gaining in Twitter share and Trendsmap showed us trending in cities and then in the nation.

- snip -

Every politician in Washington needs to pay attention to this outrage, and remember who they're working for.

MORE

Anyway, thought it was interesting phenomenom, and wanted to post this for those who don't read DU over the weekend.

Also pretty interesting over the weekend, if you missed it: Jane Fonda: The Truth About My Trip To Hanoi http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1557607

and: Norway Attacker Was A Political Terminator http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1561817