On Saturday night, prominent US blogger Jeff Jarvis began to vent his frustration at politicians in Washington, as they again failed to reach a deal on limiting the country’s growing debt. He then called on others to vent their own anger, and the hashtag #fuckyouwashington began to trend. What’s become clear from the ensuing flood of commentary is the depth and breadth of the underlying frustration. From the folllowing digest, you will see that #fuckyouwashington has triggered a much wider backlash against the American political elite.
Here’s the context: Washington’s political establishment can’t come to an agreement to avoid an unthinkable and imminent default on America’s debt. Another day of posturing prompted Jeff Jarvis to fire off a series of tweets, kicking off a remarkable Twitter flood.
It didn’t take long before #fuckyouwashington became a rallying call in the US twittersphere, although there was concern that the trend would be blocked from public view by Twitter itself.
This screengrab of Trendsmap.com (captured on Sunday morning EST) gave a sense of the topic trending throughout the US. Mysteriously, the hashtag disappeared from Trendsmap a few hours later.
There is an obvious, and quite impressive, contrast between the essential profanity of the hashtag and the emotions being expressed within the #fuckyouwashington stream. There is clearly anger and outrage in there but the voices being raised often speak of that profound sense of idealism that has shaped the best movements in American political life.
Honour and decency were powerful themes in the #fuckyouwashington stream. But occasionally there was just boiling, seething anger.
There has been more than an occasional mention of the 1976 movie ‘Network’ in the #fuckyouwashington stream. Listen to the words spoken by fictional newsman Howard Beale and you can see explicit parallels with the emotions coursing through the Twittersphere right now. As the man says: ’I’m a human being goddamn it. My life has value!.’