How a Former Government Teacher is Single-Handedly Battling Conspiracy Theories

Duluth mom and former teacher Sharon McMahon has begun releasing videos rooted in facts to educate people on what can and can’t happen in Washington, D.C.

How a Former Government Teacher is Single-Handedly Battling Conspiracy Theories

Sharon McMahon, a Minnesota mom and former government schoolteacher, has taken to Instagram recently to spread facts and fight ever-spreading conspiracy theories. After noticing how much misinformation was able to thrive on platforms like Instagram and Twitter, she took it upon herself to publish witty and fact-based information on things like election processes, Constitution clauses, and everything in between.

The videos started in October of last year, in the weeks leading up to the presidential election. Having had a total of around fourteen thousand followers from years of relatively normal Instagram use, her account spiked to top 400,000. Her style is comedic and bipartisan, never revealing who she voted for or where her political affiliations lie. She uses her years of civics and government knowledge to become “America’s government teacher”, as she says in her interview with CNN.

Political conspiracy theories have been around since practically the beginning of government itself. And yet, they’ve never come to such a head as the insurrection of January 6th. A huge swarm of the former president’s supporters–most following a mysterious conspiracy theorist who goes by ‘Q’–stormed Capitol Hill, citing false facts that the election was “stolen”. The country’s capital was left with massive property damage and even people killed from the violence.

Her videos even have had massive effects on big issues facing the country not just related to politics Her followers raised over $560,000, a sum which translates to over $56 million towards shrinking the country’s huge medical debt. So, it appears that Sharon McMahon’s stream of bipartisan facts have been helping to heal a hurting nation in ways that can be seen on paper just as much as they’ve helped soothe the political division tearing it apart from the inside.

Through her constant stream of educational videos, she’s gotten correspondence from ten followers–or, as they’ve dubbed themselves, “governerds”–telling their stories of how they used to follow conspiracies like those led by Q-Anon, but have since educated themselves with her channel. Even though ten people might not seem like a lot, McMahon still considers this to be a huge step. In her CNN interview, she states, “I understand that I can’t reach everybody, but those 10 people are not going to be out there spreading misinformation anymore.”

McMahon considers it a win.