We will probably never know the origins of the original hashtag, but we know the origins of the #IStandWithDan campaign

The origins of the #IStandWithDan Hashtag may never be known, #IStandWith….. hashtags are quite common; they are used to support people being attacked online and are quite successful.

On the 9th of July the frustration had set in, living through the first lockdown in Melbourne a friend called me in tears

The tweet attracted a lot of trolls, but mostly love from the other states, 11 minutes after I tweeted Shiannon tweeted this

And that’s how it all started, a private chat group was formed, between @ShiannonC a photographer from Brisbane, @JosieGirl62 a business owner Northern NSW, @heyjimmy299 a mature aged student from NSW and myself a developer and web designer from Melbourne.

That throws out the whole idea of Stockholm Syndrome out the window doesn’t it!

@heyjimmy299 suggested we “get a go fund me page for a giant billboard saying we love Dan Then Alex took it, ran with it and suggested banners, as we could have more of them placed in strategic areas, as many as possible and each donor had ownership saying where the love and…

…support came from.” @heyjimmy299 words verbatim.

Wake Up Australia account details were released and in total 52 banners were produced, these banners are professional all weather vinyl at a cost of $105 and were donated by individuals, two types of banners were produced, We Love you Dan and we love the frontline workers, I…

…had to produce the artwork for each individual banner and post to the person that would display the banner.

So then came the merchandise store and bumper stickers nearly 10 K of merchandise was purchased, T shirts, mugs, coasters and much more, again this like the donations was from all over Australia.

https://www.redbubble.com/i/hoodie/I-Stand-With-Dan-by-WakeupAustralia/52196469.O16E3

#ThisIsNotJournalism was born early on and boy did it take off, the frustration everyone was feeling wasn’t the lockdowns, it was the so called journalists asking completely stupid questions, the Andrews daily media conferences were and still are appalling examples of what…

…journalism has become in this country and especially in Victoria.
Rachel Baxendale reading questions from her phone and they literally are a question framed from a tweet that her ex brother in law (Tim Smith MP) tweeted hours before.

The Media’s Narrative recently I was on the phone to Leigh Sales from the ABC730, Leigh had a hunch about the #IStandWithDan hashtag, her hunch was that it was being lead by bots, I assured her this was not true and that didn’t seem to match her narrative, guess what Leigh bots…

…don’t buy merchandise and bots don’t donate 5.5 k in banners.

The reason I’m writing this story is because there have been many articles written about the banners and the hashtag and not one of the so called journalists contacted me or the other organisers, every article makes assumptions and not one article has the gist of why we…

…created the campaign in the first place.

The #IStandWithDan campaign was created as an awareness campaign against the same media hacks that are now trying to use it back against us because they’re scared that we have changed the narrative and support the Andrews government and what it has achieved, it’s not Stockholm…

…Syndrome and we are not a cult, we are not bots, we are just over your fucking bullshit and we won’t stand for it anymore!