Screencap of the Colbert Rally Reddit page

In response to the audacity of delusion that was Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor Rally , impassioned Redditors who are fans of Stephen Colbert’s commitment to “ Truthiness ” have organized an astonishing financial response to one of his favored charities for the purpose of bribing the anti-pundit into hosting his own contrary rally.

Lots of Filthy Green Stuff for Education

A side effect of this movement has been $226,585 (as of 5PM EST) in less than three days (since the official campaign began on September 13th) going toward teachers and classrooms that need money for supplies and books through a site called DonorsChoose.org. Reddit user nonexcludable chronicles the progress in a recent Reddit post, comparing Restoring Truthiness’ tally through DonorsChoose as of yesterday to those of Hillary Clinton’s ($29,945.) and Barak Obama’s ($160,238).

Donors Choose is a site structured to allow educators to profile projects they want to undertake with their students and detail the supplies they intend to buy with the money while donors can select the projects they wish to support.

A Note From Colbert

Stephen Colbert has acknowledged the massive amount collected in his name through Reddit, sending a message to supporters thanking them and saying:

You have inspired me by helping untold thousands of students; with the momentum you’ve created, we could stage a hundred rallies. I might just call on you, Redditors – for nothing is more terrifying than tens of thousands of Heroes taking to the streets with the faint odor of bacon wafting behind them. Except for bears, obviously.

One Donor’s Take

Gia Sandor aka giasandor is a self described 24-year-old Hispanic woman, married to an infantryman who served in Iraq, a college student and registered Republican who donated to the cause. She says,

“It is incredible to me that what is essentially a grassroots campaign has generated enough interest to merit the acknowledgement of Colbert and the public.



What’s great about our mission to Restore Truthiness is that it isn’t about an anti-conservative agenda – as a community, we’ve come together to show that we are not disengaged and apathetic toward the political issues at hand; rather, we are apathetic toward all the BS being flung around out there, conservative or otherwise.

And what better way to demonstrate that we are invested in making our voices heard and effecting change than putting our money where our collective mouth is?”

She notes that the figure is really quite impressive considering there has been no television coverage of the charity effort.

One Teacher’s Take

Reddit user Danielle Migler (aka signingelle) is a teacher and regular user of the DonorsChoose.org in Idaho who has had her project to provide graphic novels to her students funded through the charity website. Of her most recent request for assistance she says,

“My project had been up since June, and I’d only had two donors since then. I was $350 short as of yesterday morning.

Before ReddiTruthiness, my experience had been positive. Prior to this, my most quickly-funded project was my Hip-Hop/poetry project. It was picked up by one of the Adam Lambert groups. After that, it took about a week or so to get it fully funded. This was way faster. Not to downplay how great it was that Adam is passionate about DonorsChoose, but the momentum of the ‘hivemind’ blew me away.”

What Does This Say to and About the USA?

Perhaps the most interesting thing of all about all this is that instead of inciting violence in the streets or putting anyone down, or belittling civil rights heroes through nauseatingly presumptuous commercials, this groundswell of support for education and a positive cause may be even more attention grabbing and inspiring to those that disagree with much of what the Tea Party stands for. If the media stands up and takes notice of this action in the interest of human potential and education instead of inflammatory, inaccurate statements backed only by emotion, maybe the good guys have a shot here.

Photo (also used as feature image): Brett L.

This move is a necessary one. Even if Colbert doesn’t get behind the idea of a rally, in order for reason to prevail, those of us who stand against Beck’s delusional agenda are going to have to make ourselves as conspicuous and worthy of press coverage as those members of the Tea Party who make such irresistible fodder for television news have.

If those of us who recognize the obvious leaps in logic and blatant racism that are given credence by the likes of FOX News don’t make ourselves an equally loud force to be reckoned with, if we don’t panic in these upcoming primaries and flood the polling stations like we did before the last presidential election, we enforce the message of those who are convinced through corporate appeals to their emotions to act against even their own self interests.

Maybe the best way to do that is to make a positive change in the lives of others, fight truth and nail and give it all we’ve got. Even if the primary goal isn’t accomplished (that of having Colbert stage a rally, in case you forgot), at least 61,887 students (as of 5PM EST on September 16, 2010) will be working with new supplies from passionate educators who want to make excitement happen in the classroom. 100% win.

Community Connection

In addition to supporting the cause through your Reddit account, you can follow Truthiness Rally news up-to-the-minute on Facebook.