In December, a legion of liberals in the San Francisco Bay area staged a series of protests against the tech companies that provide California’s lifeblood. They staged blockades of the private buses that companies like Google and Apple use to shuttle employees to work in Silicon Valley each morning. In one Oakland confrontation, they even shattered a bus window. Their message: Tech workers are moving in and driving up the price of housing.

Whatever the merits of their secessionist movement, the protests produced one of the great viral events of 2013. On December 9, as protestors blockaded a Google bus on Valencia Street in San Francisco, a man with the convincing appearance of a Google employee approached the protestors and began berating them for their lowly social status:

Google Employee: If you guys would just move out of the way...

Protestor: How long have you lived in the city?

Google Employee: Look, I’ve been here for six months, OK. Look, I live around the corner. I don’t owe you anything.

Protestor: How much is your rent?

Google Employee: Look, I can pay my rent. Can you pay your rent? Can you pay your rent?

Protestor: I can’t pay my rent.

Google Employee: Well, you know what, why don’t you go to a city where you can afford it? You know, this is a city for the right people who can afford it. If you can’t afford it, it’s time for you to leave...I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it’s time for you to leave. Look, if you can’t pay your rent, I’m sorry. Get a better job....

A rather outrageous thing for a Google employee to say in front of reporters, with cameras rolling. But of course, it wasn’t a real Google employee at all. It was a union organizer named Max Alper, who was involved in the protests and staged the entire confrontation for their benefit. And for the benefit of the cameras, of course.