GallagherWitt

Did you write the Open Letter About Why I'm a Liberal? The one that gets credit to Ron Howard?

The short answer -- Yes!! 

The original is here. It can also be found on Tumblr and Substack.

For people who still don't believe me, the Ron Howard attribution has been debunked on sites such as Snopes, Reuters, and Politifact.

FAQ:

How did Ron Howard's name get attached?

In short, someone named Ron Howard shared it in 2020 with his name instead of mine (grr). Other people saw it, immediately assumed it was THE Ron Howard, and began to forward it. It went viral, and has continued to resurface and take over my social media every few months since then. I refer to this as The Howarding.

Why do you care so much about the attribution?

For several reasons. I'm a writer, so I do prefer to get credit for my writing. Also, several people have attempted (with and without success) to monetize this particular post. And there was the part where the post went viral several times after men -- always men -- took credit for it.

More recently, a number of people have cynically speculated that the post is Ron Howard attempting to atone for helping to popularize J.D. Vance by directing Hillbilly Elegy. If there is one thing I won't tolerate, it's my words being treated as propaganda to help someone else's image. Ron Howard can own Hillbilly Elegy. I'm owning this.

Does Ron Howard know about it?

I don't know. One of the fact-checking sites did reach out to and speak with his publicist, who stated that Howard didn't write it, but to my knowledge, Howard himself hasn't made any statements. He may not even be aware of it.