Călin Georgescu has amassed nearly 580,000 followers on TikTok, but his popularity on the online platform seems to have declined. However, he kept his fanatical admirers, noted the Romanians who were asked on online platforms if there are still any of his supporters.
Calin Georgescu. Source: You Tube, Călin Georgescu.
After Friday, when the Constitutional Court of Romania decided to cancel the first round of the presidential elections, the number and frequency of clips about Călin Georgescu decreased on TikTok, noted many Romanians, in the comments on social networks.
Also, the number of views that the independent candidate in the presidential elections got on his last clip is much lower than the ones that the videos posted on his official channel usually got (about 40,000 views compared to several hundred thousand which he had recorded in each of the previous videos).
Călin Georgescu’s clips, less commented
And the number of comments received on his last clip from supporters was only a few dozen, compared to the huge number of messages of support he received on the clips during the election period.
Călin Georgescu account on Tik Tok
During this time, some Romanians wonder if there are still supporters of his on social networks. “After all the evidence of friendship with Russia and fraternization with various dubious and dangerous Legionnaires who tried to create chaos and possibly a coup d’état, are there really any supporters of him left?”was the question with which a user of the media platform Reddit caused a wave of reactions.
“Of course there is. Most people lack self-awareness, which makes them vulnerable to myriad cognitive influences. The tendency to favor people who validate what we already believe governs majority opinion. When a not inconsiderable portion of the majority is exposed to online foreign propaganda masquerading as sovereignty, they will find a justification for every piece of evidence that questions their belief. They are literally immune to evidence when the evidence produces cognitive dissonanceă”, believes one of the Romanians who answered this question.
How Romanians explain the popularity of Călin Georgescu
Another Romanian replies that “there are no more supporters, only followers”, while another Romanian notes the fact that he no longer finds as many videos about Călin Georgescu on Tik Tok, as in the days before the date when the elections were supposed to take place.
“Ask Tik Tok, you’ll find a few less, but a lot more unstable and extremist. Today one threatens in the chat that he wants to kill himself and take a politician with him”, writes the Reddit user.
“There are, but fewer”, observes another Romanian. “Scream on Facebook, sorry, on any post, which may not even be related to the elections, leave comments: we vote for president Călin Georgescu”, he remarks.
Another Romanian answered that electoral marketing based on the permanent amplification of emotions until reason and the critical spirit disappeared was extremely effective and is still showing its effects.
“Many support him. Some are functionally illiterate, others with barely finished school and even that only at the mercy of teachers, and the rest are those who believe in AI (artificial intelligence) pictures on Facebook and comment “God help”. In their eyes, any evidence against him is out of context, fake news, etc. I know people who still consider him “the messenger of God”, expressed exactly in these words”, another netizen thinks.
“Yes, I am one of them. Not because I’d buy into any of his outlandish ideas or question the fact that it was supported by outside sources, but because I’d get far too much satisfaction from watching you guys wince when you lose.”concludes another Reddit user.
