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(Yes, that is how he spells it.)
And the account is incredibly popular: Walter currently has over 111,000 followers.
His profile photo is a cute little old man.
His banner image is the American flag.
He calls Democrats Democants.
He uses parentheses every time he refers to his wife as in, Ethel Pat (wife).
He makes ellipses using three commas.
So who is the actual person behind the keyboard?
So when was the account born?Funny enough, it came around throughDaily Intelligencer.
Years ago, I used to be an active member of their commenting community.
Before I got into playing music full time, I was a software developer.
Most of the work we were doing was crime, so probably good there wasnt too much.
I needed to stay engaged with something, and the 2012 election was going on.
I started to notice there was this online grid of trolls.
One of them was way too abusive.
Thats basically what Grandpa Walter is.
Like one of them was, Obamacare made my grandson gay.
A year and a half ago, my whole healthcare situation was up in air.
I was getting back on this hellscape platform and hearing nonstop political noise.
I really wanted to start replying to stupid people that way.
Theres really no other way to do it.
I went over 100,000 the other day.
Thats crazy to me.
I live in Nashville and Im a professional musician.
A lot of the Grandpa Walters in real life.
This is one of the reasons I made the account.
I didnt want to get baited into engaging with people when Im out on the road.
Research for the character!Yeah, a lot of that.
It was like a Nazi rally.
During the sound check I saw the teleprompter, and I realized just how far the propaganda goes.
Doing the Grandpa Walter thing sometimes reminds me of that.
I follow all the right-wing accounts, and I can see what they do.
I can see how they coordinate, see how information and disinformation mechanisms work.
A lot of people shut that out, and they dont get to learn about it.
That was another part of this thing that informs my approach, in a weird way.
In a lot of ways it feels like a sociology project.
But, its not good for mental health.
You realize its not going away.
The real guy is deceased now.
How so?He looks like a cute and harmless old man a lot of what this character is.
If you look at his tweets, hes always polite, but hes also really obnoxious.
He reminds me of a lot of people I know in my own life.
You love them, but you also know theyre kind of nuts.
He just looks like the guy who would get up and salute the flag in his own living room.
Hes a big Trump fan, but I still love the guy.
I really wanted to create that character.
You cant hate him.
Hes not an asshole, hes just wrong all the time, about everything.
These old men have a dialect that you start noticing.
Like, why do they all use five commas at a time?
Why do they all key in in capital letters?
I always see you replying to Chrissy Teigen.
Who else do you troll the most?The Chrissy stuff is not really trolling.
Shes really smart and shes really funny.
She always cracks up at punctuation stuff.
Whenever Pizzagate people start coming after her, she starts seeing the weird typing in her mentions, too.
Walter while I disagree, I respect u as a patriot.
A few of them are good sports by not blocking me.
One of my favorites was [far-right writer and conspiracy theorist] Laura Loomer.
And I evengot Democrat Ted Lieu recently.
Where do you see Grandpa Walter going?I never really had a goal in mind.
The hard part is Walter now has a lot of very annoying followers, too.
At that point its pretty clear this isnt a serious account.
They just dont get the jokes.
They think its a running gay joke.
The joke isnt that the grandson is gay.
The grandpa thinks thats possible because of Obamacare.
Thats been lost on some people, and I dont appreciate the homophobic responses.
One of the funniest parts in my mind is that this is an eight-year-old kid.
His entire life, Obamacare has been there.
They also just immediately go blue on everything.
Theyre like, Im not going to fuck you tonight, Walter.
And Im just like,God, thats not funny.
I always block Ethel Pat accounts after 30 seconds.
He thinks his is the only one that matters.
Its a very important part of the design of this character.
Are you shocked at how popular the account has become?Im glad people enjoy it.
Its weird to me because its a meta critique of social media thats also taking place on Twitter.
I dont think social media has been a force for good in our society.
This is a very good object lesson about why not.
Their idea of funny is like Mike Huckabee jokes.
Its just not good.
Satire can be dark, and a lot of #Resistance Twitter warriors cant handle a spicy tweet.
How many people in your life know about the account?My family knows.
My parents still think centrism is an ideology, but they get a kick out of this.
They see my grandparents in it.
I have hardcore right-wing friends who sometimes text me stuff I said like, Dude, this is hilarious.
Im like, Im making fun of you, but cool!
Glad you enjoyed this!
