acorn

The slang ACORN comes from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a non-profit helping low-income communities with such things as safety, health care, and voting.

In 2009, employees of ACORN were recorded giving advice on how to commit illegal acts by conservative activists James O’ Keefe and Hannah Giles. These recordings would eventually lead to public outrage and political action against ACORN. The bad press led to lost funding, and ACORN eventually shuttered in 2010.

IndieWire

While O’Keefe and Giles succeeded in killing ACORN, the video footage that allegedly showed illegal activity by ACORN was filmed illicitly and was heavily edited. Further, O’Keefe was later sued by one of the fired ACORN employees for invasion of privacy; they settled out of court. Finally, it was found that the entire motivation of O’Keefe’s and Giles’s actions was political in motivation: to “take down” ACORN, seen as a liberal, Democrat-associated organization.

Not long after the fall of ACORN in 2010, similar dubious tactics would be used against Department of Agriculture employee Shirley Sherrod and Planned Parenthood, both highly unpopular with conservatives. Due to the timing, comparisons to ACORN were common. By early 2011, ACORN (styled acorn) was entered on Urban Dictionary as a term for altering videos in order to harm a person or organization, especially for political purposes.

Watching @ricksanchezcnn. Shirley Sherrod may have been ACORNed.

— Jean Esselink (@Uncucumbered) July 20, 2010

Sherrod was ACORNed and the left fell for it again. #tcot #p2

— Liberal Hit-Girl (@LiberalHitGirl) July 23, 2010