Can anyone else see the irony with the TikTok ban?
Our standards for proper and ethical governance by the geriatric, lead-infused minds who have perpetually ruled over us these past few prolonged decades are, not surprisingly, already set quite low on the bar. Throwing the middle class under the bus in new tax law reforms that socialize the rich while capitalizing on the middle class and poor? That’s been the new norm for years! Writing off taxes for the wealthy while drowning the poor in more and more debt for profits? Pshh, old news now, my friends. Only when we literally think it can’t possibly get any worse with them in office do they exceed our expectations.
Introducing the TikTok Ban, buzzing all over today’s news. Not only are the poor people in dire straits now, but the wealthy influencers and businesses on TikTok are, too. More than half of Americans use this popular social media app to browse, and a good chunk of those are potential buyers for American TikTok shops. Another portion of these TikTok-browsing Americans can and already have cut a nice slice of wealth for themselves through viral content creation.
Take CaseOh (pronounced like the Tex-Mex queso cheese) for example, an Arkansas Twitch streamer who recently claimed a spot in the wealthy sector of America when he went viral using TikTok as his medium to fame. CaseOh had a dead end job as a low-paying landscaper before he made his big break on Twitch. He was poor and hungry and tired enough to want out of his harrowing landscaping job. But without clips from his streams going viral on TikTok, he along with many others in similar situations would be filtered out from what remains of the American Dream. Funnily enough, the dying American Dream has been resuscitated somewhat because of TikTok, a Chinese company (emphasis on the Chinese part).
With our feckless US government utterly paranoid about China taking over the world, this self-fulfilling prophecy could very well come to fruition. After all, it’s come to this point in history where the American government is emulating the Chinese government, banning an online resource used by over half its citizens. How is this any different from what China already does to its own citizens? That something so dreadful, something we once thought could only occur across the ocean, in lands and nations far removed from our own, is now making headway towards us is beyond alarming. It is unfathomable for America, the land of the free.
What will stop them from banning other forms of media from here on out, using the same exact method they used here? All you need to do, the sociopathic deceivers in Congress have figured out, is package all of these extra little laws into one giant law package, and then force the Executive of All Evil Allowances, the US President, to sign them all into our reality! That door has finally creaked open. Will it ever close again?
I shudder to think about this alternate American storyline. “No way will Americans sit here and allow our country to turn into a New Age China, banning whatever they please on the Internet!” I’ve been internally arguing to myself all day. This new dystopian America painted in my head has such a weight to it, it feels that simply thinking about it for too long could materialize that which is imagined into a dark new reality.
I hope for all our sakes that TikTok wins the lawsuit when it comes time to take this to court. Because if it doesn’t go well in the courts, what then? Would it be up to the American people to set things straight if all else fails? Would Americans actually be incited to take action if it came down to this? (What could we do as regular American people?)
We the Peasants who do nothing but complain on social media for a few days about matters as salient as this, before moving our fleeting attention along to other ‘pressing’ matters, such as Taylor Swift’s private jet plane mileage? With the attention spans of toddlers in this world of high-speed internet, it’s not like we’re going to do anything impactful about it to stop them. We might organize a few protests here and there where we whine and cry about it, elicit more road rage by blocking off popular traffic routes as we march along the streets and highways in temporary unison, but what will come of this?
According to my (informal) Psychology Manual, psychological reactance over the loss of a known right is a strong motivator for action. This was recently observed when an uptick of young people (finally) went out and voted during the midterms of 2022 after seething over the overturning of Roe v. Wade. This did in fact enact minor change, something to applaud. But that was a small ripple. We require a much bigger current to effect change on a large scale. Will this TikTok ban finally rally the young, depressed, and unmotivated to vote more consistently and organize political movements?
The way I see it, those who govern us don’t use one hand to slap us across the cheek, they now use both. Because why not? They’ve been getting away with it for years, pushing the envelope further and ever further. We allow them to treat us this way. How long before we stop enabling this abuse, before the envelope is pushed too far?
In a world of bread and circuses, where the bread prices are inflated, the circus is our White House, and the regular American people are getting clowned on, where is the hope for revolutionary change?