Trump Vs. TikTok Teenagers Doesn’t Help Americans Displaced By Climate Change

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Trump’s war against TikTok has been an odd thing to watch, and it just shows that he is more concerned about Gen Z-ers hating him than he is about Americans who have lost their homes in the California wildfires and, let’s not forget, the hurricane-slammed people of Lake Charles.

JUST IN: The US government plans to restrict access to TikTok and WeChat on Sunday as the Trump administration's executive orders against the two apps are set to take effect https://t.co/EZEMu1YWOU

— CNN (@CNN) September 18, 2020

So, Trump accomplishes nothing but claims "victory" regarding yet another crisis he created

Don the Con strikes againhttps://t.co/ab2PtSK9pC

— Tesla Shuttle (@TeslaShuttle) September 20, 2020

For those of you who don’t understand this little war, I’ll explain. I am an avid lurker on TikTok — I enjoy the comedic posts and the Florida guy vs. Florida weather jokes. There’s a lot of creativity from the cosplay world and women supporting women. It’s people being human. It’s an app that doesn’t curate marketed ads and influencers to your feed — you can stumble across pretty much anyone or anything on TikTok.

TikTok was how I found out about the derecho in Iowa. It’s also how many outside of Louisiana learned just how bad it was in Lake Charles weeks after the storm. And it’s center stage for young ones who are too young to vote but fear the direction of our country. One way they protested Trump on TikTok was to leave one-star ratings on Trump’s app in the Apple Store. Another way was to reserve tickets for Trump’s Oklahoma rally, a lot of them, with no intention to attend. Our next generation is brilliant and shouldn’t have to clean up the messes that Trump is leaving behind. The leaders probably will be stuck doing just that, though.

Because teenagers are making fun of him

— ⚽️🍻Little King Trashmouth🍻⚽️ (@TheSoccerDM) September 18, 2020

TikTok is an app that has given a powerful voice to American youth standing up against Trump and his bullying of other Americans. It is a youth standing up to a guy who mocks dead veterans, who calls them losers, who brags about sexually assaulting women, and who rips kids away from their parents, just because their parents were pursuing the American Dream like your and my and Trump’s ancestors did. Some defend Trump’s actions by saying that China doesn’t allow American apps inside its borders — why should we allow theirs? We know China’s dictatorship is not ideal — it’s malicious at best — but do we want America to stoop to that level just to prove a point to China? It doesn’t matter how many wildfires rage out of control or how many hurricanes hit our Gulf and East Coasts — Trump would rather fight teenagers and a Chinese tech company than do his job.

He’d rather silence the voices of his opponents — American people — than help the people in Louisiana, California, Colorado, and elsewhere who he is supposed to protect. Sure, there are some who support Trump — mostly out of blind loyalty or fear — but many are waking up and seeing him for what people have feared him to be — a tyrant wannabe dictator who would do anything — even feed his wife to the dogs — to stay in the White House.

#Trump is planning to take over/down #TikTok, so it will not damage his re-election. 😂 He knows the power of @Facebook misinformation.
That is the biggest if not the only one reason for his actions.

— Arek (@ArkadiuszKula) September 18, 2020

Why Are You Getting Political?

This is a question I’ve seen come up a few times. It’s a good question — politics should be left out of some conversations — but when it starts to overstep the boundaries set in place by our own Constitution to protect the rights of the American people, we have to “get political.” We have to address it.

“Just do as he says” is a typical response in abusive situations. Placate the abuser — do what he said — to maintain peace. No, we will not just do as Trump wants — because what he wants is illegal. What he wants will continue the destruction of our planet, degrades the US Constitution, and hurts a lot of people — especially minorities.

When top politicians suddenly rule that it is okay for the police to shoot a black man because he’s black while dictating that white nationalists storming a city are made up of “good people,” this violates basic citizen rights. Breonna Taylor was asleep in her house when the police invaded and shot her — in her bed — for no reason. How is this okay? Instead of dealing adequately with these matters, which take away many American lives, Trump wants to fight TikTok.

When we live in a country run by a madman who is fine with the murder of Americans in cold blood but can’t handle teenagers trolling him, we have a problem. Instead of protecting Americans from pollution, he is pushing for more pollution while attacking windmills wind turbines. For those who don’t think Trump has impacted the environment in a negative way, not only has he done so, but we’ve covered many concrete instances. One example is him allowing toxic wastewater to enter our waterways. Read that again, then ask yourself why you aren’t getting “political?”

Telling someone not to “get political,” is equivalent to “shut up and sit down, your voice doesn’t matter.” And that just makes me want to yell louder. It’s as if you are saying that what Trump is doing is perfectly fine — let him ruin this country, this planet, just don’t make me hear about it.

Americans are still dealing with the aftermath of Lake Charles. Americans on the West Coast are dealing with homelessness. Americans are dealing with job losses, Covid-19, and so much more. If we all have to deal, then, in my not so humble opinion, you have to deal with us speaking up and standing up for ourselves.

Editor’s note: Democracy is built on citizens being well informed and engaged. One of our biggest problems right now is that, on the whole, we are neither. Too many people want to avoid politics — and policy matters (which are different from politics) — altogether. Too many people want us to only talk politics in small corners of society and social media bubbles that can be easily avoided. The result? We have a con man gameshow host in White House because of his supposed “business expertise” despite being a total failure of a businessman who had to be bailed out by his father repeatedly for decades, and then by Russian oligarchs when his father died and US banks wouldn’t touch him (because of his history of business failure and not paying back loans). Just sayin’.