In Pandemic, Trump Will Save Us—From TikTok

Donald Trump: What a walking, talking ad for the dangers of life in an info-bubble. The most powerful man on the planet, with a whole infrastructure of private intelligence available to him, relies instead on his own chosen poor media habits.

And how like Donald Trump I am, in a way. We all are, to some extent. The information we see on Facebook and Twitter is largely our own construct—we build our personal internets through our click choices. Which is why sources beyond the bubble are so important. I still get a morning paper delivered—a dead tree landing with a thump on an eco-friendly, tree-hugger’s doorstep—partly as an antidote to my own social media echo chamber.

White House image of Trump.

It’s not a revolutionary observation, but it bears repeating. Our smart phones of are making us stupid. In Donald’s case, it’s also that cable TV isn’t helping all that much.

This week, rich CEOs of tech companies were grilled by a Congressional committee—Democrats worried about anti-trust practices, Republicans worried that right-wing nut jobs pushing delusional conspiracy theories are sometimes limited. They both have a point. Much as I’m not fond of the alt-right universe, one of my blogs was banned from Facebook for a time for no particular good reason. On the other hand, when you retweet fringe doctors giving bad, dangerous advice during a pandemic—well, having your account suspended for a time isn’t so much censorship as it is attempting to save lives.

Looking at you, Don Jr. The dunce acorn didn’t fall far from the stupid tree.

But fussing about Facebook censorship or Facebook power kind of misses the point. Facebook is the most public of graffiti tunnels where everybody has a paint can and we all spray freely. It’s ugly sometimes, sometimes pretty—but just as a college student should never cite “google” as a source in a paper (trust me, sadly, they do), Facebook isn’t the source. We build our own Facebook neighborhoods from personal and other sources, and I’m not sure how far we should expect Facebook to protect us from ourselves.

Anyway, when I read a CNN story this morning about the president’s souring mood, one of the aspects of it that struck a chord with me was the way that the President is so isolated. He built walls of right-wing nonsense around himself. He has carefully planted disinformation weeds that have chocked the garden of his mind, and he can’t see reality from inside that clouded bubble. (Yeah, it’s not mixed metaphors so much as metaphor hash. Try it with hot sauce.)

How so very 2020. And at a time when we need leadership to tackle a global crisis, we instead have a rudderless, lost soul, whose idea of what we need right now is to ban TikTok.

Not the mechanical man from the twisted mind that brought you “The Wizard of Oz,” but it’s modern video app. There are concerns with TikTok. It’s owned by a Chinese company, and like all social media internet sites and smartphone apps, is partly design to harvest data form its users for purposes the users aren’t always aware of.

But why is it being banned? Why is Trump concerned about it now?

Well, he can’t conquer COVID-19, mostly because he refuses to ever be wrong. He put Jared and Mike in charge, and it turns out they aren’t the best people. He won’t listen to Dr. Andrew because the good doctor keeps contradicting the ignorance Trump keeps spouting on the topic. He can’t bring himself to fight the virus, so he can instead lashes out at China and a
Chinese cell phone app. If only Vladimir Putin were president of China, I think Trump would be much more at peace with it.

It is a sad, tragic fact, that while we can’t rid ourselves of this virus by willing or wishing it away (Trump has tried that), it is not that difficult to greatly limit it’s spread. But that would require actually listening to reputable sources and showing leadership, two things which seem beyond Trump.

The bubble he lives it, it’s not a clear bubble. And Trump can’t seem to see the harsh realities that lie outside it.

Well, at least he can try to shut up Sarah Cooper. Because, you know, TikTok is our biggest problem right now.

Oh, Sarah. Say it ain't so.