It has been the hope for a couple of months that the inauguration of President Donald Trump would dispel leftism from the collective consciousness. The day has come, but Trump undermines such hopes with his support for TikTok.
Even now, when support for the new president is publicly acceptable and causes such as transgenderism have lost popularity, claims that “woke is dead” are premature. Yes, the political shift is significant and the sense of lightness tangible, but who can say how deep it runs or how unpredictable Trump will prove?
Some foresight, however, is apparent in his offer to save TikTok after the Supreme Court delivered a nationwide shutdown of the platform. It was on the grounds of national security, rather than First Amendment infringement, that the court agreed to uphold Texas’s ban. Yet many see it as a restriction of personal expression and promotion, both of which are claimed to foster intellectual diversity and business success. Trump is perhaps TikTok’s strongest defender, proposing the United States obtain 50% ownership over the app.
One thing is clear: Taking the side of TikTok boosts Trump’s favorability. Some of our most left-wing, online voters owe him deep thanks. As a second, the platform contributed to the success of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. His taking advantage of the situation is no surprise — but it still is unfortunate. The ban would have served for more than protection from Chinese spywork: One great benefit of a permanent shutdown would have been the forced withdrawal of millions of American teenagers from the app.
Young, and some old, people are addicted to the short-form content. Hours wasted daily and social disconnection are among the most obvious and most bemoaned trends. One 17-year-old confessed herself a TikTok addict and mourned the lost opportunity to quit the app with no option to redownload.
It is not just screen time that motivates her argument: TikTok determines teenagers’ collective persuasions. Everything — clothing, food, really any interest at all — is reduced to a trend. Ideology, of course, falls into this pattern.
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For any sort of newly inaugurated politics to stick, the TikTok mode of thought needs eliminated. All the rhetoric of “young people being the future” requires as much. It is not that a Trump regime will replace what of young people was held by the Left: There needs to be a reworking of how the youth form opinions and individual personalities. TikTok does the opposite despite its advocacy for “personal expression.”
The youth will always grasp for progressive politics, but a solid cultural foundation makes their exploration safe. Right now, at least for many of these internet-addicted young people, there is no baseline but TikTok. If Trump wants “common sense” to reign, he needs to promote a common-sense way of developing that ethos, one miles away from intellectual weakness. Instead, he is working against a prime chance for cultural renewal.