Screenshot from iPhone.

The impending ban on TikTok pushed many in that oh so American way to do the opposite of what those in charge wanted them to do. Americans are a strange breed– so docile in practice, but only if they think they are being “rebellious” –look to the MAGA movement. Ask any of those diehards and they will tell you they are mavericks, fighting the good fight, all the while not having a clue they are a useful cog in the machine that continues to funnel wealth to the very top. Americans want to be rebels that actually do no useful rebellion. Mainly they like to rebel against behaving in a socially responsible manner.

But sometimes that American irascibility ends up at a refreshing place. The threat of banning a social media platform so many used actually pushed many Gen Z members to download a Chinese social media app deliciously named Red Note. This is a magnificent fuck around and find out moment. Especially when a topic that made the rounds during early exchanges on that site involved cross-cultural discussions about the cost of taking an ambulance to get care in America. Chinese users on Red Note asked if it was true that in America one needs to pay huge amounts for an ambulance—they thought that perhaps this fact was part of their own government’s propaganda campaign about life in the US. The exchanges back and forth were telling, mainly telling in how difficult life in America has become for many, especially the young. Discussions like, how in many cases, two jobs are needed to simply afford rent, that groceries are beyond expensive, that the homeless are often criminalized and fined. Basically for those who remember the 90’s sitcom term…..it was “bad naked”.

It certainly wasn’t our finest hour having these topics aired out. There were instances of even right leaning young influencers voicing their disbelief and exasperation at how very little the average American gets from their government, while so many funds are sent elsewhere. The enrichment machine sends cash all over and those funds often can’t even be properly accounted for. This…… all for nations to continue corporate driven carnage when all many young Americans really want is college.

In the time our nation has funneled astronomic funds in the global war machine, other nations have been investing in infrastructure and improving the lives of their citizens. Obviously every government has its shortcomings, but here in America we are at a starting point of ask not what the government can do for you because it sure as hell isn’t going to do any of it. This includes basics in other nations like health care or modest livability. The brainwashing has been so complete that individuals think they are free, when in fact they are free to be poor, to toil to the point of madness to keep up, to be free to pay taxes to fund an aggressive........

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