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601 lines
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<title>03 February, 2023</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Is Donald Trump Losing His Mojo?</strong> - The former President’s political and legal challenges are mounting, even as some polls indicate that he still has a lot of support among Republicans. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/is-donald-trump-losing-his-mojo">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What Ron Klain Learned in the White House</strong> - Joe Biden’s exiting chief of staff is a case study in the slow accumulation of expertise. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/what-ron-klain-learned-in-the-white-house">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Are Republicans Ready to Move On from Donald Trump?</strong> - A former loyalist contemplates the former President’s flaws—and the G.O.P.’s willingness to ignore them. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/are-republicans-ready-to-move-on-from-donald-trump">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Ukraine Crackup in the G.O.P.</strong> - Republicans aren’t united with one another, never mind with Joe Biden. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/the-ukraine-crackup-in-the-gop">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Killing of Tyre Nichols and the Issue of Race</strong> - The case dispatches several assumptions associated with police reform. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-killing-of-tyre-nichols-and-the-issue-of-race">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Climate disasters hit poor people hardest. There’s an obvious solution to that.</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="People walking on a makeshift bridge over muddy floodwaters in a wooded area." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MriI7kuFjEVBJu8aKD-XLSU1Ams=/146x0:2099x1465/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71936187/bridge_bangladesh_flood_GettyImages_1227868416.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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People navigate a flood-affected area near Dhaka, Bangladesh on August 1, 2020. | Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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New experiments show the power of giving cash right before extreme weather strikes.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jcw1Ur">
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If you’re reading this, you probably care about fighting climate change. But what does that actually mean to you?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FvEIVO">
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Chances are, you<strong> </strong>take it to mean supporting climate change mitigation: reducing the flow of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere by replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KjKGsy">
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But there’s another aspect to the fight against climate change:<strong> </strong>adaptation. Adapting to life in a more dangerous climate involves<strong> </strong>building resilience to weather shocks — for example, by constructing a seawall or planting crops that can withstand droughts and floods.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Pnelta">
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Mitigation is vastly more popular than adaptation. Of all the funding directed toward fighting climate change globally, over <a href="https://www.givedirectly.org/climate-adaptation/">90 percent</a> goes into the mitigation bucket. And I can’t claim to be surprised: For years, I’ve mostly focused on that bucket, too. I saw mitigation as the way to solve climate change, while adaptation seemed like putting a Band-Aid on one of the world’s biggest problems.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PxivEl">
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And yet, who determines the time scale of our response to that problem?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RHovQD">
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For many people — especially poorer people in poorer countries — the problem is now. Climate change is already <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2022/8/30/23327725/pakistan-flooding-unprecedented-political-economic-humanitarian-crisis">flooding their homes</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/23057267/india-pakistan-heat-wave-climate-change-coal-south-asia">causing them heatstroke</a>. It would be unjust for richer countries that disproportionately<strong> </strong><a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-which-countries-are-historically-responsible-for-climate-change/">created</a> the problem to say “we get to determine the time scale of the problem, not you, and we’re deciding to frame the problem as a future event to be mitigated.” Climate change is also a present event, so solving it also means addressing the problem as it exists today.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XyslBR">
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“If you look at some river that’s started flooding now, no matter what we do in even the next 100 years, these rivers are going to continue flooding,” said Miriam Laker-Oketta, a Uganda-based research director at GiveDirectly, a nonprofit helping the world’s poorest.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="trLRQh">
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She was referring to the fact that it will take decades to decarbonize the world’s energy supply, and meanwhile all the carbon we’ve emitted and keep emitting will <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2915/the-atmosphere-getting-a-handle-on-carbon-dioxide/#:~:text=Carbon%20dioxide%20is%20a%20different,timescale%20of%20many%20human%20lives.">continue to warm the atmosphere for hundreds of years</a>. Money spent to mitigate emissions will pay off over the long term but do little to protect a country from climate change right now.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AllLfI">
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“We need to increase the amount that’s dedicated to helping people adapt,” she told me.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KZ8V1y">
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One approach to adaptation is to direct funding to governments so they can build up the infrastructure — whether that’s a seawall or a new irrigation system — to reduce the impacts of shocks. These big public goods are definitely important, and they should get a larger share of climate financing than they do today. But implementing major projects like these can take time. If you’re, say, a smallholder farmer whose food and income source is about to be wiped away by a <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/09/1128221#:~:text=The%20World%20Meteorological%20Organization%20has,the%20impact%20of%20coastal%20flooding.">climate change-enhanced cyclone</a>, you don’t have that time.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wcsimg">
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So a nascent approach to adaptation aims to help vulnerable people by giving them just-in-time cash transfers. That means free money, no strings attached, that recipients can use to improve their resilience in the days or weeks before extreme weather hits. Researchers can pinpoint when and where it’ll hit thanks to advances in data availability and predictive analytics. Recent experiments show how successful this approach is, making the case that anticipatory cash transfers should play a bigger role in climate adaptation.
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</p>
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<h3 id="yNVS3G">
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How just-in-time climate cash transfers work
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g7P5jY">
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Humanitarian relief organizations are used to doing two things: helping people out after disaster has already struck, and helping them out by giving them stuff. A hurricane strikes, and in comes the Red Cross or the United Way with water and tarps for victims.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E0y4dA">
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Just-in-time climate cash transfers turn that model on its head.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dOho5L">
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First, they offer people support before the shock hits, making them more resilient and limiting the economic and human damage when it comes. Second, they give straight-up cash. Not food. Not <a href="https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/articles/what-happens-to-the-losing-super-bowl-teams-apparel/">Super Bowl merchandise from the team that didn’t win the Super Bowl</a>. Money.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vkrrTW">
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We know from <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/giving-cash-directly-to-people-in-need-is-a-growing-trend-as-evidence-shows-it-works">research</a> on poverty alleviation that cash is preferable because it gives people the agency to buy the things they really need, as opposed to what outsiders think they need. And it can be disseminated much faster than goods, thanks to <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/21420357/kenya-mobile-banking-unbanked-cellphone-money">cellphone-based banking</a>. Cash is now considered the baseline standard for challenges like poverty alleviation, with other interventions judged on whether they’re superior to cash.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="glmW6R">
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And in the past few years, evidence is mounting that cash works very well for climate adaptation, too. Let’s look at three examples.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wvDxV5">
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In July 2020, <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/61542ee0a87a394f7bc17b3a/t/616ad24fdbfca62188f8e614/1634390614711/FINAL%2BAnticipatory_Cash_Transfers_in_Climate_Disaster_Response%2B%28for%2BWP%29%2BF3.pdf">data-driven forecasts of river levels in Bangladesh</a> showed that many households were about to experience severe flooding. The World Food Programme sent 23,434 households around $53 each a few days prior to and during the floods.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W9J3JO">
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The preemptive action turned out to be a great bet. Those floods ended up being some of the worst and longest in decades: <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/7/14/a-third-of-bangladesh-underwater-after-heavy-rains-floods">Over a million</a> households were inundated, and food markets and health services were disrupted.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GmF0sq">
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Compared to households that didn’t get a cash transfer, households that did were 36 percent less likely to go a day without eating, 12 percent more likely to evacuate household members, and 17 percent more likely to evacuate their livestock.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dAEBaP">
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And the impacts were surprisingly durable. As the study authors write, “Three months after the flood, households that had received the transfer reported significantly higher child and adult food consumption and wellbeing. They also experienced lower asset loss, engaged in less costly borrowing after the flood, and reported higher earning potential.”
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3_4OFkJe3T3lpigHxhd8FH1dZeM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24400244/bangladesh_flood_GettyImages_1227697888.jpg"/> <cite>Munir Uz Zaman/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
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<figcaption>
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A girl sits alongside a flooded walkway in Sreenagar, Bangladesh, on July 20, 2020.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6JOlur">
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Soon after, the World Food Programme also tried anticipatory cash transfers in <a href="https://www.wfp.org/publications/anticipatory-cash-transfers-and-early-warning-information-ahead-drought-ethiopia">Somalia and Ethiopia</a>, with similarly positive results: The cash infusions protected communities’ food security and livelihoods from the worst impacts of a forecasted drought.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u7aDLU">
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In 2021, <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/climatechange/responding-faster-droughts-satellites-and-adaptive-social-protection-niger">the government of Niger kicked off its own anticipatory cash transfer program</a> for responding to water scarcity. The pilot program detects droughts early by using the satellite-based <a href="https://earlywarning.usgs.gov/fews/product/128#:~:text=The%20spatially%20explicit%20water%20requirement,crop%20during%20a%20growing%20season.">Water Requirement Satisfaction Index</a>. When the index shows that water has fallen 10 percent below its median at the end of the agricultural season, it automatically<strong> </strong>triggers the unconditional cash transfers to be sent out.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="npfBbw">
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The trigger was activated for the first time in November 2021, and since March 2022, emergency transfers have been sent to <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/climatechange/tackling-food-insecurity-satellites-and-cash-five-lessons-niger">15,400 drought-affected households</a>. These transfers have allowed farmers to get help three to five months earlier than they would if they were just relying on traditional humanitarian aid. And receiving the support earlier meant they were less likely to have to resort to coping responses with costly social effects like reducing food consumption or pulling kids out of school.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MxtHR6">
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The nonprofit GiveDirectly, a <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/8/31/23329242/givedirectly-cash-transfers-rory-stewart">big believer in unconditional cash transfers</a>, launched a <a href="https://www.givedirectly.org/climate-adaptation/">climate adaptation program</a> last year in Malawi. The extremely low-income country — where <a href="https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099920006302215250/pdf/P174948072f3880690afb70c20973fe214d.pdf">nearly three-quarters of the population</a> lives on less than $1.90 a day —<strong> </strong>has already been hit with <a href="https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/wp-content/uploads/WWA-MMM-TS-scientific-report.pdf">climate-related storms</a>, with more expected to come.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Tw17uU">
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Knowing how climate-vulnerable Malawi is, GiveDirectly gave 5,000 farmers in the Balaka region two payments of $400, one in April and one in October, to coincide with key moments in their agricultural schedule. October is also the beginning of the wet season, when <a href="https://www.metmalawi.com/climate/climate.php">95 percent of precipitation</a> falls, meaning it’s when cyclones and extreme weather are most likely to occur.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cZWEub">
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Simultaneously, a group called United Purpose gave the farmers trainings on climate-smart agriculture, irrigation practices, and soil conservation. GiveDirectly and United Purpose had coordinated on timing, but they didn’t inform the farmers of the connection because they didn’t want to make the farmers feel they were expected to spend the cash on building climate resilience. They wanted the cash to be truly unconditional.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0uoMvS">
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The <a href="https://www.givedirectly.org/climate-funding/">results</a> so far are promising. More farmers are using better seeds (which are drought- and flood-resistant), more are intercropping (which improves fertility), and fewer are going hungry (specifically, there was about a 60 percent drop in the proportion of recipients who went a whole day without eating).
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0M4HtR">
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For Laker-Oketta, the research director at GiveDirectly, it’s clear that anticipatory cash transfers for climate adaptation are a good idea. “The cash we give is not sufficient to put up a seawall — that’s something governments have to do,” she said. “But the lowest-hanging fruit is actually giving people agency to make certain decisions they need to make now. The question is not, ‘Does cash work?’ but, ‘What is the right amount, frequency, and timing?’”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7bAUYC">
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Now, GiveDirectly is planning to experiment with the timing. They want to see if getting cash to people mere days before a weather shock, as opposed to weeks before, improves resilience more. So they’re launching a pilot with the government of Mozambique to give out just-in-time transfers, sending people around $225 just three or four days before the next flood strikes.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V5ETrR">
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In January, they began pre-enrolling individuals in vulnerable villages, which are selected by overlaying poverty maps, population data, and flood risk maps. That way, people will be able to get fast payments directly ahead of likely storms during the rainy season in March and April.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/SeiJl7Vk38ZQGoEAeSWW0c67tzE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24400346/relief_GettyImages_1133049493.jpg"/> <cite>Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
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<figcaption>
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Women wait to receive relief supplies in Mozambique after Cyclone Idai battered that country as well as Zimbabwe and Malawi in 2019.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<h3 id="VQIx34">
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“The best adaptation is to be rich”
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oagho7">
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Climate mitigation and climate adaptation, along with poverty alleviation, are all absolutely crucial if we want a safe and just world. They’re also expensive, with mitigation projects alone slated to cost <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-developing-countries-need-3-5-trillion-to-implement-climate-pledges-by-2030">trillions</a> over the next decade. How should the world divide funding between them?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PovBAr">
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When it comes to climate financing, the United Nations has called for a <a href="https://unfccc.int/news/antonio-guterres-50-of-all-climate-finance-needed-for-adaptation">50/50 split</a> on mitigation and adaptation. But what we see so far is still more like 90/10 in mitigation’s favor — a sore point at last year’s <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/us-payout-of-loss-and-damage-faces-hurdles-from-split-congress">COP27 climate conference</a> in Egypt. And instead of giving poorer nations additional money for adaptation, some rich nations have <a href="https://careclimatechange.org/worlds-richest-countries-top-up-climate-finance-with-funds-diverted-from-worlds-poorest/">diverted</a> <a href="https://climatechangenews.com/2022/03/22/climate-finance-should-not-be-made-to-compete-with-aid-to-ukraine/">development aid</a> — which is already <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23274306/usaid-foreign-aid-effectiveness-evidence-grants">insufficient</a> —<strong> </strong>to fund more mitigation projects.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Yjto16">
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Charles Kenny, an economist and senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, thinks that’s a terrible idea. As <a href="https://www.cgdev.org/blog/dont-take-cash-poorest-countries-help-them-deal-climate-change">he’s written</a>, foreign aid would be a drop in the bucket if it’s diverted to mitigation projects. But it can have a meaningful impact on countries with small economies by reducing poverty and fostering development (including infrastructure, health, and education). And development is a vital adaptation defense for these countries because it makes them less vulnerable to climate change.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4jsnCn">
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“The best adaptation is to be rich,” Kenny told me. “Take the same size earthquake or cyclone or hurricane, and the number of people who die is considerably smaller in richer countries and even richer neighborhoods of countries.”
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</p>
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<aside id="x7EfI9">
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<div>
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</div>
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</aside>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0IOSZd">
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In other words, climate adaptation and reducing poverty go hand in hand.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FU4WKl">
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That’s part of why Laker-Oketta, the GiveDirectly research director, said her organization didn’t worry about whether recipients would spend their unconditional cash on building climate resilience or on something else. “If someone makes the decision to spend the money on something else, it means that was their priority at that time,” she told me.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4eGrWr">
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For Laker-Oketta personally, climate resilience was very much the priority the day we spoke. It’s currently supposed to be the dry season in Uganda, where she lives, and yet it was raining. Just hours before our call, her office flooded.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zqU5yF">
|
||
“I believe a lot of people who want most of the funding to be focused on mitigation are people who are not being directly affected by climate change right now,” she said. “Their only worry is, ‘If the climate gets worse, then I’ll be affected as well, so can we put as much as is necessary into preventing me from being part of those people who are affected?’ But if you’re living in a place where it’s flooding right now, then you’re going to think differently. Right now, what I need is a way to stop the rain from coming in!”
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>The mounting, undeniable Me Too backlash</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/A6s422_yoeaupJSR7KkN-lVpYVM=/300x0:2967x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71936151/0111_final.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Amber Heard, Megan Thee Stallion, and Olivia Wilde are three of the women who have had the phrase “Time’s Up” trending next to their name over the past year. | Amanda Northrop/Vox
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
How Susan Faludi’s feminist classic predicted this moment.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mTAb9j">
|
||
I started thinking about when the backlash to Me Too would arrive almost as soon as the Me Too movement took off in 2017. Most of the writers I know who cover feminism did the same. Not because we were pessimists, but because we knew: That’s just the way it goes.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="q318L1">
|
||
In the fall of 2017, as if out of nowhere, people en masse began to evidence a deep concern about the problem of sexual violence in America. <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/10/15/20910298/tarana-burke-morgan-jerkins">The Me Too movement was formally founded in 2006</a> by activist Tarana Burke, but 11 years later, all of a sudden, the public actually cared about it. It was part of that apocalyptic feeling that emerged after Donald Trump won the presidency, when suddenly every injustice in American life felt massively visible and consequential.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JRF8Id">
|
||
First the news broke that film producer Harvey Weinstein had assaulted dozens of women. Then dozens more women who had been assaulted by Weinstein came forward. Then it was woman after woman coming forward with their own stories of assault by other people, and after that, not just women but men too. Every day another story broke about another powerful man assaulting another defenseless person; every day that story was greeted with widespread shock, outrage, and horror. <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2020/1/6/21051600/harvey-weinstein-trial-sexual-assault-me-too">Weinstein</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/20/16682376/charlie-rose-accussed-sexual-harassment">Charlie Rose</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/11/9/16629400/louis-ck-allegations-masturbation">Louis C.K.</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/11/3/16602628/kevin-spacey-sexual-assault-allegations-house-of-cards">Kevin Spacey</a>: the stories came out one after another, and again and again the public response was, for once, not to turn away and look in the other direction.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y9lrfH">
|
||
People lost their jobs. They were arrested. <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/10/4/20852639/me-too-movement-sexual-harassment-law-2019">There were lawsuits and federal legislation</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xhfnow">
|
||
This state of affairs, we feminists agreed, could not possibly last. America has never been willing to spend time caring about the safety of women without making them pay for it later. The Me Too moment was going to end. Then there was going to be a backlash, and it was going to hurt.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fO5ROd">
|
||
The backlash has arrived.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2FEpbK">
|
||
In June 2022, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/6/24/23176750/supreme-court-overturns-roe-v-wade-read-dobbs-decision-text">the Supreme Court overruled <em>Roe v. Wade</em></a> in the case of <em>Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization</em>. The decision made it possible, for the first time since 1973, for US states to outright ban abortions, with no exceptions left for survivors of rape or incest and little to no room to care for the health of people whose lives might be endangered by a pregnancy. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/us/abortion-laws-roe-v-wade.html">Most abortions are now illegal in 13 states</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k9wRcz">
|
||
There are other, less seismic indicators of backlash. Three big Me Too cases that had finally made their way through the court system this year hit massive legal setbacks, with <a href="https://apnews.com/article/danny-masterson-mistrial-rape-trial-162a670d6068f05462825a96e4193fd8">Danny Masterson’s rape case resulting in a mistrial</a>, a <a href="https://variety.com/2022/film/news/kevin-spacey-anthony-rapp-loses-40-million-sexual-battery-lawsuit-1235410119/">jury exonerating Kevin Spacey</a> of sexual assault, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23043519/johnny-depp-amber-heard-defamation-trial-fairfax-county-domestic-abuse-violence-me-too">Johnny Depp winning his defamation case against Amber Heard, who had accused him of domestic violence</a>. Women who have found themselves in the public spotlight over the past few months, including Heard, <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2022/9/6/23339631/dont-worry-darling-wilde-pugh-feud-explained">Olivia Wilde</a>, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23494788/megan-thee-stallion-tory-lanez-assault-trial">Megan Thee Stallion</a>, have been targeted by a misogynistic outpouring that’s often bizarrely inflected by the rhetoric of Me Too.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mrMLwJ">
|
||
Public opinion polls show the backlash rolling on. Feminism is becoming less popular, especially with young men. <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/news/2022/06/01/poll-finds-support-great-replacement-hard-right-ideas#gender">According to a 2022 study by the Southern Poverty Law Center</a>, 62 percent of young Republican men say feminism is a net negative for society, and 46 percent of young Democratic men agree. (Less than a quarter of young Democratic women agree with that statement.) In contrast, in 2020 <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/07/07/61-of-u-s-women-say-feminist-describes-them-well-many-see-feminism-as-empowering-polarizing/ft_2020-07-07_feminism_02/">a Pew study</a> found 60 percent of men across parties agreeing that feminism was “empowering,” and only 34 percent saying it was “outdated.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U71u0o">
|
||
The problem of fashionable feminist activism followed by extreme backlash is a known problem for the American women’s movement. It has been ever since it was chronicled by Susan Faludi in her 1991 classic <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/backlash-the-undeclared-war-against-american-women-susan-faludi/8728966?ean=9780307345424"><em>Backlash</em>: <em>The Undeclared War Against American Women</em></a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BssFlp">
|
||
<em>Backlash</em> was written in the aftermath of the Reaganite conservative ’80s response to the gains of the second-wave feminist movement of the ’70s. Yet Faludi makes it clear that she’s not talking about one particular moment in time. Instead, she’s looking at a particular pattern of what she describes as “flare-ups” of misogynistic attitudes and legislation across the sweep of American history, from the colonial era onward.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jmAw64">
|
||
Importantly, the backlash is rarely the product of a grand conspiracy or concerted effort among sinister misogynists to bring women down. It’s simply a mass reaction to a mass movement. Those who enact the backlash, Faludi writes, are often unaware “of their role; some even consider themselves feminists. For the most part, its workings are encoded and internalized, diffuse and chameleonic.” But she finds the pattern of this diffuse, unplanned backlash emerging throughout American history, every time the women’s movement appears to be making gains.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f7Ntci">
|
||
<a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/3/20/16955588/feminism-waves-explained-first-second-third-fourth">The American women’s movement</a> is generally dated to the Seneca Falls convention of 1848. In the half-century that followed, as women agitated for the vote, more than 100 states passed laws restricting divorce. In the late 19th century, for the first time in American history, it became a federal crime to distribute contraception, and most states had outlawed abortion.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K4BpOg">
|
||
Meanwhile, studies circulated warning that only 28 percent of college-educated women would ever be married. A bestselling book by a Harvard professor argued that a “brain-womb conflict” would lead educated women into an infertility epidemic. Career women were said to be succumbing to “hermaphroditism.” Teddy Roosevelt declared the white women who postponed childbirth to be “criminals against the race,” while the married women pushing for rights were creating a “crisis in the family.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Dd5YII">
|
||
“If we trace these occurrences in American history,” Faludi writes in <em>Backlash</em>, “we find such flare-ups are hardly random; they have always been triggered by the perception — accurate or not — that women are making great strides.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w2l2hB">
|
||
In 2017, women seemed to be making great strides. The backlash is here to correct for that.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="6mk3Jm">
|
||
The backlash has two targets: Reproductive rights and financial freedom
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lK0B2iCAh-KXnz6De_a1jfA6ucU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24402259/1458574135.jpg"/> <cite>Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
People protest in front of the White House during the annual National Women’s March on January 22, 2023, in Washington, DC. The march, also called “Bigger than Roe,” was held to mark the 50-year anniversary since the ruling on <em>Roe v. Wade</em>, and to protest the Supreme Court’s ruling in the <em>Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health</em> case, which takes back federal protections for accessing abortions.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rPUqeU">
|
||
Faludi argues that each feminist backlash always centers on two “pressure points,” which it rapidly endangers: a woman’s control over her own fertility, and a woman’s claim to her own paycheck. That’s the case here, too.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rYUunt">
|
||
The <em>Dobbs</em> decision was a wrecking ball aimed squarely at a woman’s control over her own fertility. Generations of women went to bed one night entitled to a constitutional right they were born with — a right to reproductive freedom — and woke up the next day without it. Almost immediately, story after story emerged of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-science-health-medication-lupus-e4042947e4cc0c45e38837d394199033">women</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/07/16/abortion-miscarriage-ectopic-pregnancy-care/">facing</a> <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/texas-hospitals-delaying-care-over-violating-abortion-law">painful</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/17/health/abortion-miscarriage-treatment.html">traumatic</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/1603805360514637824">miscarriages</a>; of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/07/17/1111912927/the-doctor-who-performed-an-abortion-for-a-10-year-old-rape-victim-faces-backlas">a 10-year-old<strong> </strong>rape victim</a>, forced to cross state lines to get an abortion.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BP4RZv">
|
||
As for a woman’s claim to her own paycheck: It’s worth remembering that Me Too is, at its core, a workplace safety movement. The stories that launched Me Too into public consciousness were about people (mostly women) accusing their professional superiors (mostly men) of using their professional power to facilitate sexual harassment and assault.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TVpCpV">
|
||
In a time of backlash, Faludi writes, “the culture simply redoubles its resistance [to women in the workplace], if not by returning women to the kitchen, then by making the hours spent away from their stoves as inequitable and intolerable as possible.” One of the culture’s strategies, Faludi finds, is “subjecting them to harassment.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VRNOtY">
|
||
We’re currently in the midst of a spate of high-profile celebrity trials focusing on whether women should get to keep their money or whether they should be dependent on men who they have said behaved violently to them. Frequently, the results are not looking great for women.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d6uIJl">
|
||
This year, we’ll see a lawsuit between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie proceed, with Pitt suing Jolie over her decision to sell her share of a vineyard they used to own together. Pitt says that Jolie sold her half of the property to a hostile company after promising never to sell it, but Jolie says she tried to sell her shares to Pitt directly and he refused — unless she was willing to sign an NDA swearing she would never discuss the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/04/movies/angelina-jolie-brad-pitt-lawsuit.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes">infamous 2016 plane ride</a> during which Pitt allegedly assaulted both Jolie and their children. Here, Pitt is seemingly attempting to tie up Jolie’s money with her silence in the face of his own alleged violence. <a href="https://pagesix.com/2022/10/06/brad-pitt-wont-own-anything-he-didnt-do-lawyer-says/">The</a> <a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/angelina-jolie-vows-to-destroy-brad-pitt-in-divorce-war-w442275/">gossip</a> <a href="https://people.com/celebrity/angelina-jolie-and-brad-pitt-split-source-responds-to-abuse-allegations/">media</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/TMZ/status/1577570228355174400">is</a> overwhelmingly supporting Pitt’s side of the story, painting Jolie as a wronged woman out for revenge.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xrs8g6">
|
||
In June, <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23043519/johnny-depp-amber-heard-defamation-trial-fairfax-county-domestic-abuse-violence-me-too">a jury found in favor of Johnny Depp in his defamation case against Amber Heard</a> after she accused him of domestic violence. This case might not seem to fit into the pattern of the backlash separating women from their paychecks, since Depp and Heard were married, but it’s important to remember that they were also co-workers. They met when Depp cast Heard to play his love interest in <em>The Rum Diary</em> in 2009. Their romance began on the set where they worked together. After their divorce, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/johnny-depps-lawyer-battle-drags-elon-musk-kevin-tsujihara-1202904/">Depp allegedly attempted to get Heard “blacklisted” from movie projects</a>. Heard did not experience the beginning of her relationship with Depp as an abuse of his power, but after she left the violence of their relationship, Depp used his professional power to target her ability to earn her living.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X3nXO7">
|
||
The examples have continued to mount: Danny Masterson was accused of rape by four women, one of them a former co-worker. <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2022/12/everything-to-know-about-the-danny-masterson-rape-trial.html">His December trial was deadlocked</a>. Kevin Spacey was found not liable for battery <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/10/20/1130332451/kevin-spacey-anthony-rapp-verdict">in a civil suit</a> brought against him by Anthony Rapp, who says Spacey molested him when Rapp was 14 and Spacey 26, after they had appeared in Broadway shows together. Megan Thee Stallion was shot by a fellow rapper after she made it clear she outranked him professionally. She found herself <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/dec/13/megan-thee-stallion-testify-tory-lanez-los-angeles-court">the subject of intense scrutiny and mockery</a> over the course of his December trial.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="9vCOLm">
|
||
Backlash covers its tracks by stealing the language of feminism
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PFyQm5XlJ1tNj8KlwNojrFljpFI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24402267/1129542255.jpg"/> <cite>Leonardo Cendamo/Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Junot Díaz in Torino, Italy, on May 5, 2008.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4oQMQp">
|
||
One of the oddities of our current moment is how frequently the backlash avails itself of the rhetoric the Me Too movement developed. That slippage, too, is characteristic of backlash, which Faludi used as the title of her book in reference to a 1947 film of the same name, in which a man frames his wife for the murder he committed. “The backlash against women’s rights works in much the same way,” Faludi writes: “its rhetoric charges feminists with all the crimes it perpetrates.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bhs40t">
|
||
Me Too and its sister <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/1/2/16840882/times-up-harassment-hollywood-metoo">Time’s Up</a> campaigns were built around a rhetoric of justice: At last, powerful men would stop being able to get away with it, would be made to face meaningful consequences for what they had done. The backlash flips the script: At last, all these powerful people (women en masse) will stop being able to get away with it (preying on men).
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mWgz8P">
|
||
The #TimesUp hashtag was created to push for systemic change in Hollywood and other industries, to call for the professional empowerment and advancement of women so that the Harvey Weinsteins of the world wouldn’t be able to abuse their own power so easily. But now, it’s become a way to call out any woman who is currently unpopular, painting the callout with a veneer of activist virtue, in what Faludi calls “a coup through euphemism.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vHGQms">
|
||
Now, when a famous woman is in the cultural crosshairs, she is charged with having committed some nebulous abuse of power. At various points over the past few months, social media has trended with #TimesUpOlivia (because Olivia Wilde was in a consensual relationship with Harry Styles, who was 10 years younger than her and an actor in the film she directed), #TimesUpAmber (because a tenet of faith for Depp partisans is that Amber Heard was the true abuser in their relationship), and #TimesUpMeghan (because Meghan Markle has been accused of bullying her staff).
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xjej3X">
|
||
This rhetorical reversal can also happen in more subtle ways. Last November, Ben Smith — media critic, former editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, and founder of the media company Semafor — <a href="https://www.semafor.com/article/11/27/2022/junot-diaz-in-limbo">wrote a story on Junot Díaz</a>, the novelist who was accused of sexual misconduct in 2018. In his article, Smith favors Díaz’s story while giving the impression that he is correcting an unethical bias in previous reporting. Smith suggests throughout the piece that the accusations against Díaz have been blown out of proportion, and that Díaz did not deserve to lose his professional standing so dramatically: that Díaz has, in other words, faced a miscarriage of justice. “It’s like being in prison for a crime you didn’t commit,” Smith quotes one of Díaz’s friends as saying.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OdR34Y">
|
||
Smith’s article is exemplary of backlash because of how thoroughly and invisibly it returns to a pre-Me Too understanding of how we should treat accusations of sexual misconduct. <a href="https://judedoyle.medium.com/ben-smith-junot-d%C3%ADaz-and-how-the-anti-metoo-sausage-gets-made-d017d70717b8">As the writer Jude Doyle has argued</a>, Smith downplays and belittles the accusations against Díaz. He reveals with a flourish that when Díaz was accused of a “forcible kiss,” the kiss in question was only on the cheek — as though a kiss on the cheek cannot constitute sexual harassment. He treats the stories of Díaz’s accusers with extreme skepticism and the stories of Díaz and his allies with extreme credulousness. He does not engage with or outright ignores many of the public accusations against Díaz. Multiple people who spoke out against Díaz in 2018 say <a href="https://judedoyle.medium.com/ben-smith-junot-d%C3%ADaz-and-how-the-anti-metoo-sausage-gets-made-d017d70717b8">Smith never contacted them in reporting his story</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NnrLIt">
|
||
One of the distinctive patterns of backlash is its strategy of making false concessions. Its rhetoric will generally admit that there was at one point a problem; that at some point in the bad old days, women really did have to worry about inequality. Then the backlash posits that the problem has been solved well before it actually has been. “The anti-feminist backlash has been set off not by women’s achievement of full equality but by the increased possibility that they might win it,” says Faludi. “It is a preemptive strike that stops women long before they reach the finish line.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3DVYyf">
|
||
“The reckoning brought on by the #MeToo movement, reported on by my Pulitzer Prize-winning colleagues at The Times, was long overdue and a huge net positive,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/22/opinion/langella-netflix-metoo.html">wrote New York Times opinion columnist Pamela Paul last May</a>. “It took years of dogged reporting on odious cases like those of Bill O’Reilly, Matt Lauer and Harvey Weinstein to fuel the #MeToo movement, bringing necessary attention to the prevalence of sexual harassment and assault in the workplace. The behavior here was clearly egregious; the results were clear-cut and necessary.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8CCbly">
|
||
<em>But</em>, Paul went on: Surely Me Too had by now gone far enough? Surely it had targeted too many innocent men? “We’ve thought a lot, as a country, about what to do with the men who are guilty of sexual violence and harassment,” Paul concluded. “We’ve thought about how seriously to take such accusations and what to do with the monsters. But we still haven’t thought enough about how to handle all accusations with proportion and fairness.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="alnPUy">
|
||
After all, she pointed out, not every accused predator is Harvey Weinstein.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="9K6KwG">
|
||
The monsters at the center of the movement
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lNt60MeWTHzUF7-XLUAMMWEPlUQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24402275/94506224.jpg"/> <cite>Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for The Weinstein Company</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Donald Trump and Harvey Weinstein with wives Melania Trump and Georgina Chapman at a film premiere afterparty in 2009 in New York City.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MWMAqC">
|
||
In December, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/09/harvey-weinstein-prison-sentence-los-angeles">Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of rape in California</a>. He is now awaiting sentencing for that conviction, on top of the 23-year sentence he is currently serving after being convicted in New York state on multiple counts of rape and sexual assault.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IcgTGs">
|
||
Weinstein’s multiple convictions have served as a milestone of sorts for the Me Too movement: the ogre whose crimes sent the whole movement screaming into the public eye, the boogeyman next to whom everyone else’s monstrousness looks small and petty — at last, he has been brought to justice.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wQfzkx">
|
||
Weinstein is 70 years old. It is extremely likely that he will die in jail. In a culture that only speaks carceral languages when it comes to responding to crimes, surely this is what justice looks like.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pEpk6f">
|
||
The question I keep asking myself during this time of backlash is: Are Weinstein’s convictions a victory, or are they a scapegoating?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1rVHBc">
|
||
I can’t shake the sense that these convictions are a way of targeting all the movement’s anger onto one man, rather than onto the systems that let him operate with impunity, or the other men who took advantage of those systems in perhaps slightly less grotesque ways than did Weinstein. Rather than doing the difficult work of redistributing power and thinking about what a meaningful response to various forms of sexual misconduct should look like, we can simply point to Weinstein’s fate and say, “See? We fixed it. And anyway, this predator isn’t as bad as Weinstein, so what does it matter?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GU4EXr">
|
||
Weinstein also serves as an avatar for the figure whom Me Too seems to have been, in a way, intended to punish: Donald Trump. Trump was elected despite being caught on tape apparently bragging about assaulting women, and despite <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/11/3/21544482/trump-sexual-misconduct-allegations">more than 20 women accusing him of sexual misconduct</a>. It is no accident that Me Too hit its peak of public outrage in the year that Trump took office; it is also no accident that public interest in the movement cooled dramatically as soon as he was out of office. Me Too was the punishment of Trump by proxy, with Weinstein playing the role of the comically villainous and far-too-powerful predator mogul.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1i1ONF">
|
||
Currently, Trump is facing a lawsuit from writer E. Jean Carroll for <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/11/4/20947841/e-jean-carroll-donald-trump-defamation-lawsuit">defamation</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/01/13/1149124488/e-jean-carroll-rape-claim-donald-trump">rape</a>. If Carroll wins and Trump is found liable, how much will this be a victory for the movement? And how much will it be a public sacrifice for a movement the public has already dropped?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0dE2Od">
|
||
If we want real and lasting change, we have to do more than target two individual monsters and then go back to ignoring all our other problems. I don’t want to have to wait another 30 years before we get to make progress again. What will it take to break the backlash pattern once and for all?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V6FXz9">
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>Inside the lonely and surprisingly earnest world of political TikTok</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gXCiaMqTvpcLxhVfF0pGMKXlINc=/243x0:1683x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71936094/campaign_tiktok.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Screenshots of TikTok videos by Rep. Jeff Jackson (D-NC), Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), and Kansas state legislator Christina Haswood. | <span class="citation" data-cites="KatiePorterOC">@KatiePorterOC</span>, <span class="citation" data-cites="JeffJacksonNC">@JeffJacksonNC</span>, and <span class="citation" data-cites="HaswoodForks">@HaswoodForks</span> / Vox
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
TikTok was supposed to be the future of political communication. Now, as it faces a potential ban and growing national security concerns, a few politicians are hanging on — and posting through it.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Sn0ifr">
|
||
I don’t remember the first time I saw one of Jeff Jackson’s TikTok videos, but I definitely remember the one that turned me into a follower.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zn9tRX">
|
||
The new Republican majority in the House of Representatives was in chaos. I was on the West Coast with my non-politically obsessed family and a friend, watching Republicans fail to elect Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House 14 times over the course of four days. We weren’t just watching a historic fail unfold (the kind of embarrassment Congress <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/06/first-thing-kevin-mccarthy-fails-in-speakership-bid-for-11th-time">hadn’t seen in a century</a>). We were also seeing a confounding stalemate preventing the country from having a fully functioning government.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MX8zxR">
|
||
Part of my job as a political reporter during this tumultuous week was to understand why this was happening and explain it to the world (<a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2023/1/5/23540743/house-speaker-progress-vote-kevin-mccarthy-gop">my Vox colleagues</a> on Capitol Hill took the lead on this). But Jeff Jackson, a Democrat and incoming first-term representative from North Carolina, was a step ahead of me.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hOwvCz">
|
||
“I told you that the next time you heard from me I would be an official member of Congress, and then something very strange happened, and I’m still not,” he said in a TikTok posted to his 300,000 followers on the penultimate day of the GOP’s speaker fight. Wearing a burgundy tie loosely around his neck, Jackson looked directly into my eyes and told me about the Freedom Caucus, the group of hardline conservatives who held up McCarthy’s speaker bid. “Right now, there is no Plan B. Either these 20 folks cave, which they’ve sworn they won’t do, or the 200 other members of the majority party put up someone else as speaker, which they’ve sworn they won’t do. And nothing happens until this happens, including swearing us in.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DJurzs">
|
||
The whole scene felt very intimate, impressive, and quite informative. The 3 million people who watched this particular video must have felt some of this. And Jackson mentioned his other TikToks. Would they be any different from those of the scores of amateurish news recappers, college students, and aspiring Joe Rogans on political TikTok?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u7GaFS">
|
||
I, along with 2 million other people, had already watched that 87-second clip (in it, Jackson describes the “weird process” by which new members of Congress pick offices through a raffle pulled from a “mahogany box that is a century old”). And as I clicked onto his page and kept scrolling, I realized something. Jackson was accomplishing something very different from most politicians: He was not just using TikTok to chronicle his journey from candidate to officeholder; he was actually connecting with people.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y1ccr8">
|
||
Given the toxic nature of political discourse online, it’s the kind of engagement the average politician can only dream of having.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d4OXy4">
|
||
“I’m big on reaching people directly,” Jackson told me during a recent interview. “We’re already saturated with people who want to give us the daily talking points or the daily outrage. I don’t need to add to that.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xTernH">
|
||
Now that he’s officially in Congress, Jackson is a rarity: an elected official posting directly on a Chinese-owned social media app that’s facing the prospect of a national ban and growing security concerns, and that has already been banished from official devices in Congress. TikTok has quickly become a convenient bipartisan punching bag for politicians <a href="https://twitter.com/HawleyMO/status/1617886533536866308?s=20&t=bJwo-90G1YcfZqC_eyUQiA">who call it</a> “China’s backdoor into Americans’ lives.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dgOEtO">
|
||
It wasn’t always this way. Just a few years ago, TikTok was hailed as a potentially huge <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/style/tiktok-politics-bernie-trump.html">disruptor</a> in <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/05/05/tiktok-trump-bytedance/?sh=99eca8c75f6e">politics</a>, <a href="https://wearehudson.co/tiktok-the-next-generation-of-advocacy/">advocacy</a>, and <a href="https://morningconsult.com/2020/01/16/new-progressive-campaigns-are-trying-tiktok-despite-establishment-reluctance/">communications</a>, but now Jackson is one of a small group of politicians using TikTok in an official or campaign capacity, and, in another rarity, has mastered the art of the political TikTok.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="msmrZw">
|
||
It’s happening at a strange moment for American politics and for TikTok. The short video app has never faced as much scrutiny as it has endured during the last year — for its collection, storage, and usage of user data, alleged spying on journalists, and Chinese ownership. The app’s future operation in the US remains in jeopardy, and though a straight ban seems unlikely, a bipartisan consensus is forming in Washington and state capitals that the app poses a national security threat and requires major reform. Its CEO will testify before a House committee in March.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qQ5HgY">
|
||
It’s no surprise, then, that the landscape of political TikTok is fraught. In reporting this story, I reached out to political strategists and about a dozen national elected officials, their campaigns, and their staff. Many, like the White House and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, didn’t reply, while even some of the most well-known Democratic figures like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders didn’t want to talk about the app.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jwJyvr">
|
||
Wariness of the platform can mean missing out on a powerful tool. “Especially for Democrats, understand that the bad actors who push misinformation and inflate conspiracy theories are overrunning social media with their content,” Kurt Bardella, a Democratic strategist and former Republican congressional adviser, told me. “If we aren’t on those channels flooding the zone with an alternative, we are essentially surrendering that playing field to the bad guys.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CEmldx">
|
||
A spokesperson for California Senate candidate Katie Porter, who has almost 500,000 followers between her two official accounts, was positive about the app’s purpose: “Congresswoman Porter has used TikTok to reach thousands of people who may not be on other platforms. She’s called out Big Oil for fueling climate change, exposed Wall Street for hiking prices to earn record-high profits, and showed Californians how to vote by mail.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MSiX8P">
|
||
Still, for some politicians, the nebulous specter of a national security risk isn’t enough of a reason to stay off the platform or shun the communities that use the app. Well over 130 million Americans use the platform every month, including about two-thirds of young people, who tend to use it <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/">multiple times per day</a>. That has created <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/tiktok-election-gen-z-voters/">a potentially huge audience</a> for those elected officials who invest time and energy into building a presence. The preferred social media app of an entire generation has been mostly unexplored by elected officials — even as some of them try to shut it down.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="CsALXr">
|
||
The birth of political TikTok and the simultaneous risks it posed
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zx6Fgo">
|
||
Like any social media platform, TikTok always had the potential to become a gold mine for communicators and politicians who learned how to fit into its culture and use it. Even before the platform took off in 2020 as pandemic shutdowns closed schools and businesses and brought society to a standstill, the app offered virality and social media fame to whoever accepted the lightheartedness and silliness at its core.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i8B7rt">
|
||
Since its launch in 2018, comms and PR professionals lauded the app as a “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/09/03/11-reasons-tiktok-is-a-sleeping-social-media-giant/?sh=18f88d595062">sleeping social media giant</a>,” while some younger journalists and media professionals who had a hunch just how influential the platform would become urged politicians and legacy news organizations to use the app. “I feel it’s my duty to act as a liaison between [Gen Z] and the generations who came before us. So here goes: Old politicians, you need to get on TikTok,” one opinion writer <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/11/21/not-single-2020-candidate-tiktok-what-gives-column/4195329002/">wrote for USA Today in November 2019</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7dqNkp">
|
||
It was around that time that the Washington Post’s TikTok account became what my colleague Rebecca Jennings called an “<a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/11/15/20965526/washington-post-tiktok-julian-castro-andrew-yang-2020">unofficial 2020 campaign stop</a>” for Democratic presidential candidates, who until then had resisted using the platform. “Like all social media apps, TikTok has its own vernacular, and any transgressions of that shared language and sensibility stick out like, well, septuagenarian politicians on a social media app meant for teens. The fear of coming off as insincere or being flooded with ‘ok boomer’ comments is a real one,” she wrote at the time.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4XxAED">
|
||
And for those who did try, the early days were rough. Only one candidate, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro, had an official account on TikTok in the early days of the Democratic primary in 2020. At its peak, the account only had about 500 followers, and it rarely featured the candidate himself.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="trHMnQ">
|
||
Other candidates, like Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, and Andrew Yang, simply opted for the Washington Post route: using a middleman to bring themselves to the app. That was also safer politically, avoiding the charge of inauthenticity (Gen Z can sniff out a poser better than a hog finding truffles), or “<a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23466389/millennials-cringe-epic-bacon">cringe</a>” (essentially, trying too hard).
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jJWlAw">
|
||
But concerns over misinformation and disinformation came hand in hand with the rise of the platform. As early as 2019, <a href="https://qz.com/1739625/how-tiktok-could-be-used-as-a-tool-for-disinformation">researchers and journalists</a> were warning about the potential for the platform to facilitate the <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/voting/tiktok-election-interference">spread of disinformation or election interference</a>, and for moderators to censor content, as TikTok was <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/26/20883993/tiktok-censorship-china-bytedance-politics">alleged to be doing</a> for videos related to pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NTze8x">
|
||
TikTok’s design is often cited as part of the problem: Viral audio can spread easily without necessarily being tied to the original creator, and the algorithmically driven For You feed that functions as a homepage for a user isn’t transparent. The result is an endless stream of videos that feeds off your interests and curiosities without necessarily telling you how it knows what you want, and eventually traps you in an <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/kzdwn9/tiktok-cant-save-us-from-algorithmic-content-hell">“algorithmic content hell.”</a> (TikTok also recently confirmed that its moderators can artificially boost videos to make sure they show up in your feed — an <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/20/23564242/tiktok-heating-view-boosts-creators-businesses">open secret</a> that many creators have long suspected and a tactic that other platforms have been alleged to use, like Facebook’s <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/17/17989712/facebook-inaccurate-video-metrics-inflation-lawsuit">inflated video view counts</a>.)
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qx6FSg">
|
||
Then came the pandemic, and with it, the golden age of TikTok. That first pandemic summer, the app had been downloaded <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/31/style/tiktok-trends-2020.html">2 billion times</a> around the world and had about <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/24/tiktok-reveals-us-global-user-growth-numbers-for-first-time.html">50 million daily active users</a> in the US, <a href="https://wallaroomedia.com/blog/social-media/tiktok-statistics/#:~:text=U.S.%20Audience%20%E2%80%93%20As%20we%20mentioned,between%20the%20ages%2025%2D44.">who overwhelmingly tended</a> to be members of Gen Z. That number has grown steadily since, to the estimated 80 million monthly active users of today.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CSs1ti">
|
||
It was around this time that Christina Haswood, who lives in Lawrence, Kansas, decided she would start using her TikTok account to jump-start her local state House race. The 28-year-old Navajo public health researcher was finishing up a master’s degree at the nearby University of Kansas Medical Center and was the frontrunner in the Democratic primary, and she felt pressure to reach more voters, fund her campaign, and make her Native heritage better known. “It was first kind of a joke. The best thing to pass time with and relieve stress was TikTok,” Haswood told me recently.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uAMm4Y">
|
||
Then she and her campaign manager began to wonder if they could use the app to educate voters about her election. Her first videos pulled in a few thousand views and were primarily informational, like checking your voter registration, requesting a ballot, and preventing the spread of Covid-19.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XxkBAd">
|
||
But when she joined a Taylor Swift challenge (how do I explain this? TikTokers would <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M_N6NpP5_o">strut toward</a> or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWJOLa4_Sng">dance at a phone camera</a> that they pushed away in time with the beat) and she peppered in short lines of text introducing herself, her personal beliefs, and her policy positions, virality took off. <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRp3cseF/">That video got over 600,000 views</a> and sprouted a loyal following of young people who were intrigued by a progressive, queer, and Indigenous young woman promising to fight for Medicaid expansion and a cut to the food sales tax.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div id="qq37Nz">
|
||
<blockquote cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@haswoodforks/video/6855081059252522245" class="tiktok-embed">
|
||
<section>
|
||
<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@haswoodforks?refer=embed" target="_blank" title="@haswoodforks"><span class="citation" data-cites="haswoodforks">@haswoodforks</span></a>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Meet Christina Haswood, the future for democratic politics in Kansas.❤️<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/kansas?refer=embed" target="_blank" title="kansas">#kansas</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/democrat?refer=embed" target="_blank" title="democrat">#democrat</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/progressive?refer=embed" target="_blank" title="progressive">#progressive</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/vote?refer=embed" target="_blank" title="vote">#vote</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/fyp?refer=embed" target="_blank" title="fyp">#fyp</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/foryoupage?refer=embed" target="_blank" title="foryoupage">#foryoupage</a>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/Love-Story-6842883579551255302?refer=embed" target="_blank" title="♬ Love Story - Disco Lines">♬ Love Story - Disco Lines</a>
|
||
</section>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ec1QA9">
|
||
She kept building a following in 2020 (and she won the race in her solidly Democratic district). She transitioned the account from what was mostly a campaign tool to what now is more of a behind-the-scenes journal of a young millennial who happens to be a state legislator and progressive advocate with 150,000 followers.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U2mlQQ">
|
||
“I feel like trying to explain issues through trends and humor can be a lot more digestible than reading an article or legislative summaries or minutes or watching YouTube livestreams,” Haswood told me.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9Q6vg0">
|
||
Since the 2020 TikTok boom, a small group of (almost entirely Democratic) federal, state, and local politicians and candidates have found similar success on the platform — even if they haven’t won their elections. <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/08/14/politicians-using-tiktok-matt-little-395620">Matt Little</a>, a former Democratic-Farmer-Labor state senator in Minnesota, and socialist Washington congressional <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/joshua-collins-us-congressional-candidate-lived-in-his-truck-2020-1">candidate Joshua Collins</a>, for example, built large followings of about 100,000 on the app as well, but both lost their races in 2020. Statewide hopefuls like former <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@timryanoh?lang=en">Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan</a>, whose gangly figure and deep voice contrasted with the memes and trends he used to make fun of his Republican opponent J.D. Vance, and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@betoorourke?lang=en">social media darling former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke</a> built big followings through official campaign accounts during the 2022 midterms, though both lost. Two notable exceptions? Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@ed_markey?lang=en">Sen. Ed Markey</a>, who was lauded for using the app to build a cushion of national and state support in Massachusetts to beat back a primary challenge from former Rep. Joe Kennedy III in 2020.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wahUmr">
|
||
Though Sanders still uses the app to post videos shared to other social platforms, Markey’s account has stopped posting since the midterm elections concluded.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="77r5nm">
|
||
TikTok’s algorithm, data collection practices, and Chinese ownership have long plagued it
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="olxB2U">
|
||
TikTok <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/05/05/tiktok-trump-bytedance/?sh=7b794e0675f6">didn’t seem ready</a> to handle the influx of political content that would come with the 2020 presidential election, or with a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2TkVCV">
|
||
After the 2020 election and in response to concerns about election interference and political influence, TikTok banned political advertising before the 2022 midterms and <a href="https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/our-commitment-to-election-integrity">limited political accounts’ ability to fundraise</a> through the app. But while many of these problems have plagued social media giants before, those companies and platforms aren’t owned by a Chinese company.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YFfmxT">
|
||
Establishment politicians have long viewed the app with caution because of this, and for the past three years, TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has been in negotiations with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a group of government agencies that reviews foreign corporate transactions for national security risks, for the best way for the company to operate in the US. Recent reporting of misuse of American personal data by the company hasn’t helped TikTok’s case for proving its independence from the Chinese government, or its trustworthiness in light of alleged spying on American journalists. But most federal lawmakers default to saying they are awaiting the Committee’s final recommendation.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LqYFWW">
|
||
That hasn’t stopped more ham-fisted attempts to try to shut down the app. In 2020, Donald Trump tried to ban TikTok by executive order, sending shockwaves through TikTok communities worried about losing access to the platform. That ban never went into effect, and targeted, mostly symbolic bans have since popped up in individual states, the halls of Congress, and the executive branch. A growing anti-China consensus has also developed into a general aversion by politicians in both political parties to defending the app, and as my colleague Sara Morrison has written, it seems like a matter of time before some <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2023/1/17/23552716/tiktok-ban-cfius-bytedance">major change happens to TikTok</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vBjCfl">
|
||
Markey from Massachusetts, for example, has been a more measured voice among Senate Democrats concerned with TikTok’s access to personal data and its effect on young Americans. When I asked his office about his thoughts on the platform’s future in the US, a spokesperson responded with an acknowledgment of the trade-offs the app poses: “They are the best of technologies, and they are the worst of technologies. They can enable and ennoble, or they can degrade and debase. But he still believes in their ability to enable and ennoble — for example bringing young people together online around the Green New Deal climate justice movement.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jn5g9a">
|
||
Markey also supports more stringent legislation to protect children’s and teens’ user data, like his Children and Teens’ Online Privacy and Protection Act to implement a computer code of conduct, ban targeted ads to children, raise the age of consent for collecting user data to under 17, and empower the Federal Trade Commission to monitor privacy concerns for youth.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O1DsoO">
|
||
That’s a very different position from that of most Republican members of Congress, who support either a complete ban on the app operating in the US or a sale of the app to an American company.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="PpVYCa">
|
||
The trade-offs might be worth it
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f7b8jn">
|
||
Jackson, the first-term North Carolina representative, fully accepts the validity of the national security concerns that his colleagues in the House and Senate have raised. “The security concerns are real. I’ve read what FBI Director [Christopher] Wray thinks about it, and I take his assessment seriously. I agree with not allowing TikTok on government phones,” Jackson told me, referencing Congress’s rules on installing or having the app on any government-issued device or public internet network.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cbj6tV">
|
||
Apart from his personal and government-issued phones, he uses a third phone as a TikTok burner, with TikTok the only app installed on it. While he shoots and edits his own videos using Adobe Premiere, he doesn’t use the app at work. And he thinks the reasons to remain on the app — like building trust — outweigh the reasons to leave.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e8dvyU">
|
||
Declining trust in institutions is one of the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2019/07/22/the-state-of-personal-trust/">major paradoxes</a> of modern American politics. Few established news organizations, branches of government, federal agencies, and politicians inspire the same confidence or carry the same authority as they once did. Looking at surveys, the problem of trust <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/08/06/young-americans-are-less-trusting-of-other-people-and-key-institutions-than-their-elders/">gets worse</a> as you ask younger generations.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AJMZxV">
|
||
Jackson thinks that part of the problem has been an unwillingness by elected leaders and candidates to meet people where they are. That doesn’t mean he’s posting through every controversy of the day. As a candidate, his videos tended to be more like daily journal entries, highlighting interactions with voters at community events. Some of his posts even feel delightfully mundane: what it’s like to be a new member of Congress looking for an office, or a committee assignment, or, most recently, how his personal finances work.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div id="gUGwnP">
|
||
<blockquote cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffjacksonnc/video/7190743376638135594" class="tiktok-embed">
|
||
<section>
|
||
<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffjacksonnc?refer=embed" target="_blank" title="@jeffjacksonnc"><span class="citation" data-cites="jeffjacksonnc">@jeffjacksonnc</span></a>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Rep. Jeff Jackson (NC-14): My personal finances. <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/politics?refer=embed" target="_blank" title="politics">#politics</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/fyp?refer=embed" target="_blank" title="fyp">#fyp</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/nc?refer=embed" target="_blank" title="nc">#nc</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/charlotte?refer=embed" target="_blank" title="charlotte">#charlotte</a>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7190743422351854378?refer=embed" target="_blank" title="♬ original sound - Jeff Jackson">♬ original sound - Jeff Jackson</a>
|
||
</section>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p7o9ik">
|
||
Jackson told me that the biggest subject his constituents and his TikTok audience tend to ask about is political corruption and stock trading by members of Congress. Allegations that prominent federal officials <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/06/politics/richard-burr-stock-sales/index.html">potentially</a><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/21/business/stock-trades-officials-wsj/index.html"> used</a> privileged information to make financial decisions during the early days of the pandemic renewed calls in the past year to ban members of Congress from trading stocks.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8o03fJ">
|
||
After seeing this demand in his comments, Jackson felt an obligation to film a TikTok walking his audience through his family’s finances. <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffjacksonnc/video/7190743376638135594">That video</a> showed me a lot of the still-untapped potential of political TikTok even as its future remains in doubt. Here we have a rather standard-issue member of Congress dryly listing out facts of his financial life — “I have a 2017 Ford Fusion, which I bought used,” Jackson says to the camera — not a revolutionary line of political communication or anything resembling social media fodder. But the video still went viral. It’s been watched over 1 million times in just under two weeks.
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ind vs Aus Tests | Spin talk won't blind Australia to reverse swing threats, says keeper Carey</strong> - Spin talk has dominated the build-up to the series between the world's top two tests teams, who meet in the opener in Nagpur</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Zuccarelli, Goldiva, Key To The Mint and Son Of A Gun please</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Invincible, Golden Oaks, All Attractive and Stars Above please</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ind vs Aus Tests | Australia will miss Zampa's ability to zip ball against India: Sridharan Sriram</strong> - Veteran tweaker Nathan Lyon, Agar, leg-spinner Swepson and young off-spinner Todd Murphy got the nod in the 18-member Australia squad with Zampa missing out</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>2007 T20 World Cup hero Joginder Sharma announces retirement from all forms of cricket</strong> - The 39-year-old represented India in four ODIs and as many T20s between 2004 and 2007, picking five wickets. He played domestic cricket for Haryana.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Some good news amidst a bad record</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Cess on fuel, liquor is for the larger good, says Balagopal</strong> - Aim of the cess is to create a seed fund for aiding government’s social security commitments. One-time tax on new vehicles increased, while one-time tax on electric cabs reduced to 5%</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Kerala Budget | KSUM gets impressive allocation of over ₹120 crore</strong> - Stakeholders feel the fresh allocation is expected to mitigate investment risks as well</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Digital payment system launched at 11 liquor outlets on pilot basis in Andhra Pradesh</strong> - A.P. State Beverages Corporation Limited ties up with State Bank of India for the purpose; the system to be introduced across the State soon</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Viswanath’s native village in Guntur district in a shock</strong> - Photos in DCX</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: On the front line with engineers working to fix stricken power grid</strong> - The BBC watches engineers and technicians as they race to repair damage across the country.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pope and archbishop on historic peace mission to South Sudan</strong> - The holy men hoping to heal South Sudan, the world’s newest nation overcoming a brutal civil war.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>40 countries ‘could boycott 2024 Olympics’</strong> - Poland sports minister Kamil Bortniczuk says up to 40 countries could boycott the 2024 Olympics in Paris, making the Games “pointless”.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Eurovision 2023: John Lydon competing to represent Ireland in Liverpool</strong> - Six acts will compete on Irish TV, with the winner representing Ireland in Liverpool on 13 May.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Bobi breaks Guinness World Record for oldest dog ever</strong> - The almost 31-year-old Portuguese pooch narrowly escaped death as a puppy.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Google isn’t moving Legacy G Suite users again, despite admin console warnings</strong> - Google accidentally published a bunch of beta messages about last year’s transition. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1914453">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Apple Q1 earnings miss the mark almost across the board</strong> - CEO Tim Cook believes supply issues and a troubled economy were to blame. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1914654">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Extremely drug-resistant germ found in eye drops infects 55 in 12 states; 1 dead</strong> - CDC urges people to stop using EzriCare-branded artificial tears. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1914592">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>After 16 years of freeware, Dwarf Fortress creators get their $7M payday</strong> - “When we pass from this world, you will be the reason we are remembered.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1914552">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Squid skin inspires novel “liquid windows” for greater energy savings</strong> - Bio-inspired system optimizes wavelength, intensity, dispersion of light reaching interiors. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1914482">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What’s the difference between weed and pussy?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
If you can smell weed from across the room that means it’s good.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/fakeairpods"> /u/fakeairpods </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10s1dms/whats_the_difference_between_weed_and_pussy/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10s1dms/whats_the_difference_between_weed_and_pussy/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Yo momma so fat, it wasn’t the stork that brought her</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
It was the crane!
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Gil-Gandel"> /u/Gil-Gandel </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10rqoye/yo_momma_so_fat_it_wasnt_the_stork_that_brought/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10rqoye/yo_momma_so_fat_it_wasnt_the_stork_that_brought/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Yo mama so fat…..when a full moon hits…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
She turns into a warehouse.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/traindispatcher"> /u/traindispatcher </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10s13da/yo_mama_so_fatwhen_a_full_moon_hits/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10s13da/yo_mama_so_fatwhen_a_full_moon_hits/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A cop arrests 3 ducks who were in the pond late at night.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He asks the first one: “What are you doing in the pond so late?” First duck replies “Blowing bubbles.” The cop rolls his eyes and asks the second duck: “And what were you doing in the pond so late?” The second duck answers: “Blowing bubbles.” He turns to the third duck: “And what were you doing? Lemme guess, blowing bubbles?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The third duck says: “no, I’m Bubbles.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/HurinofLammoth"> /u/HurinofLammoth </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10s2pkv/a_cop_arrests_3_ducks_who_were_in_the_pond_late/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10s2pkv/a_cop_arrests_3_ducks_who_were_in_the_pond_late/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What does a politician do when it dies?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
It lies still.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/unselfishdata"> /u/unselfishdata </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10rtd8m/what_does_a_politician_do_when_it_dies/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10rtd8m/what_does_a_politician_do_when_it_dies/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
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