Taylor Lorenz is bitching that the Tiktok shutdown closes off an important channel for young Democrats. She cites impressive stats about Tiktok’s job share and economic contribution, and complains that the D billionaires aren’t helping to maintain a public voice on their side. Without any doubt the shutdown will destroy jobs, which is of course the sole purpose of our entire economy. I have considerable sympathy for the much larger number of non-political tiktokers. No sympathy at all for the political partisans on either side.
This particular bitchery dates back to the 80s when Rush started his long march to take over the mostly vacant territory of AM radio. Rush had support from Repooflican billionaires, at first hidden behind his fraudulent claims of being a one-man operation. Eventually the support came out in the open.
The bitching started when a few Dems (eg Thom Hartmann**) tried to compete with Rush on AM radio and failed. They didn’t have support then, and they still don’t have support in the newer media like Tiktok.
At that time Rush was genuinely creating more balance in a 100% one-sided media universe. Democrats owned EVERY PUBLIC VOICE. Newspapers, TV, movies, commercially successful FM radio, academia, mainline churches. All pure Democrat. By now the Repooflican billionaires dominate newer media, though the old media is still 100% Democrat. The D billionaires are still pumping their money into TV, Hollywood, newspapers, academia, and churches.
So the steady bitching about lack of support is factually based but futile. The D billionaires had their chance. The trend has been running for 40 years, and has been clear to everyone for 20 years. The D billionaires had every opportunity to figure out where things were going. Too bad, so sad.
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** I liked Hartmann, listened to him at times, and learned one important thing from him. But even after I switched sides to FDR Democrat in 2008, I kept listening to Rush. He had the magic touch of addictive entertainment and he had the resources to make it work.
Polistra's Mill 