As I was sitting in the library procrastinating my essay, going through the shameful ritual of taking a short TikTok break which inevitably ends in a doomscroll, I stumbled upon something so shocking I had to turn my phone off. Sadly, but not surprisingly, the abhorrent video I saw came from none other than the official White House account. First showing Donald Trump proudly walking through the White House with the caption, and I’m not kidding, “Ahhh that deportation feeling”, the video then cuts to clips of people crying, being handcuffed, and chased by the police – all while a remix of ‘Defying Gravity’ plays in the background. Absurd, right? A few months ago I would have had to double check to see that it was indeed the official White House account; today I was certain before even clicking on the profile. (The Tik Tok has now been deleted, but here’s one just as bad.)
While few manage to make a mockery out of the suffering of thousands of people as well as the White House, the memefication of politics is a wider phenomenon. Nothing grinds my gears like seeing a ‘serious’ political leader mocking their opponents in a silly TikTok trend. Frankly, it’s an insult to the intelligence of the voters.
While it is probably done in the name of relatability, I can think of very few things less relatable than deporting thousands of people, breaking up families, destroying people’s livelihoods, and then laughing about it on TikTok. Even when the examples aren’t as extreme, more often than not, the videos come off as deeply staged and unnatural. Just a few days ago, Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, posted a video where he pretends to be mushroom-picking in a forest, in a full suit and patent shoes, of course. All of that to set the scene for a cheap metaphor that “the Polish economy is growing faster than mushrooms after the rain.”
While I appreciate politicians not taking themselves too seriously and being able to have a laugh, this social media presence is not an example of that. They’re not laughing at themselves: they’re either participating in a farce of relatability or laughing at their opponents, hoping that that will be enough to substitute a serious policy platform. In the UK, instead of posting memes about Nigel Farage, Labour should engage in a serious public conversation about why a Reform government would be so harmful. Primarily, though, it should try to understand people’s grievances that lead them to Reform and address them better.
This sort of online presence not only appears to assume that voters are idiots and serves as a cheap substitute for actual discourse, it also deepens the already severe issue of polarisation. When painting political opponents as a laughingstock, there is no potential for discussion and reconciliation.
While Trump’s and the White House’s social media will inevitably reflect his narcissistic personality, parties like Labour who pride themselves on being ‘serious’ centre-left political entities should do better. They should not be stooping down to the level of Trump or Farage, but showing what politics should look like. Am I expecting too much? Perhaps. But if I see a politician or a party trying to appear funny and relatable on TikTok one more time, I will throw my phone across the room.
“Donald Trump Laconia Rally, Laconia, NH by Michael Vadon July 16 2015” by Michael Vadon is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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Politicians Need to Get Off TikTok
As I was sitting in the library procrastinating my essay, going through the shameful ritual of taking a short TikTok break which inevitably ends in a doomscroll, I stumbled upon something so shocking I had to turn my phone off. Sadly, but not surprisingly, the abhorrent video I saw came from none other than the official White House account. First showing Donald Trump proudly walking through the White House with the caption, and I’m not kidding, “Ahhh that deportation feeling”, the video then cuts to clips of people crying, being handcuffed, and chased by the police – all while a remix of ‘Defying Gravity’ plays in the background. Absurd, right? A few months ago I would have had to double check to see that it was indeed the official White House account; today I was certain before even clicking on the profile. (The Tik Tok has now been deleted, but here’s one just as bad.)
While few manage to make a mockery out of the suffering of thousands of people as well as the White House, the memefication of politics is a wider phenomenon. Nothing grinds my gears like seeing a ‘serious’ political leader mocking their opponents in a silly TikTok trend. Frankly, it’s an insult to the intelligence of the voters.
While it is probably done in the name of relatability, I can think of very few things less relatable than deporting thousands of people, breaking up families, destroying people’s livelihoods, and then laughing about it on TikTok. Even when the examples aren’t as extreme, more often than not, the videos come off as deeply staged and unnatural. Just a few days ago, Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, posted a video where he pretends to be mushroom-picking in a forest, in a full suit and patent shoes, of course. All of that to set the scene for a cheap metaphor that “the Polish economy is growing faster than mushrooms after the rain.”
While I appreciate politicians not taking themselves too seriously and being able to have a laugh, this social media presence is not an example of that. They’re not laughing at themselves: they’re either participating in a farce of relatability or laughing at their opponents, hoping that that will be enough to substitute a serious policy platform. In the UK, instead of posting memes about Nigel Farage, Labour should engage in a serious public conversation about why a Reform government would be so harmful. Primarily, though, it should try to understand people’s grievances that lead them to Reform and address them better.
This sort of online presence not only appears to assume that voters are idiots and serves as a cheap substitute for actual discourse, it also deepens the already severe issue of polarisation. When painting political opponents as a laughingstock, there is no potential for discussion and reconciliation.
While Trump’s and the White House’s social media will inevitably reflect his narcissistic personality, parties like Labour who pride themselves on being ‘serious’ centre-left political entities should do better. They should not be stooping down to the level of Trump or Farage, but showing what politics should look like. Am I expecting too much? Perhaps. But if I see a politician or a party trying to appear funny and relatable on TikTok one more time, I will throw my phone across the room.
“Donald Trump Laconia Rally, Laconia, NH by Michael Vadon July 16 2015” by Michael Vadon is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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