the TikTok Ban: America's Self-Isolation

In my opinion, I think it just seems like part of the whole move to isolate America from the rest of the world. Part of the whole move to isolate America. I mean, the main character syndrome of Americans maybe prevents them from understanding that them being informed, them being educated, educated, them them understanding the world is not necessarily the most important thing to anyone. You know, they think that if Americans are informed, if Americans are educated, it's somehow more threatening and more important than anyone else being informed and anyone else being educated. This is the main character syndrome that Americans have.

So they think that banning TikTok is about keeping Americans from being exposed to reality. I mean, I think that's surely part of it. But I think that it's just as likely that banning TikTok is also about cutting the rest of the world off from American influence. Cutting the rest of the world off from what's going on and what's going to go on inside of America. It's isolating America.

It's closing America off. That's what they're doing. They're shutting you all inside so called fortress America, which could just as easily and more accurately be described as prison America. That's what they're doing. And they don't want anyone outside to necessarily know what's going on inside.

They don't wanna know they don't want the rest of the world to know what's going on in there. You have to consider that possibility. It's not just about you. This may be just as much about making sure that American citizens don't know or don't see what America is doing to other people around the world, and maybe just as much about that as it is about making sure that other people around the world won't see what America is doing to their own people, and what they're going to do to their own people. Because when you cut off the lines of communication, when you when you cut off all the lines and the channels of information, it goes both ways.

Your people don't see what's going on outside and people outside don't see what's going on inside. There's two sides to this. Because look, now all of your big social media platforms in America, they are all in one way or another limbs of the power structure in The US. You know? The meta monopoly with Zuckerberg, who's always ready to switch sides depending on who's in power.

Whoever's in power, he'll go along with them. And of course, Elon Musk, who's literally a part of the government now. So, I mean, your platforms are controlled. Your platforms are restricted. And they're geared towards, strictly towards narrative propagation and the creation and the fortification of echo chambers within the accepted parameters of discourse.

So they're isolating you. They're margin they're marginalizing you, I think. Because this goes along with the overall isolation, the overall isolation program of the A National OC GFC, the isolation of America. I think that they believe that America needs to be contained, needs to be closed off. And yes, I think this has a very dark implications in terms of what's gonna be happening inside that country.

I think you should be ready for that. It's a kind of a North Koreaization of The US in a way. You will only know what is useful to the power structure for you to know, and we will only know, what the power structure tells us about you and your situation over there, which for the rest of the world just means that, America has basically gone dark in terms of anything like genuine information about the conditions and the situation within The United States. Basically, is becoming a giant reeducation camp, in my opinion. I mean, we can talk about how the TikTok ban exposes the hypocrisy of those who, you know, champion freedom and so forth.

Yet those same people work tirelessly to restrict it, no no is when it doesn't serve their agenda. But I mean, who doesn't know that already? The politicians and the media tell you that it's dangerous, that TikTok is dangerous because it's it has ties to China and what have you. And they claim that your data isn't safe. But obviously, this is a lie.

I mean, where was that concern for your data when US tech giants were caught selling your data to China? When Facebook sold it, when Google sold it, when Amazon sold it, when they co modified your personal information? Where was the political outrage? The politicians' outrage? Not to mention that every major politician was using TikTok during their campaigns, pandering to younger voters with their, you know, dance trends and hashtags and what have you.

I mean, if TikTok was such a great threat, why didn't those politicians lead by example and refuse to use it? I mean, the hypocrisy is just too transparent to really even merit comment, to be honest. You know, there was a time when the US government actually confronted monopolies, not not protect monopolies. They actually wanted to break monopolies apart. They went after Standard Oil, they went after AT and T, they went after others because of their unchecked power that threatened the interest of the population, that threatened the interest of the people, and also challenged the power of the government.

There were moments when the government actually acknowledged that they had a responsibility to serve the public. There was a time in history when that was a a a thing, when they didn't believe that their that their whole purpose was to serve corporations. But now look what's happening. Instead of challenging monopolies, they wanna force TikTok to sell to a monopoly, you know, to to either Meta or Google or some other tech behemoth. The same companies that already control your data, that already control your speech, that already control your online presence, and already control the narratives.

They want all communication, they want all expression, they want all information to be under their control. That's what's going on in America. And like I said, it it's not just about controlling what information comes in, but it's also about controlling what information goes out. What's truly at stake here is something obviously much deeper than a single app in TikTok. This is about the freedom to communicate without state control, without private sector control.

The freedom to listen to each other without corporate gatekeepers deciding what you can and cannot listen to, what you can and cannot hear. TikTok has empowered voices the mainstream media ignores, and not just ignores but suppresses. It's given ordinary people a way to bypass the filters of power and speak directly to each other. That's the really unique thing about TikTok. Obviously, one of the main issues has been the fact that TikTok has exposed Americans, propagandized Americans to the reality of what Israel is doing in Gaza.

That's a main that's a that's a very important issue. What America is doing in Gaza, in fact. Because that's the reality. Let's be honest. This is the genocide that America has delegated to Israel.

That's all. That's what Israel has always been, just a a a US colonial client carrying out the destabilizing wishes of the neocons. So, for sure, that's one of the reasons why they wanna ban TikTok. One of the one of the reasons one of the main reasons was because there there are millions of Americans who were exposed because of TikTok for the first time to the reality of what's really happening in Palestine. But that just represents the the greater danger of having direct lines of communication between the people between the people of the world, with the people of America.

This is what they don't want to see happen. So this isn't just about TikTok, obviously. It's about controlling the narrative, and everyone knows that. It's about ensuring that the that all social media platforms and that all platforms for communication are all aligned with the interest of the state and with the interest of corporations who the state serves. They don't want a free marketplace of ideas, obviously.

They want a monopoly on truth. They approach the marketplace of ideas the same way they approach the financial marketplace, which is monopolization. They wanna determine who gets to speak and who gets to listen and what they get to listen to, so they want you to be isolated. I've said it before, it's like a cult. America's like a cult.

It's just like a just like in a cult, cult members are not allowed to talk to non members, so that their loyalty to the cult version of reality, won't be challenged and won't be weakened and they'll believe it. But it's also, it keeps the outside world from knowing what's going on inside the cult, what's going on inside the cult compound. So America now is basically nothing but a cult compound at this point. You know, one of the imperatives of Middle Nation, what we're trying to build here with Middle Nation is to build connections, is to build bridges between the Muslims in the western diaspora with the Muslim world and between the average struggling people in America and in the West with the people in the global South who are going through many of the same types of struggles. There's really not that big of a difference between most average Americans and most people in the global South.

We also wanna bring build connections between members of the global majority with members of the global majority who live in the West, who in the West are called minorities. Members of the global majority who live in the West are called minorities, and we want people to communicate. We wanna build networks. We wanna build solidarity. Because most of you in the West, most of you in America are actually living the lives of colonized people.

That's a fact. Your governments, your power structure doesn't see you any different than they see us. They look at you the same way that they look at us. They treat you the same way that they treat us. And you should be trying to connect yourself with the rest of us.

And you can see that the power structure wants to cut you off, they wanna cut off your ability to do that, which tells you everything you need to know about how vital it is for you to build that sort of a connection with the people in the global South, with the people outside of America. They're shutting the door between us, so that you won't know what they're doing to us, and so that we won't know what they're doing to you. See? I think too many people are thinking about it only one way. They're only thinking about how the TikTok ban they're thinking about it in terms of Americans being denied access to information because of that main character syndrome.

But really, banning TikTok is a bit like when the cops turn off the CCTV camera in the interrogation room. Everyone knows what's coming. Everyone knows what that means. It means enhanced interrogation techniques are about to, be undertaken. And you know how brutal America has been around the world.

The whole world has suffered police brutality, from that so called global policeman. Well, that rogue cop, you know, that you have in all your movies, that rogue cop, that bad apple who never goes by the book, you know, that anti hero that you put in every second Hollywood film, that cop, is being taken off the beat. And he's coming home. And I think he's gonna start terrorizing his own family now. Just like violent cops in real life have a much higher incidence of domestic violence.

Well, the world's policeman is coming home, and I fully expect for that home to become unbearable. And I think that's at least part of why they don't want you to have any uncontrolled channels of communication with the outside world. Because of what they're gonna do to you. Your power structure is against you the same way that it's against us. We're both victims of America.

Those of us outside America and those of you inside of America. The global South historically has borne most of the brunt of US savagery, that system is turning inward now. It's gonna cannibalize you. And I think it's more important than ever for regular, average, normal people in America, Muslims and non Muslims, and as I say, so called minorities, members of the global majority in America, to begin to realize that your citizenship is increasingly going to be a a restrictive contract that binds you to conditions that work against your best interests. So you should start identifying yourself with the rest of the people of the world.

You should start identifying yourself with the historic victims of The United States, the victims of colonization, the victims of American empire as much as you can. You need to identify with those people. I'm not just talking about through platforms and through channels of communication and and, you know, the internet or social media or what have you, but I'm talking about within your heart and within your mind, psychologically. Understand yourself as part of that global population that has been and is being oppressed, opposed, controlled, and exploited by the American power structure because that's what you are. You're part of that population.

That's what we are and that's what you are. And we're struggling against it and we're working to liberate ourselves from it and you should be too. You should be on our side in that struggle. Don't side with your power structure against us in any situation, whether it's in Gaza or The Congo or anywhere else. Always be on the side of the people who, just like you, are being tyrannized by the American power structure.

That's which side you should always be on. We need to develop a sense of situational citizenship. In other words, everyone who's in the same situation should consider themselves to be compatriots one with the other, no matter where they are in the world. Doesn't matter where you are in the world. It means that the ties that bind us together should be defined not by borders, not by race, not by nationality, but by the common experiences that we share.

The common struggles that we endure, that we're going through, by our conditions, the common injustices that we fight. I mean, you and I are in the same situation, whether it's oppression, whether it's poverty, the fight for dignity, what have you, then you and I are compatriots. They've been telling us for centuries that we're supposed to be loyal to nations, to flags, and to lines that are drawn on maps and so forth. But I'll ask you something, when you're hungry, does that flag feed you? When you're homeless, does your national anthem give you shelter?

This is this is not a thing that exists in reality. When they strip your rights away, does the government stand beside you? They're the ones who are taking your rights. It turns you back and tells you to fend for yourself. The fact is that the a national elites who oppose us, they don't care what passport you hold, the corporations that exploit your labor, they don't care what language you speak.

They don't care which side of the American border you're on. Injustice is borderless and so should solidarity be. I'll give you an example. When you look at a worker in a sweatshop in Bangladesh who's toiling for some American company, for some American multinational, for pen just pennies, compare that to a situation of a single mother who's working two jobs in Detroit, barely making enough to survive. They don't share the same nationality, but they share the same situation.

They share the same struggle. They're both being exploited by the same system. They're both serving the same masters. So why should they see each other as as being any different? No.

They should look at each other as brothers and sister. In in a shared situation. They're both in the same citizenship situationally. Or if you look at the indigenous people who are fighting for their land in the Amazon, for example, and compare them to the Standing Rock Sioux who are fighting against pipelines in North Dakota. What's the difference?

There's different continents, different languages, different history, but it's the same fight. It's the same corporations that are stealing their land. It's the same corporations that are polluting their water. It's the same corporations that are violating their rights with state backing. No.

They're compatriots. Whether they know it or not, they're compatriots. Situational citizenship means recognizing that your loyalty should be to the people who are beside you in the trenches, even if they're down the line in the trenches. Your loyalty shouldn't be to the people who are in the ivory towers giving orders. Means you're supposed to see someone who's suffering the same oppression that you're, suffering.

If you see people who are suffering the same oppression that you're suffering, you don't ask them for their ID. You fight together. I'm not saying that you should abandon your, identity. Be proud of who you are, where you came from, and so on, but don't let those things blind you to the humanity of others and your similarity to them. Don't let that keep you from seeing that your struggle is tied to their struggle, and in fact it is one and the same struggle.

Because if you limit your loyalty to your nationality, to your race, to your ethnicity, or what have you, then you're playing by their rules. And those rules are designed to keep you divided and powerless. In 2025, situational citizenship isn't just an idea. I think it's a responsibility. It's a recognition.

When you see someone fighting for justice, well, that's your fight too. When you see someone suffering, that's your pain too. When you see someone rising up, why you ought to rise up with them. That's the kind of solidarity that we need to build. A solidarity where we stand with each other not because we share a flag, but because we share a fight.

Your compatriots aren't just those who look like you, they're not just those who speak like you, or who come from where you come from. They're the people who who share your struggle, who share the same struggle and the same situation as you. When we start to see each other that way, I think we'll become unstoppable. I've said this before, this is the kind of solidarity that the elites have built between themselves. You know, they are their own nation.

They don't have borders. They don't care about passports. They don't care about nationality. All they care about is their class and their shared privilege and power and shared interests. So we should take the same approach.

You know, I've used that analogy before about a prison break. You know, in a prison, people prisoners wanna escape, well you've got prisoners who are trying to tunnel out tunnel out of the jail from inside their cells. But if the inmates in a prison actually demolish the walls between the cells and then they can't compartmentalize the inmates anymore, why they would take over that prison in no time.