August 20, 2020 - 7:00am
Triller doesn’t like to be described as a ‘TikTok rival’, but that’s exactly what it is. Their short videos of pranks, singalongs, micro-skits, life-hacks and nano-celebrities are very much in the same ballpark as the Chinese-owned Zoomer favourite.
Triller now claims 250 million downloads, which feels more like a press release fib. But what can’t be doubted is that the app hit number one on the iTunes store in over fifty countries this month, as, following Trump’s intended ban, the social media lifeboats went out for a post-TikTok world. Both Instagram and Snapchat have also launched their own extensions, aiming to hoover up some of the app’s expiring glory.
Now, Triller have done what Twitter’s Right-wing rival Parler hasn’t yet managed: securing the buy-in of Donald J. Trump. Lately Triller’s owners have been plying various TikTok influencers with venture capital cash to lock them into exclusive deals. Whether or not they consider the President an influencer, he’s definitely a scalp.
But what stands out in the six videos posted under his tag so far is how incongruous they feel on a site designed for apolitical larks.
The most recent is Trump pumping his arms, under which someone has dubbed The Village People’s YMCA. It’s not clear quite what the message is, except that it feels as though it has been beamed down from, well, a man in his mid-70s trying to drum up Big Meme Energy.
It’s easy to forget that, for all his mastery of Twitter’s capacity to channel the tectonic plates of controversy as a form of natural energy, all of Trump’s best memes on there were artefacts that others had created in his honour, and he merely re-tweeted.
Every election since 2008 has billed itself as the biggest social media election ever. With TikTok-style video clips in the ascendant and Facebook increasingly confined to the olds, you’d think it might be the turn of the video meme apps.
But so far, these spaces seem to naturally repel these kinds of conversations. Indeed, one of the key appeals of TikTok is quite how walled-off it is from the personal-is-political world of adult-oriented social media. Its private garden of daftness offers a hopeful view of a Zoomer generation who don’t seem to care quite so much for being angry online.
Historically, the short video has been delivered to US voters in the form of the political attack ad. These won’t stop: Biden has already made hay with ads attacking Trump’s pandemic response. But these are increasingly reserved for the same over-60s who watch Fox: they come wrapped in the same starchy grammar of US television, with its endless run-on sentences of prescription drug contra-indications.
In 2016, Trump’s Pepe Army definitively won the meme wars. But most of those Pepe Twitter accounts are defunct now, frozen in internet ammonite. Whether he can find that same energy twice will depend on whether he can again galvanise his own followers, to the extent that they make the content that amplifies the message. It’s a subtle challenge, one that involves trusting the broiling soup at the bottom of the internet to crowd-source some sticky genius.
The opposite is what Mike Bloomberg did in his short flail for the Democratic nomination: employing a brains trust of paid meme-makers. That’s the Harvard MBA solution. It failed, dismally. And if there’s one key insight that Trump has over his rivals, it’s that the social class that comprises Harvard MBAs are generally terrible at their jobs. Keep it simple, stupid.
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SubscribeOne should not put too much stock in potential Presidential candidate campaign statements. Things always look different once in the White House, especially as POTUS often able to exert more influence on foreign than domestic affairs.
What the US increasingly knows is that Cold War 2 is not just a contest in the South China Sea. Much as for Cold War 1 it is contested over all Continents. How the US/Western Allies behave towards Ukraine has meaning and message to many pondering whether to lean towards the CCP or back towards the West. This has to form part of the calculus.
There seems no doubt though that Europe, whilst more unified than many would have predicted, will have to step forward and provide a greater proportion of guarantees for the eventual peace in Ukraine. This will beg big questions, especially of the Germans and French. The Brits too. The Poles and Scandinavians we know will step forward.
Agreed. Presidential ratings will be hurt by any activity that condemns Ukraine to defeat. There may be a reduction in enthusiasm which could cause problems, particularly if that encourages the Russians.
The best hope is that the forthcoming Ukrainian offensive pushes the Russians back to their original borders and forces Putin to negotiate. At some point the Russians will realise they can’t conquer the entirety of the Ukraine and will have to talk.
What Ukraine actually needs to do is sever the land bridge to Crimea (the southern land corridor). Resupply of Crimea will then become far more difficult. Not necessary to recover territory in the East to do this. They only need to cut the long southern flank at one point and it’s over. At that point the Russians may have to seriously negotiate.
What Ukraine actually needs to do is sever the land bridge to Crimea (the southern land corridor). Resupply of Crimea will then become far more difficult. Not necessary to recover territory in the East to do this. They only need to cut the long southern flank at one point and it’s over. At that point the Russians may have to seriously negotiate.
The Russians will have little interest in guarantees from Europe, once Merkel and the Germans admitted they have been lying for years and have no real intension of implementing any negotiated settlement, the question will be solved on the battle field with the destruction of the Ukrainian army
Rather like it was solved on 24 Feb 2022.
Ingenious solutions lead to quite fascinating outcomes!
Rather like it was solved on 24 Feb 2022.
Ingenious solutions lead to quite fascinating outcomes!
Agreed. Presidential ratings will be hurt by any activity that condemns Ukraine to defeat. There may be a reduction in enthusiasm which could cause problems, particularly if that encourages the Russians.
The best hope is that the forthcoming Ukrainian offensive pushes the Russians back to their original borders and forces Putin to negotiate. At some point the Russians will realise they can’t conquer the entirety of the Ukraine and will have to talk.
The Russians will have little interest in guarantees from Europe, once Merkel and the Germans admitted they have been lying for years and have no real intension of implementing any negotiated settlement, the question will be solved on the battle field with the destruction of the Ukrainian army
One should not put too much stock in potential Presidential candidate campaign statements. Things always look different once in the White House, especially as POTUS often able to exert more influence on foreign than domestic affairs.
What the US increasingly knows is that Cold War 2 is not just a contest in the South China Sea. Much as for Cold War 1 it is contested over all Continents. How the US/Western Allies behave towards Ukraine has meaning and message to many pondering whether to lean towards the CCP or back towards the West. This has to form part of the calculus.
There seems no doubt though that Europe, whilst more unified than many would have predicted, will have to step forward and provide a greater proportion of guarantees for the eventual peace in Ukraine. This will beg big questions, especially of the Germans and French. The Brits too. The Poles and Scandinavians we know will step forward.
Americans have learned this, but our ruling class remains quite enamored with them. Any why not? Using tax money to buy bombs and missiles made by friends you play golf with so you can blow up stuff halfway around the world is fun and makes you look strong.
Suspect Russia has also learned lessons about the futility of trying to control borderlands where people universally hate them.
Or rather, maybe they haven’t…
Suspect Russia has also learned lessons about the futility of trying to control borderlands where people universally hate them.
Or rather, maybe they haven’t…
Americans have learned this, but our ruling class remains quite enamored with them. Any why not? Using tax money to buy bombs and missiles made by friends you play golf with so you can blow up stuff halfway around the world is fun and makes you look strong.
Logically China and other enemies of the West would want to prolong this conflict as long as possible. Exhausting the West’s resources and reaching the point where the cost and compassion fatigue for what seems like an interminable war has turned public opinion against further support, the USA, Britain and Ukraine’s other supporters would once again be forced in to a shameful cut and run just like they were with Iraq and Afghanistan.
China and our other geopolitical enimies would assume – probably quite rightly – that after yet another humiliatng retreat, there would be no appetite to commit resources to defend Taiwan or any other target our enemies have in their sights
I imagine, then, that China and others will be assisting Russia with sufficient finance and armaments to ensure that Russia is not defeated. With the US presidential elections taking place next year, and a sceptical Republican president a strong probability, there is additional incentive to keep Russia in the fight for the next 18 months.
With new military and economic alligiances centred on China created and he West: humilated, exhausted, conflict wear and engaged in a cultural nervous breakdown, it is not hard to imagine that the the long touted fundamental shift in the geopoliical balance of power could finally happen.
Russia has to win its first victory before any of that can happen.
Backing incompetents is not China’s style.
Whereas stealing Russia’s erstwhile clients in Central Asia is. Nice to see that their new railway also totally bypasses Russia.
Maybe they know something about Russia we don’t?
Russia has to win its first victory before any of that can happen.
Backing incompetents is not China’s style.
Whereas stealing Russia’s erstwhile clients in Central Asia is. Nice to see that their new railway also totally bypasses Russia.
Maybe they know something about Russia we don’t?
Logically China and other enemies of the West would want to prolong this conflict as long as possible. Exhausting the West’s resources and reaching the point where the cost and compassion fatigue for what seems like an interminable war has turned public opinion against further support, the USA, Britain and Ukraine’s other supporters would once again be forced in to a shameful cut and run just like they were with Iraq and Afghanistan.
China and our other geopolitical enimies would assume – probably quite rightly – that after yet another humiliatng retreat, there would be no appetite to commit resources to defend Taiwan or any other target our enemies have in their sights
I imagine, then, that China and others will be assisting Russia with sufficient finance and armaments to ensure that Russia is not defeated. With the US presidential elections taking place next year, and a sceptical Republican president a strong probability, there is additional incentive to keep Russia in the fight for the next 18 months.
With new military and economic alligiances centred on China created and he West: humilated, exhausted, conflict wear and engaged in a cultural nervous breakdown, it is not hard to imagine that the the long touted fundamental shift in the geopoliical balance of power could finally happen.
The War will be over by summer.
The War will be over by summer.
The far more consequential fact right now is that Putin is walking an impossible tightrope.
He’s creating a quite psychotic cocktail inside Russia, by forcing people like Medvedev, and TV presenters like Solovyov, to make insane statements about “totally destroying Ukraine.”
It’s designed to convince both Russians and westerners that he is the only sane ruler for Russia.
But the far more likely outcome is that this will only embolden the real psychotics in Russia to overthrow a weak and cowardly Tsar.
We’ll soon see a civil war between psychos like Prigozhin, against the (much weakened) Russian Army and oligarchs.
Looks like 1917 all over again. Just the inevitable outcome of Muscovy’s 800-year old culture.
The sure sign that someone is wrong is when they can’t even think of a reply.
The sure sign that someone is wrong is when they can’t even think of a reply.
The far more consequential fact right now is that Putin is walking an impossible tightrope.
He’s creating a quite psychotic cocktail inside Russia, by forcing people like Medvedev, and TV presenters like Solovyov, to make insane statements about “totally destroying Ukraine.”
It’s designed to convince both Russians and westerners that he is the only sane ruler for Russia.
But the far more likely outcome is that this will only embolden the real psychotics in Russia to overthrow a weak and cowardly Tsar.
We’ll soon see a civil war between psychos like Prigozhin, against the (much weakened) Russian Army and oligarchs.
Looks like 1917 all over again. Just the inevitable outcome of Muscovy’s 800-year old culture.