If there's one thing we've learned from the last 25 years, it's that platforms are fickle, ESPECIALLY ones whose success is defined as "where the cool kids are"

If there's one thing we've learned from the last 25 years, it's that platforms are fickle, ESPECIALLY ones whose success is defined as "where the cool kids are". Even if you assume there's some magic subliminial Sinocentric messaging in the app, by the time the TikTok audience is old enough to be in positions of power, its influence will be long gone-- a stock photo screenshot on a nostalgia slideshow next to "remember the Xbox 360?" or "That white second-generation Prius that there was one of in every neighbourhood." This will all blow over in another few years. The kids will move on to VipVorp and Slipppper, parents' groups will while about the scourge of four-dimensional VR hyper-porn, and the world will keep spinning. If the rise of China is an actual existential threat (spoiler: it's not-- there's a difference between "we can't act with complete impunity on the global stage anymore" and "suddenly we have the per-capita GDP of Haiti") then it's going to take more than economic roadblocks and scare tactics. America has to make itself more competitive-- better education, better infrastructure, more strategic use of subsidy and planning tools, more money in R&D and less on stock buybacks.