I love comedy. There is nothing like a good, old-fashioned belly laugh to make my day. I watch movies, comedians, improv – you name it – to get a daily dose of the giggles.
There’s one comedy group, however, that stands out from all of the rest. It’s also the biggest. With 535 members, it’s always up to some madcap shenanigans.
Of course, I am referring to Congress.
Lately, they have been on a roll. They want to clamp down on TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media company that seems to specialize in videos of random garbage, ranging from ads for household cleaners to clips from old TV shows.
Pretty amazing stuff.
But the junk TikTok shows isn’t the problem, according to our contingent of congressional cut-ups. The problem is that TikTok someday will give everything it learned about me and you to the Chinese government.
So, let me tell you what they will find out about me. I like airplanes, and astronomy. And goofy videos – particularly those about Congress.
That’s about it. Yet the folks in Congress – Democrats and Republicans – seem to believe that TikTok can be weaponized and turn me and everyone else against the good old U.S. of A.
A note to the Chinese. Don’t even try. The folks in Congress have beat you to it.
For example, Congress and the administration have told anyone with a federal government-issued cell phone to delete TikTok.
Wait just a minute. Do you mean to tell me that my tax dollars have been going toward buying cell phones for federal employees so they can watch TikTok? So it’s OK for them to watch Facebook on the taxpayers’ dime? And Instagram and Twitter?
If Congress was serious, it would order all social media to be blocked from government phones.
After all, outfits like Facebook have been collecting – and selling – personal information to anyone with a checkbook, and posting ads from the Russians and God knows who else. If you have enough money, they will even dedicate a special team to promote your propaganda.
The great irony about social media is that Congress allowed it to become the slurry of half-truths and personal attacks it is today. Congress exempted Facebook and all of the other platforms from liability for the content they publish.
Anywhere else in the world, publishers are held responsible for content, but not Facebook and the others.
Congress created the problems it now complains about, but won’t fix them.
Oh, members will huff and puff, and issue press releases but in the end they will do approximately nothing meaningful.
That’s what makes them all so funny. The billionaires that own Facebook, Twitter and the other social media platforms are laughing at them. They know they can stroke a campaign check to this congressional committee chairman or that member of Congress and any problems will go away. They are anxious to get rid of TikTok because it is a successful competitor. No doubt Congress will find a way to take care of its patrons in the Silicon Valley.
Yes, these are hilarious times on Capitol Hill in Washington. With all of the real problems facing us – including the runaway inflation that Congress created by spraying down the economy with trillions of borrowed dollars – they are worrying about TikTok.
It’s too funny!
Carl Sampson is a freelance writer and editor. He lives in Stayton.
