AOC and Her Attention-Seeking is Out of Control – The Chinese social media app, TikTok (owned by parent company ByteDance—which is itself a subsidiary of the Chinese Communist Party), is in the crosshairs of the United States Congress.
After years of skirting by the attention of federal regulators and ensnaring 150 million Americans, most of them young people, with their addictive algorithms, Congress is finally waking up to the danger, with key hearings taking place back in March.
There is much evidence to suggest that the Chinese-owned social media app is doing significant amounts of psychological injury to the impressionable young minds using the program as well as damage to the social fabric of the country.
What’s more, the app, as Congress correctly fears, may be a national security threat.
And, of course, like clockwork, AOC has jumped into the fray on this issue.
AOC is Addicted to Social Media
Even in an age of hyper-partisanship, a time in which some analysts say the United States has not been this divided since 1858—just before the Civil War erupted—many Democrats and most Republicans agree that TikTok poses a threat to our nation.
Given this, it strains credulity that the Honorable (well…) Democratic Congresswoman from New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), insists upon still using the controversial app.
When pressed by the media as to why she isn’t taking a more cautious approach to her use of TikTok, AOC nonchalantly explained back in March that Congress’ proposed TikTok ban “doesn’t feel right” and that the long overdue move would be “unprecedented.”
Maybe Rep. James Comer (R-KY), as he’s looking into nefarious payments from Chinese energy companies to Hunter Biden, could also delve into whether or not AOC has ever received payment from TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance…?
And what’s with all this “feeling” among our so-called leaders? Has she not received her security briefing on TikTok? As she received one since March when this story broke?
As someone who has been intimately involved with tracking the threat that TikTok poses to our country, I can tell you that I know such security briefings exit. What’s more, AOC’s Republican colleague, Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL), told Fox News’ Harris Faulkner back in March that AOC has thus far refused to receive the FBI and CIA briefings on the threat that TikTok poses to the country—and to our elected leaders, who receive access to classified briefings and make important decisions that affect all our lives. There is no new information if this has changed.
Why AOC Does What She Does
Cammack says that AOC is seeking attention.
Cammack is certainly correct. AOC has hundreds of thousands of followers on her TikTok page. And let’s get real, AOC’s real purpose in Congress is not to create historic legislation or even to get reelected. Her primary goal is to be a celebrity; an influencer who will leverage her political office for fame and fortune, irrespective of whether she remains in office or not. Celebrity is the currency in which she ultimately trades—even if it means exposing her office to a Chinese weapon of information war.
Sadly, AOC is a product of her generation. Like me, AOC is a Millennial. Ours was the generation that pioneered social media usage. Multiple scientific studies have come out in the last few years indicating that social media usage in general (and TikTok specifically) is highly addictive. The younger one starts using these apps, the more their neuronal pathways change to become increasingly reliant on using the app.
It could be that, on top of seeking attention, AOC is addicted to the program like everyone else in her generation—thereby proving how dangerous this product is.
AOC: Divider, Not Uniter
At a time when America needs some semblance of bipartisan consensus, when we are challenged by China in ways that not even the Soviet Union managed to do, AOC is undermining that sense of unity. As one of the youngest people in Congress, with a huge following, she has a responsibility to refuse to use TikTok at least until her colleagues can come to a decision on whether to ban the app or not. What’s more, she should avail herself of the knowledge that the intelligence community is offering her and receive her classified briefing—without her cellphone in the SCIF, which likely has the TikTok app loaded onto it—so that she can discover just how pernicious TikTok is.
Then again, the country is led by self-interested fools. AOC is the queen of that group, sadly. And AOC is the face of the shape of things to come from our leaders: vain, petty, short-sighted, and entirely oblivious to the national interest or even the greater good.
Could you ever imagine someone like AOC giving up their beloved TikTok for God, duty, honor, or country? Could you envision her even uttering those words seriously?
Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who serves as a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive.com. Weichert is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as at American Greatness and the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower (Republic Book Publishers), Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (May 16), and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (July 23). Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
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