To rephrase: When you think of a person making an income from tiktok, do you picture a wealthy influencer? Or do you picture a working class person?

I hear your concern, but i’ve had the opposite experience. I’ve seen massive and successful fundraising + mutual aid efforts. Especially for people in Gaza. It’s saved lives. As a musician, i’ve watched folks get enough exposure to not sell out to the industry. It does happen and very meaningfully.

Once we get a grasp of what we’re imagining - we can have a better dialogue and better understand who/what we’re all trying to defend and why.

Interesting pov! You’re the only person to engage with my actual point - I appreciate it. I think it’s important for us to understand what we conjure to mind when we imagine someone making money from tiktok. Some picture only influencers. For me, it includes working class ppl. For you, it’s scammers

I hear your pov. I don’t believe that everyone *should* diversify their income to an extent that they rely on social media to exist.

My point is that given our status in late stage capitalism, it is important for us to understand how the working class operates to create a more sustainable movement

I hear u. And I agree - under socialism “influencers” won’t need to exist and we shouldn’t live in a world where anyone relies on income from social media to sustain themselves.

At the same time - I think order of operations and messaging is of utmost importance for getting from point A to point B.

I agree that the average american - as in the number of people - is not on tiktok. I mean ‘average’ in the categorical sense - millions of folks who are in the same situation as the average american - living paycheck to paycheck - utilize Tiktok to support themselves. Those ppl are not the problem.

I hear you, but what you are describing is applicable to every source of income that working American living paycheck to paycheck utilizes. You’re describing a problem of capitalism, not social media. The solution is not to infantilize everyone for fearing the loss of a potential stream of income.

I deduced it from the nature of your statement. Like to say “it sucks, actually” and leave it there sounds like you’re making a principal assertion. But, that’s a deduction on my end - if you meant something different I’d genuinely appreciate hearing this.