Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

We need a TikTok president

TikTok
DeFodi Images News/Getty Images

Thiele Strong is a sociology professor at San José State University a public voices fellow at the The OpEd Project.

The United States is quickly approaching a presidential election that no one is jazzed about. The incumbent’s approval rating is substantially lower than his disapproval rating. And the biggest contender for his opposition, who just won the Iowa caucuses, is a habitual liar facing 91 felony charges and who will be remembered for inciting an insurrection, introducing alternative facts and calling social activists public enemies. Both are elite, cishet white men who would be president in their eighties if they were to win the election.

Even in a deeply polarized society, many can agree that the candidates are abysmal. This lackluster slate does not reflect who we are as a nation. We are full of accomplishments, innovation, creativity and development. Aren’t we worthy of a leader who reflects the magnitude of our potential?

Let’s allow TikTok to provide democracy to a nation that deeply deserves it and has not tasted it in some time. As social media content creators delve into New Year's resolutions, intentions and directions, I urge us to vision board and act now to find a politically viable presidential candidate.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter


We do not want 2024 to follow the current political path. We are the so-called leaders of the developed world, so we should be thrilled with our political candidates.

There’s someone who is burning for the chance to be heard and taken seriously as a presidential candidate. Someone who does not have massive campaign financing, who does not have the support of the mega donors, who is not a D.C. staple and yet who feels the time is right for them to listen and lead.

This is not only a pipedream. As a sociologist who teaches and researches social class and stratification, I know that we have more to gain from solidarity than from division. Solidarity is a sustainability resource. Sociologists have long forecasted that capitalism run amok would enter the next stage of its evolution when the masses were given the means and the tools to unite on their political behalf. Through social media we have a non-violent, cost-effective solution to tap into our collective wealth to provide a sustainable political future.

We have always had the numbers. There have always been more members of the working classes than there have been of the corporate, economic and political elites. But the socio-economically and politically powerful corporate elites work together. They meet and party together. And sometimes, they are incredibly irresponsible.

We, with social media as our tool, can do better.

It is important that we work to take control of our government for the people, by the people, before the billionaires get more deeply entrenched into our politics. Our political system has long been a bastion of power for people who have money. We have had millionaires in politics, now we have billionaires with unmatched resources. In the 2016 election, “The Great Hack” showed, those who supported Trump used their money to target so-called “persuadables” – swing voters in swing counties of swing states – with psychological warfare in order to shape politics. Their candidate, the political nihilist, won.

For decades, the media has bonded and shaped us. For example, in the early 2000s we saw Madonna and Britney kiss. During the pandemic, it was Nathan Apodaca, Fleetwood Mac and cranberry juice on Tiktok.

We love our TikTok, an opiate of the masses by the masses. They want to take it. Let’s give those in power another reason to be wary of the power of TikTok. Let’s use it to find a 2024 presidential candidate worthy of the powerful position.

This will not work if we promote someone who is not capable of the job. As a reminder, the Constitution requires that a presidential candidate: be 35 years or older, be a natural born citizen and have lived in the United States for at least 14 years. Based on these criteria, many people qualify.

Recently, there have been calls for humanities and artists to get into politics. We also need social scientists to get into politics. We need people who are capable of integrity, organization, mediation and de-escalation. Scan your screens and your consciousness and come up with someone in your networks who you think can go viral for a presidential candidacy.

It’s the 2024 TikTok challenge: #swaythepresidentialplay

To be sure, TikTok challenges are not known for their promotion of social well-being. Instead, they have been linked to teenage endangerment and risky behavior. Elites will say that we cannot elect a candidate from TikTok. But this is not the first time TikTok has entered politics. Remember twhen TikTok teens and K-pop stans falsely registered for Donald Trump’s campaign event? We can use TikTok to find eligible people who can rule a nation.

America has the potential to be great, and greatness is never achieved by electing government officials through a classist, racist, sexist and outdated system. Amazing things have come from Tiktok – let’s add another tick to that list.

In past years, celebrities have called for us to rock the vote. Now, let us TikTok the vote.

Read More

Should States Regulate AI?

Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-CA, speaks at an AI conference on Capitol Hill with experts

Provided

Should States Regulate AI?

WASHINGTON —- As House Republicans voted Thursday to pass a 10-year moratorium on AI regulation by states, Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-CA, and AI experts said the measure would be necessary to ensure US dominance in the industry.

“We want to make sure that AI continues to be led by the United States of America, and we want to make sure that our economy and our society realizes the potential benefits of AI deployment,” Obernolte said.

Keep ReadingShow less
The AI Race We Need: For a Better Future, Not Against Another Nation

The concept of AI hovering among the public.

Getty Images, J Studios

The AI Race We Need: For a Better Future, Not Against Another Nation

The AI race that warrants the lion’s share of our attention and resources is not the one with China. Both superpowers should stop hurriedly pursuing AI advances for the sake of “beating” the other. We’ve seen such a race before. Both participants lose. The real race is against an unacceptable status quo: declining lifespans, increasing income inequality, intensifying climate chaos, and destabilizing politics. That status quo will drag on, absent the sorts of drastic improvements AI can bring about. AI may not solve those problems but it may accelerate our ability to improve collective well-being. That’s a race worth winning.

Geopolitical races have long sapped the U.S. of realizing a better future sooner. The U.S. squandered scarce resources and diverted talented staff to close the alleged missile gap with the USSR. President Dwight D. Eisenhower rightfully noted, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” He realized that every race comes at an immense cost. In this case, the country was “spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Closeup of Software engineering team engaged in problem-solving and code analysis

Closeup of Software engineering team engaged in problem-solving and code analysis.

Getty Images, MTStock Studio

AI Is Here. Our Laws Are Stuck in the Past.

Artificial intelligence (AI) promises a future once confined to science fiction: personalized medicine accounting for your specific condition, accelerated scientific discovery addressing the most difficult challenges, and reimagined public education designed around AI tutors suited to each student's learning style. We see glimpses of this potential on a daily basis. Yet, as AI capabilities surge forward at exponential speed, the laws and regulations meant to guide them remain anchored in the twentieth century (if not the nineteenth or eighteenth!). This isn't just inefficient; it's dangerously reckless.

For too long, our approach to governing new technologies, including AI, has been one of cautious incrementalism—trying to fit revolutionary tools into outdated frameworks. We debate how century-old privacy torts apply to vast AI training datasets, how liability rules designed for factory machines might cover autonomous systems, or how copyright law conceived for human authors handles AI-generated creations. We tinker around the edges, applying digital patches to analog laws.

Keep ReadingShow less
Nurturing the Next Generation of Journalists
man using MacBook Air

Nurturing the Next Generation of Journalists

“Student journalists are uniquely positioned to take on the challenges of complicating the narrative about how we see each other, putting forward new solutions to how we can work together and have dialogue across difference,” said Maxine Rich, the Program Manager with Common Ground USA. I had the chance to interview her earlier this year about Common Ground Journalism, a new initiative to support students reporting in contentious times.

A partnership with The Fulcrum and the Latino News Network (LNN), I joined Maxine and Nicole Donelan, Program Assistant with Common Ground USA, as co-instructor of the first Common Ground Journalism cohort, which ran for six weeks between January and March 2025.

Keep ReadingShow less