[Whether we like
it or not—and it likely goes without saying that I don’t—2017 has been defined
by Donald Trump. So for this year in review series, I wanted to AmericanStudy
five forms of resistance to all things Trump. I’d love to hear your thoughts on
the year, Trumptastic or otherwise, in comments!]
On three Twitter
accounts that exemplify three forms of social media resistance.
1)
Ted Lieu:
The conversation about elected officials using (or abusing) Twitter has to
start with the current occupant of the Oval Office, of course. But while Trump
may have pioneered that consistent use of the social media platform (Obama
Tweeted very sparingly from his official presidential account while in
office), that doesn’t mean that all elected officials who Tweet regularly have
to do so in such aggressively awful ways. And I would highlight California Congressman Ted Lieu as a model
of a very different form of political Tweeting. Lieu certainly seems to revel
in a form of social media celebrity that is not unlike what Trump enjoyed in
the years before his presidential run, and that’s a complicated identity for
any political leader to inhabit. But to my mind, Lieu uses his Tweets most
consistently not to self-aggrandize, not to attack or demean, and not to gain
attention for its own sake, but rather to attempt to shape and move the
conversation in ways that will be both opposed to Trump’s narratives and
productive for our civic community. Those are vital goals for any political
Tweeting in 2018, to me.
2)
April
Reign: I’ve written
a good bit about hashtag
activism in this space, and April Reign, creator of #OscarsSoWhite
and co-creator of #NoConfederate
(among other hashtag movements), is one of our most prominent such social media
activists. In that role, I’d say she’s using Twitter for even more important
and enduring—and more innovative—causes than resisting Trump. But at the same
time, I would also argue that Reign—like the three
young women who started the #BlackLivesMatter movement, like Shaun King and Deray McKesson and many other figures who
have achieved their prominence and power online—is a leading voice in a 21st
Century, digital Civil Rights Movement. Such a movement itself represents a
potent alternative and antidote to Trump and the white supremacism for which he
so consistently stands (especially in his Tweets and online presence). Moreover,
Reign’s Tweets and voice, while of course unique and individual to her, also
represent one of our most important social and political communities (as we
just witnessed in the Alabama
special election for Senate), and a group that is at the forefront
of the resistance: African American women.
3)
Stephen
King: While both political engagement and hashtag activism are key elements
to Twitter, I think it’s fair to say that one of the platform’s most enduring
features remains the chance to hear from celebrities in a more direct way than
offered by most other media. Over the last year, numerous such figures have
used their accounts to offer pointed critiques of Trump: George Takei, J.K. Rowling, Ron Perlman, Alyssa Milano, and many many others. But
I’ve been particularly interested to see how Stephen King, one of the
best-selling and most beloved authors of the last few decades, has done so. To
my mind (and I’ve been reading King since I fell in love with The Dark Tower series and The
Bachman Books in early high school), King has never been an overtly
political writer; indeed, I would say that he is primariliy interested in fears
and flaws that plague us all, regardless of any particular affliations or
allegiances. So to see how fully Trump has pushed King to overt online
political engagement, and then to follow the thread of King’s blunt and powerful
Tweets, makes plain just how much none of us can remain neutral or voiceless in
this moment. The resistance is all of us, and King, like these other Twitter
voices, is helping fight the good fight.
Last review
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Other 2017 stories you’d highlight?
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