The Children’s Online Crusade

The folly of youth has been the subject of many a novel, play, and work of art - and it is a trope rooted in reality. Contemporary teenagers are no different than those of generations past - but unlike most of their predecessors, today’s kids are now woke. Not only do they think they know everything, but they also think they know how to solve all the world’s problems. From the crisis in Israel to more localized social justice issues, today’s woke teens betray an arrogance, unlike any other generation before them.

“Black lives matter,” “all cops are bastards,” “free Palestine!” These phrases, part of every teenager’s toolkit, have become weaponized by the youth and used as platforms from which to harass, intimidate, and otherwise bully anyone who fails to fall in line with their virtuous sloganeering.

At the height of the Israel-Gaza conflict, a mob of TikTok teens harassed a 97-year-old Jewish survivor of the Holocaust on her birthday. It was an apparent act of retribution to the ongoing conflict in the Middle Eastern region. Despite claims that “anti-Zionism” does not equal anti-Semitism, the woman’s only crime was to be Jewish and a survivor of the worst atrocity in living memory.

More recently still, teenagers emboldened by cancel culture began a crusade against The Office actress Ellie Kemper. Painting her as a “Ku Klux Klan princess,” young Twitter users with pronouns and an assortment of identity labels in their bios misread and misrepresented a 2014 article published in The Atlantic of a long-running Missouri debutante ball, of which Kemper was crowned queen as a teenager decades ago. The cancel campaign culminated in numerous articles condemning Kemper for her “racist past.”

True to the term “influencer,” individuals with outsized followings on social media are a driving force in the discourse. From UK pop star Dia Lupa to model Gigi Hadid, countless celebrities have condemned Israel and voiced their support for a fully autonomous Palestine free of Israeli control - or Jewish presence in the region. Musician Roger Waters and leftist politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have both declared Israel an “apartheid state” - effectively feeding anti-Semitic sentiment that continues to grow in the West.

The mainstream media has made no small effort to downplay attacks on Jewish people. In the wake of the conflict in Israel, attacks on Jewish people across North America and Europe have increased exponentially, in no small part due to the rise in anti-Semitic rhetoric that has become normalized on social media. In a recent article, Vox wrote that “violent anti-Semitism spiked in America during the Israel-Hamas war,” noting that “And we don’t know why.”

Well, we know why the violence has increased in both intensity and frequency - and social media has played a major role in it.

Even as Twitter claims to take abuse and harassment seriously, the social media platform often magnifies these divisions through its ‘Trending’ sidebar, which is often replete with cancel campaigns and curated topics that highlight some of the most pervasive abuse on the platform. Users with few followers and even less engagement on their tweets are boosted to the top. The Ellie Kemper controversy would have never happened had Twitter not decided to magnify tweets calling the actress a “KKK princess” and framing it as a legitimate cause for concern. Twitter trends surrounding the war in Israel are themselves full of vitriolic remarks calling for the death of Jews - all of which have gone unpunished and unchallenged by Twitter’s moderators.

Beyond the lack of repercussions, a larger reason why vitriolic opinions gain so much traction on social media is that they’re tailor-made to garner likes. The more likes you get for your post, the more socially acceptable your opinion is deemed, even when it is factually inaccurate. In a Twitter argument with political Twitch streamer Steven “Destiny” Bonnell, a leftist proclaimed that “the US allied with Nazi Germany after WWII dumbass.” Despite an immediate pushback, his remarks received thousands of likes and those in the replies supported his claim that the US joined forces with the regime it had deposed during the war by promoting Nazism worldwide through imperialist wars. He then demanded an apology because “the people have spoken,” as if the wisdom of crowds is equivalent to the truth.

As with any argument on social media, anyone who disagreed with the statement was blasted by a legion of anonymous teenagers, fans of the influencer. Being woke is equal to cultural superiority. It gives the leftist masses a platform to bully others even as they preach acceptance and tolerance.

Leftist political influencers are using their platforms to spread messages of hate all under the guise of social justice. An attack on the truth is to “speak truth to power.” Lying for the sake of promoting one’s agenda is not only justified but necessary in the culture war - at least according to the warped ideals of the progressives who seek to undermine and unravel the very fabric of society.

The youth - well, they’re young, idealistic, and most importantly, impressionable in their formative years. The energy they possess is being misdirected to nefarious ends. And because young people are so vocal, many individuals and corporations are scared to be on the receiving end of these cancel campaigns.

Democracy can, and has been upended by youth movements. History shows that it is the norm, rather than the exception to the rule, that revolutions are started and made up by the young. In China, the Red Guard, formed by the Communist Party, led “struggle sessions” that saw the party’s most vocal detractors shamed in the public square. In the 21st century, these struggle sessions have simply changed venues. Instead of happening in the town square, they’re happening online, where millions of eager militants are able to throw in a punch or two.

While most people have the option to simply log off and ignore the mob, politicians and others who depend on having an online presence are at the mercy of these online mobs.

Social media makes it easier than ever to form a mob with just a few buzzwords. Any influencer worth their salt can manufacture outrage against a target of their choosing provided they equip the mob with the right tools. When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail - and on Twitter, the trending topics are the nails you’re told to hit.

In a just world, the trends would be organic, and the descriptions would be neutral. Instead, reality gives way to second-order simulacra. Left-wing voices are elevated and their arguments, no matter how unsound or even conspiratorial, are given undue credibility. Those who contradict the narrative are singled out, drawn, and quartered.

The common maxim is that “with age comes wisdom,” but the saying wasn’t created in a time when social media dominated our lives and opinions. The mob is suffocating and all-encompassing, and teenagers, who used to be able to grow out of it as they entered the real world, are no longer given that option. Social media is, for all intents and purposes, a reflection of the real world reflected upon itself - an infinite black mirror which we see ourselves endlessly staring into.

As Nietzsche said, “And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” 

You can follow Ian Miles Cheong on Twitter @stillgray.