If we don’t pay people doing necessary things for society and continue to flush the posers like this TikToker in cash, the system cannot stand.
$750K per post for a Tiktoker?
Recently, one of our Politics Done Right viewers thought he would get me in a gotcha inconsistency. Unfortunately for him, he did not.
He sent me a snippet from Fortune Magazine about Khaby Lame, the guy with the largest TikToker fanbase.
It’s 8:30 p.m. on a Friday night and the world’s most followed TikToker Khabane “Khaby” Lame lies on the couch watching cartoons. The 22-year-old with 149.5 million TikTok followers spends three hours a day learning English from a Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood–inspired animated series Daniel Tiger. His goal: master English to score roles in major Hollywood films. And so, old-school headphones in place, the 6-foot-1 star lounges on multicolor velvety cushions in the Milan flat he shares with his manager, Alessandro Riggio, to kick off the weekend.
The viewer asked me if I felt Khaby deserved the money he earned from TikTok. Of course, my answer was no. But in the Western Capitalist structure, it is modus operandi. A teacher works her ass off, decorates her classroom with her own money, and gets a relatively menial wage. This guy makes cheezy videos that many like, including me, which makes him a conduit for large corporations to rent the eyeballs that want his entertainment. The fact is that multiple 60-second videos that go viral cannot be compared to the long-lasting effects teachers have on our children, or good doctors have on our health.
My objection isn’t wealth envy. It is the devaluing of actual worth. I often talk about the least deserving earning the most money and the necessity that all assert their worth.
Worth in America must be reclaimed. Worth must be consummate with what one produces for a society that provides intrinsic value. This is not at all difficult to ascertain. Absent the teacher, education stalls. Absent the engineer, bridges, buildings, & computers are non-existent. Absent the doctors, we are unhealed. Absent the scientists, we do not have a body of knowledge. Absent the movers of capital, life goes on, and the local banker who has a real interest in the community is reborn.
America’s indoctrination by a small class that provides no product or real service to the vast majority of our citizens must end. Americans must first visualize and externalize their real worth to society. They must let loose those shackles of indoctrination. The middle class must not accept the current wage or wealth paradigm. The middle class must assert its worth and force politicians to recover the nation’s treasure and invest it in America and Americans, those that have done the work and innovation to make this country great.
The TikToker making huge profits on cheezy videos is no different than stock-broker and other paper pushers who do little to move society forward. Please listen to the entire video for more context.
Viewers are encouraged to subscribe and join the conversation for more insightful commentary and to support progressive messages. Together, we can populate the internet with progressive messages that represent the true aspirations of most Americans.
