the Red Scare is back...and it's an app?

with the ban of TikTok looming, the U.S. has pushed millions of young westerners to redder and more Chinese pastures.

Good day, spectators,

And, while I describe the spectacle as a ‘geopolitics and world culture' magazine, I am still not 100% sure what ‘world culture’ means but I'm pretty certain this is it…

So…I hate TikTok. I hate how wildly successful it is, and I hate how its algorithm is perfectly tailored to know exactly what I want and when I want it. My biggest pet peeve with TikTok is that I personally don’t enjoy that style of short video content. As you might expect, I’m a writer. I like to read. I like to watch long-form videos so TikTok just isn’t for me.

But what I do understand—perhaps even better than some because I am a young person—is how impactful the platform has been for my generation and the ones following mine. Something else I understand, and find hilarious, is how much TikTok has pissed off the United States.

a great red exodus is happening right now.

For years, American politicians have ranted about TikTok being Chinese spyware. It’s one of the many death rattles from an empire in decline, it flails and grasps at the idea that banning a single app might somehow save it from crumbling supremacy. But here’s the reality: in its recent attempt to ban TikTok, the United States has unwittingly driven millions and millions of its citizens straight into the arms of another Chinese app you might have heard about—RedNote.

If TikTok is the spark that lit the fire of paranoia, RedNote is the inferno. It’s called ‘the Instagram of China’ and its Chinese name translates to Little Red Book which is a direct nod to Chairman Mao's ideological masterpiece. The cornerstone of Chinese communism. The irony is delicious, is it not?

And it’s not just young people fleeing to RedNote. This exodus includes anyone frustrated by the looming possibility of TikTok disappearing. From influencers to casual scrollers, millions across the Western world are already embracing the platform. Once there, they’re engaging with Chinese users who have welcomed them with open arms. The cultural exchange is wonderful, with Westerners learning Chinese to connect more deeply with their eastern counterparts. Videos of young Americans and Europeans practicing Mandarin are already all over the app.

This isn’t just migration, in many ways it’s a tech revolution.

once again, China didn’t do anything and it wins.

What makes this all the more interesting is how passive China has been in this saga. While the United States ties itself in knots, fuming out of the ears over TikTok, China is simply building better infrastructure, creating more engaging platforms, and allowing natural curiosity to do the rest.

actual photo of Xi Jinping this week.

Decades and decades of negative propaganda about China, its government, people, and culture are being undone one interaction at a time. Young Americans are learning firsthand about the wonders of healthcare systems, high-speed railways, and great technological advancements. Screenshots of Chinese users explaining these things to curious Westerners have gone viral, with one key takeaway: China’s influence isn’t just growing—it’s completely reshaping the way many in the west see the country.

the Chinese are neither shy nor ashamed to share tidbits about their lives on RedNote. They also love Luigi Mangione.

people tell Americans about their infamous ‘social credit system’.

If this is a propaganda war, China is winning.

the fall of empires.

It’s worth mentioning, what we’re witnessing is not a surprise if you’ve been paying attention. To many of us here in the spectacle community, a broader shift in global power dynamics was clearly imminent. The West, and the United States in particular, is stumbling under the weight of its own bullshit. Spheres of influence expand and contract, and empires rise and fall. What’s happening with TikTok and RedNote might seem small, but it is just one of the bricks which falls from the wall of a crumbling empire to build up another.

China didn’t need to meddle in the affairs of others. It has always focused inward, building a society that now attracts the curious and the disillusioned workers of our world. Meanwhile, the United States continues to wield its influence like a bludgeon, alienating the very people it hopes to control.

And, before I let you go, I'm going to leave you with this hilarious video that I just found on RedNote. The Chinese people know exactly what is going on and they are not going to waste the opportunity to dispense funny memes:

Time moves forward. The question is: will the United States move with it, or will it be left behind, clinging to an era that has already slipped away? (That’s a rhetorical question.)

And now, I will let you go for today. Let me know what you think in the comments.

(As always, thanks for reading and please give this post a ❤️ and restack below.)

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