America Held Hostage

the country for mass shootings to occur. This one now happened at a mall in Dallas, and you know, we're outside of Dallas and nine people are dead, and you know Republicans are not going to do a fucking thing about it. It is. It's, folks. At this point, it's so hard to have sustained outrage at where Republicans have forced America. We are being held hostage by the Republican Party.

Somebody put up on social media that we need to stop referring to these as mass shootings and call them Republican endorsed killings, because at this point, that's what the fuck they are, right, because there is a way to stop it, right it is.

wrong fucking day and come face to face with a neo Nazi sympathizer, a person who has social on all of social media, uh themselves in Nazi attire, tattoos and everything uh uh aligned with Nazism and fascism, and essentially

the Republican Party right. So again, to think that this policy driven insurrection that has continued to take shape across the country, the hatred direct towards trans people, the hatred directed towards Black people, the hatred directed towards Asian people, uh and Latino people in this country that continues to be broadcast uninterrupted, right, not regulated, and think that there isn't going to be these continual outcomes when you have guns that are so readily available and not even that

Texas is going even further. You don't need a license, you don't need training, you don't need anything. You can just walk into any fucking store, pick up a gun, and start shooting. Right, So that is not even about having responsible, responsible gun ownership. They don't care if you're responsible or not. They just want you to kill. So the Republican Party is just one big killing machine, that's

what they are. And you know, for those people who are like, well, you know the shooter who has been identified as Marcillo Garcia, Folks say, well, that's a you know, Hispanic sounding name. How could that person be a white supremacist. Well, if only we taught you know, education, and we taught about white supremacy, and we taught about colonization, and we taught about colorism. Right there are white Hispanics, dear friends, those that align themselves with whiteness more than anything else.

Right there are euro right Hispanics, And so white supremacy, sadly is not just in and of itself held within the white community. Ideas of colorism and anti blackness and anti everything that is not white centric, sadly is spread around the world and looks differently. You know, it shows up in Asia with people not wanting to be dark there, right. It shows up in Africa with the pie production of bleaching creams. It shows up in not hiring people, It

shows up in a lot of ways. It shows up at all the karenisms of calling the cops on everyone and anything right that is in white. So I want people to get it out of your mind that you need to be white right technically using quotation marks in order to be a white supremaist. So once again the weapon of choice in AR fifteen. And this is just par for the course of what it means to live

in America. And I will say this, folks, I personally am getting to a place where I am losing the desire to care about what is happening in Texas and Florida. My whole goal right now is that they're bullshit. Is

not nationalized. That's it, because at this point in time, I'm like, these fucking places being run by these NRA henchmen, their loss causes for generations, right and until they drive all economic viability out of their state because of the defunding that they're doing to libraries, to education and creating incredibly unsafe environments, until they realize that that is not a economic generator for that state. This is going to continue. I just don't want the shit nationalized because I didn't

choose to live in Texas. I didn't choose to live in Florida. And I know that that is coming from a very elitist, geographically elitist place, because people do not have them means to just pick up and move right.

But I have to focus my energy on what can be done, and what can be done is that that shit stays contained in those crazy fucking states, and that we do as much work as possible to wake people up to what they are intending to nationalize rite and fight back with everything that we fucking have, because I don't want America to look like the state of Texas and the state of Florida and the state of Tennessee.

And the only way that we stop that is by taking over legislatures at the state, local, and federal level, making it our fucking jobs because our lives depend on it. I don't know how else to say this that is

not hyperbolic. Any one of us could be at a mall, a grocery store, a movie theater, walking down the street at a parade, at a concert, in a synagogue, at a church, at a mosque at any given time, be in the right place at the absolute wrong time and become the next hashtag, become the next family to join a group that you don't want to join, which is the family of those that have been affected by gun violence. But at this point we have all been indirectly affected traumatized.

So you know, folks, I just have to say that. You know, as I do, it becomes more and more critical critical for you to identify the ways in which you are tending to yourself, to your emotional, mental, and physical well being on a daily basis. It is not something that can be put off for the weekend. It

is not a luxury. In order to be able to deal and move with this can consistent trauma and terrorism, you have got to be able to ground yourself in good right, in spirit, in God, if that is your choice, in nature, in caring for others, in doing something every single day beginning and end, to create the foundation that

allows you to be able to go on. Because the callousness that Republicans want around us to just become numb to this can't be the way, right, So we have to continue to tend to our strength rite an emotional and mental wherewithal to be able to continue fighting. Coming up next, dear friends, my conversation with Annie wu Henry, who is a social media and digital strategist with expertise

in progress of organizations and campaigns. She was most recently the social media producer for the now Senator John Fetterman's very successful campaign in Pennsylvania, and so we are going to talk to her about what the Democrats can do and use as it pertains to our next selection cycle in twenty twenty four and social media folks, I am really happy to welcome to OKF Daily for the very first time, Annie wu Henry, who is a social media

and digital strategist with expertise in progressive organizations and campaigns, who most recently was a social media producer for John Fetterman's successful Senate campaign in Pennsylvania, which you had a badass profile in the New York Times over so congrats on that. And is now the newest endeavor that you have is as creative director for AAPI Victory Fund, which we are a fan of. So welcome to OKF.

of the social media so it wasn't just me. So much of how we were able to react quickly and be so engaged in what was happening was because there were there were many of us and many of us paying attention, many of us that would would give ideas and so much of the time, you know, an idea would be thrown out there or a concept, and then other people would chime in and then by the end we we had such a better result than if it was just the original idea or just if one person

had worked on it. So I always just I mean, I appreciate people saying nice things about about my work.

Because honestly, if you ask me, I don't see how TikTok is any more dangerous than what Facebook does, than what Twitter does, than any other of those platforms, except for the fact that it's owned by a foreign entity.

But in terms of TikTok, for the longest time, right it has been looked at as the site for dance right dance routines, the site for you know, silliness, and what I think the Fetterman campaign and then others did during that time would showcase how important it is to be able to utilize TikTok and the outlets where younger

voters are to engage them in the process. And so I want to give you the opportunity to talk about the power of these platforms and how, on one hand they have been demeaned in a lot of ways as something not to pay attention to. And I, as somebody who has been in politics for a long time, I didn't get on TikTok until a year ago. And I had to be like, you know, beaten over the head in a lot of ways to get onto TikTok because

I usually feel like I'm a politico. I don't dance, I don't saying I don't do any of these things. How am I going to utilize this platform? And I have found it to be really really helpful in refining my messaging so that it can get to audiences in sixty seconds. So can you talk to kind of the importance of that platform and politics.

it's been around for longer during my lifetime. And I had started, you know, on social media just like a normal person in middle and in middle school, beginning of high school, getting a Facebook and getting on Instagram and think and getting a Twitter account and just sharing about connecting with people, sharing about what I was doing, connecting with friends, talking about things I cared about or things that I was thinking about.

get their information, that's where they connect with friends. So many people don't exchange numbers anymore.

most whatever, and I don't think. I just don't think that's the case, because, you know, the way we use Instagram now, it's not the same way used it five years ago. It's not the same way we used it when it came out, and I think TikTok is probably going to be the same way, depending on you know, obviously what happens from a government and regulation standpoint, but also just as the nature of the Internet and the digital space evolves, we need to evolve with it. I

think beginning of social media eras was so filtered. When Instagram first started, it was like this amateur photography app and they had these filters and people try to get really artsy with like you know, like I remember taking a picture of like my ceiling fan in high school, like putting a filter on, being like this is so cool.

And then it like hit an era of like influencers in early i'd say, like twenty twelve, twenty thirteen, and fourteen, when influencers started to becoming a thing, but it was really curated and it was so aesthetic and people would have themes on their pages. Then as those years went on and everything was really filtered and edited and like perfect.

pressing posts and not overthinking it in those ways. And so I think the way in which, you know, I think it's powerful is it's it can show more of that real side, and I think it comes off as more authentic.

what you're trying to get across. But I think the beauty of TikTok and how I like to use it in those ways is just being able to show that more authentic side that sometimes I think on other platforms you can you can't highlights as much, you know, Twitter, while you can use some videos and pictures and you can meme and different things like it is still very just like text oriented and whatever in videos or just

you can you can do more. It's it's like, you know, I don't know what this if there's a saying for it, but like a pictures worth a thousand words and what's a video?

really heavy and it's really exhausting. And I think politics, while we need it and it's important and we can't stop, we can do things in ways that aren't are fun.

of description. Here's this polished person. Here is this like together entity that I'm going to sell to you like a box of Kelloggs in a lot of ways, and then you know our politics, I think, for better or for worse in a lot of ways, for worse because of Donald Trump. The scrubbed presentation of political figures has changed because of Donald Trump in a lot of ways. I think that Barack Obama was super relatable. People liked him, you know, he had that you know, genuine charisma and character.

So for him, social media was like an extension of himself, right, It's just like let us put him on these different mediums. I think that using it, Like, if the purpose of TikTok is authenticity, how do you see other politicians being able to utilize this site when politics has kind of moved again in some instances for worse, into this kind

of mucky place. Right, to be able to present themselves in an authentic way while also to hold the integrity of what of what politics was supposed to be or is supposed to be.

want is more real people. And I wouldn't say Donald Trump's real, That's why that comes into but like they want more real people that aren't these polished people that have grown up with money and their dads were senators and all like this like very establishment vibe. They want you know, people who are working class. They want people

who understand the issues because they've experienced them. And we've seen a shift in you know, again also who were electing and the amount of people that are from you know, non traditional weren't just lawyers or weren't just you know, in government in some way or another being in a voice in politics, which I think is so needed, especially

when we talk about movement politics. And so I think that this is just kind of like you said, similarly with Obama, which obviously social media was much different back in his era, and I'd be interesting to see if he was going to be in office how that would be used today with him and who he is and

obviously Michelle and the kids and all of that. But I think it can be an extension and ideally we have people and politicians that are more real, that are more willing to say things how they are, say things what they think without it being you know, it can still be professional, but it can be honest, and it

can feel honest, and it can feel more authentic. And I think you know a lot of people, and she's obviously a younger, working class politician like that is very known AOC A lot of people look at her her use of social media, which again is from being a bit more digitally native, but that I don't think the way she uses it is unprofessional, but it still feels really real, and it still feels like a congressman, because a congress person. They're just at the end of the day,

they're just people. And I think, yep, because of media and because of just everything being so saturated right now, and it will continue to be like these figures and while we can respect their positions and their levels of power, at the end of the day, they are also people, and they are citizens, and they are people that are have a job, and their job is to work for us.

And I think so much of the time we put them in these like elevated kind of like iron idealists, sick positions in our brains of like and and then they they and the way that for so long politicians have been presented of like they it's them, and then it's us, and it shouldn't be them in us, it's all of us together.

They're so less tied to those those specific categories and boxes and established things that I think in the past we've held to.

I think about what they were able to do in Tennessee with the Tennessee three and the you know and and marching on the state capitol and walking out of schools that they have done to protest gun violence and the fact that they are on the front lines of mass shootings, right, and I wonder, you know, kind of my last question for you is, what do you see as Generation Z enters into the workforce, enters into all

of the different rungs of various industries. How do you see this generation taking shape and shifting how we utilize and how we see social media kind of moving forward?

young people were expressing themselves, largely young people. But now, I mean the most the biggest demographic on TikTok is actually people in like their twenties to thirties, and so it's expanding and you know, as Gen X and millennials and people like, everyone's just going to be getting older, and there's gonna be Gen Alfha soon that like already

has phones and already knows how to use it. And I don't know what the exact years are, but soon it will be like most Gen zs are in you know, end of high school, college, soon it will be you know, the next generation. And so I think, you know, young people naturally are going to be more adaptive to these different emerging platforms or spaces, just because they aren't set in certain ways of doing things or whatever. But I

do think it's it's expanding beyond just young people. I think also young people, it expands beyond beyond just TikTok. I think if we say TikTok's gonna wagh, so we lose the way to reach out to young people, that's simply not true either.

obviously we're going to be doing a lot. We're rolling out kind of the refrash and rebrand and hopefully we'll be doing a bit more consistently to be building coalitions and power and with our community but also with our allies, and I think following along what we're doing there, I'm working doing some work. It's not a full time or anything, but I'm doing some work with the Working Families Party, which I think is so fantastic and keeps me involved

with local politics. That's happening, especially in Pennsylvania.

the day. And and you know, on my own side of you know, just being a person sharing again about my life and what I care about and some of this work that I'm doing, it's Annie Underscore wu W Underscore twenty two on everything. I say everything because I don't know, you know, what's happening with Twitter. I think I might have a Blue Sky invite somewhere, but like I haven't set it up yet. So it's that everywhere.

And I'm you know, that's not my job, but I try to use those platforms like anyone does, to be connecting with others and sharing about themselves and all that that encompasses.