Premium Episode 236: Tik Tokers Heart Bin Laden (Sample)
The ongoing discourse around social media and extremism took a strange twist earlier this month after users of the social media platform Tik Tok discovered a 2002 work by Osama bin Laden called “Letter to America.” Tik Tokers noted the letter’s analysis of American imperialism and its effects on the Middle East, as well as the influence of Zionist thought on American politics. Many expressed shock and acted as if the brief letter completely altered their conception of the world, as if this was the very first critique of American foreign policy they ever encountered. This controversy ignited a very dumb conversation about the influence of social media, and Tik Tok in general, on young people.
To unpack this tempest in a teapot, Travis, Jake, and Liv discuss the letter itself, how Tik Tokers reacted to it, and how the controversy may be inflated by panic over Chinese-owned Tik Tok.
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Liv Agar: livagar.com / linktr.ee/livagar
Music by Pontus Berghe. Editing by Corey Klotz.
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References:
Full Text: bin Laden’s Letter to America
https://web.archive.org/web/20040615081002/http://observer.guardian.co.uk/worldview/story/0,11581,845725,00.html
Letter to American people Wikipedia Page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_to_the_American_people
404 Media: The Guardian Deletes Osama Bin Laden’s Letter to America Because it Went Viral on TikTok
https://www.404media.co/guardian-deletes-osama-bin-ladens-letter-to-america-after-it-goes-viral-on-tiktok/
Washington Post: How Osama bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ reached millions online
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2023/11/16/guardian-osama-bin-laden-letter-to-america/
CNN: Some young Americans on TikTok say they sympathize with Osama bin Laden
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/16/tech/tiktok-osama-bin-laden-letter-to-america/index.html
Vice News: TikTok Says It's Not the Algorithm, Teens Are Just Pro-Palestine
https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxjb8b/tiktok-its-not-the-algorithm-teens-are-just-pro-palestine
Vice News: TikTok Says It's Not the Algorithm, Teens Are Just Pro-Palestine
https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxjb8b/tiktok-its-not-the-algorithm-teens-are-just-pro-palestine
Ryan Broderick: TikTok teens aren’t stanning Osama Bin Laden
https://www.garbageday.email/p/tiktok-teens-arent-stanning-osama
Reuters: Montana to become first US state to ban Tik Tok
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/montana-governor-signs-bill-banning-tiktok-state-2023-05-17/
New York Times: Nikki Haley Renews Call for TikTok Ban After Bin Laden Letter Circulates
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/17/us/politics/nikki-haley-tiktok-ban.html
New York Times: Lawmakers Renew Calls to Ban Tik Tok After Accusations of Anti-Israel Content
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/08/business/tiktok-accusations-anti-israel-content.html
Welcome, listener, to Premium Chapter 236 of the QAA Podcast, the TikTokers' Hart Bin Laden episode.
As always, we are your hosts, Jake Rakitansky, Liv Aker, and Travis View.
The ongoing discourse around social media and extremism took a very strange twist earlier this month after users of the social media platform TikTok discovered a 2002 work by Osama Bin Laden called Letter to America.
The TikTokers noted the letter's analysis of American imperialism and its effects on the Middle East, as well as the influence of Zionist thought on American politics.
Many expressed shock and acted as if the brief letter completely altered their conception of the world, as if this was the very first critique of American foreign policy they had ever encountered.
And some of them were very young, so maybe it really actually was.
I'm a TikTok time traveler from the year 2046.
Where I come from, Bin Laden was a hero.
So this controversy ignited a very dumb conversation about the influence of social media and TikTok in general on young people.
And I really think this incident is worth unpacking.
So today, we're going to start by taking a closer look at the letter itself.
Then Liv is going to walk us through how the TikTok community, based on the videos we can still find, reacted to the Bin Laden letter.
Then we're going to take a look at whether this was an actual trend on TikTok, or whether it was an inflated panic that was actually started on Twitter, and how this was caused by general anxiety over the influence that the Chinese-owned TikTok has on the youth of America.
Too much stuff, Travis.
It's too much stuff.
We've got TikTok trend, Twitter panic, Chinese owned.
There's too much stuff.
I'm just too, I got too much shit on me.
I've got too much shit on my phone.
There's just too many.
There's too many dumb things.
We have to talk about the intersection of like politics and online platforms and, uh, you know, all these good stuff.
So I think it's, I think it's really interesting.
Now, what's fascinating to me is that the TikTokers in the compilation of videos that were placed on Twitter, they all kept acting as if the letter just altered their consciousness forever.
So I just read a letter to America, and I will never look at life the same.
I will never look at this country the same. i will never-- please read it and if
you have read it let me know if you are also going through an existential crisis in this very
moment because in the last 20 minutes my entire viewpoint on the entire life i have believed and i
have lived has changed. please read that entire letter. i need everyone to stop what they're doing
right now and go read. it's literally two Go read A Letter to America, and please come back here and just let me know what you think, because I feel like I'm going through like an existential crisis right now, and a lot of people are, so I just need someone else to be feeling this too.
So that's two people who described their reaction to reading this letter as having an existential crisis.
Yeah, I really, every day I'm amazed by lack of historical literacy by Americans.
Maybe it's the Canadian thing, too.
Maybe it's our country, too.
But like, kind of left-leaning libs who are just like, just finding out now that 9-11 was in part caused by American imperialism.
Yeah, yeah.
We'll, we'll get into this.
But I think that like, maybe if there really was like, like, their conception of like, geopolitics was basically, you know, Team America, World Police, and like, they thought like, you know, Bin Laden letter would be like, Oh, I'm going to attack America because I hate freedom.
Yeah.
Then yeah, maybe this would be shocking.
But I want to unpack the letter itself, because even knowing the contents of the letter and understanding the grievances that Bin Laden expressed, this reaction was kind of baffling to me, at least in these two instances.
Yeah, the self-importance of like, go read, read, read, letters, words on a page, me reading, reading.
Fuck!
God damn, everybody's so annoying online.
Who cares?
Stop what I'm doing right now.
Stop what I'm doing right now.
What do you mean?
Drop everything for you?
For your opinion?
Shut up!
I know.
I open up TikTok to relax and you're giving me homework, basically.
Yeah, I want to see another ad for the Dragon Eggs.
Okay, because I clicked on the Dragon Eggs once.
And now all I get is the Dragon Eggs ads.
I've lost my mind!
Maybe the whole cause of this trend is people just wanted to brag that they read something?
I think so!
I think that's it, Liv.
Like, I spent 20 minutes reading this.
Just by the way.
20 minutes of my life I spent reading.
Isn't that impressive?
Yeah, I suppose people's attention spans are so fried.
They're like, listen, I read this 800 word letter.
Jesus Christ.
They were like, you were busy building castles in Fortnite, a dumb video game.
Me, I was reading letters from potentially one of the greatest philosophers of our time, now dead.
All right.
Enough of this.
Let's go.
So the letter initially appeared on a Saudi website linked to Al-Qaeda, and an English translation was shared online that was published by the British Sunday newspaper, The Observer, and was probably resonating with people.
was the sort of the expression of anti-imperialism. So the letter describes the decades of Israeli
occupation of Palestine as years overflowing with oppression, tyranny, crimes, killing, expulsion,
and destruction and devastation. The letter also criticizes the hypocrisy of being indifferent to
the destruction caused by American aggression while being enraged at Americans who were,
American civilians who were killed on 9/11.
So the letter states, "You have starved the Muslims of Iraq, where children die every
day.
It is a wonder that more than 1.5 million Iraqi children have died as a result of your
sanctions and you did not show concern.
Yet when 3,000 of your people died, the entire world rises and has not yet sat down."
Normally, I'm very sad when Julian isn't able to join us, but in this moment, I may
be glad he wasn't able to make it.
He would say something maybe a little too laudatory about Osama bin Laden.
Lucky for everyone, I now serve as like the amped up guy on the show, and I just like don't know enough history to make, or my politics just aren't educated enough to make any sort of wild claims.
So I think everybody's lucked out here.
Yeah, I mean, this sort of point is, like, correct, and it's made by, like, a lot of people, but it's also important to note that, like, there's a reason why Bin Laden is particularly upset about, like, Israel, which is obviously going to be elaborated in the other reasons.
Yeah.
Like, this is not a symmetrical critique of state violence.
No, no, no, it's not.
And yeah, it's like, I'm not gonna claim to be any kind of like Bin Laden expert or something.
So really, I'm approaching this from the same level, background-wise, as a lot of these TikTokers.
And like, knowing that, reading the letter, I thought it was strange because there's a lot more there than just like a, you're right, sort of a sensible critique of American policy.
For example, it conflates the state of Israel with Jewish people generally, which is always a bad sign.
Like when speaking of the American and British government, Bin Laden says, these governments have surrendered to the Jews, which is just a right-wing anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.
Yeah.
I mean, explaining the American-Israeli relationship is like Israel is influencing America.
It's like, no, America benefits from it.
That's why they give them money.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's a strategic reason why America wants a strong ally in the Middle East.
The only surrendering to the Jews that America is doing is really, you know, hey, these soups are good.
Whoa, you put that much corned beef inside two pieces of bread?
Like, what?
This is how a sandwich should be.
Am I doing my own anti-Semitism now, I guess?
Probably.
I'll stop.
We should continue.
I'm Jewish, by the way.
In another section, Bin Laden says, quote, The Jews have taken control of your economy, through which they have taken control of your media, and now control all aspects of your life, making you their servants and achieving their aims at your expense, precisely what Benjamin Franklin warned you against.
I don't know precisely what he's referring to here, but I don't think, you know, Bin Laden's praise of Benjamin Franklin is entirely sincere here when he's going on this openly anti-Semitic rant.
Yeah, yeah, it's weird.
There's some sort of National Treasure joke buried somewhere here, but my COVID brain is too foggy to find it.
So you make the joke, listener.
You decide what I would have said and how I would have referenced Ben Franklin's inventions, not in real life, but from the movie National Treasure, and you laugh at what it could have been.
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