How China Is Colonizing the US: 20 Seconds at a Time
The risk of TikTok and why it must be banned
TikTok isn't a social media company.
It's the most sophisticated psychological influence operation ever created. And it's working better than anyone imagined.
While we worry about data privacy, China has figured out something far more valuable: how to reprogram the American mind 20 seconds at a time.
If we don't act now, we'll become something unprecedented in history: a digital colony.
The World's Most Powerful Weapon Isn't Nuclear
It's algorithmic.
Think about it: what's more powerful than controlling what 150 million Americans think about every day? What they care about? What they believe?
The most effective propaganda isn't the kind you resist. It's the kind you scroll through voluntarily, 20 seconds at a time.
The Global Subconscious
Every generation has a shared reality - a collective set of assumptions about what's normal, what's possible, what's true.
Think of it as humanity's global subconscious.
Throughout history, this shared reality was shaped by:
Religion (for thousands of years)
Mass media (for hundreds of years)
Social media (for the past decade)
But these were blunt instruments. They could shape what people thought about, but not how they thought.
TikTok changed the game. For the first time in history, a single algorithm can shape not just what billions of people think about, but how their minds process information itself.
This isn't hyperbole. When 40% of Gen Z turns to TikTok before Google, we're not just seeing a shift in search habits. We're watching the rewiring of humanity's cognitive infrastructure.
The Architecture of Empire
Every empire in history has had three key elements:
Control of information flow
Cultural narrative dominance
Invisible compliance systems
The British Empire had its newspapers, its English language mandate, and its civil service system. The Roman Empire had its roads, its shared Latin culture, and its local governance structure.
What's changed isn't the playbook - it's the technology. And TikTok has perfected all three elements in ways previous empires could only dream of.
1. Information Flow: The 20-Second Revolution
Most platforms optimize for engagement. TikTok optimizes for rewiring the global subconscious.
Think about how ideas spread historically:
Books required hours of commitment
TV shows needed 30-minute blocks
Facebook posts demand at least minutes
TikTok broke this pattern. At 20 seconds, you'll watch anything. Even ideas you disagree with. Even perspectives you'd normally reject.
This isn't just faster content consumption - it's a fundamental rewiring of how humans process new ideas. When you control the speed of information flow, you control the depth of resistance to new thoughts.
2. Cultural Reprogramming at Scale
When you control the algorithm, you control more than content - you control the global subconscious itself.
Each major platform shapes this shared reality differently:
Google reinforces existing beliefs (the echo chamber)
Facebook amplifies emotional extremes (the outrage machine)
YouTube creates rabbit holes (the specialization trap)
TikTok shapes what you'll believe next (the consciousness sculptor)
Example: Search "American history" on TikTok vs. Google.
Google shows you what your subconscious expects
TikTok shows you what they want your subconscious to expect next
This isn't random. ByteDance has built the world's most sophisticated system for cultural narrative control. They're not just serving content - they're shaping consciousness at a scale never before possible.
We've already seen this power in action. During the Hong Kong protests, TikTok's feed was filled with cute pets and dance videos. Meanwhile, protesters were fighting in the streets. This wasn't an accident - it was algorithmic anesthesia.
The same platform that can make a dance trend go viral chose to make millions of young people forget that democracy was dying next door.
That's the real power of controlling the global subconscious. It's not just about what people see - it's about what they don't see. What they forget to care about. What fades from collective memory.
3. Voluntary Compliance
The genius of TikTok's approach? We think we're choosing.
Unlike Facebook or Google, which feel like information utilities, TikTok feels like entertainment. We don't resist it. We don't question it. We scroll.
This is why traditional media regulations miss the point. You can't regulate voluntary behavior. The most effective empire is one where the subjects don't know they're subjects.
The Hollywood Warning
We've already seen how this control of the global subconscious plays out in Hollywood.
Remember when movies were America's secret weapon? When Rocky helped win the Cold War and blue jeans brought down the Berlin Wall?
Now:
Tom Cruise's Maverick jacket mysteriously lost its Taiwan patch
Marvel can't have Chinese villains
John Cena apologizes in Mandarin for calling Taiwan a country
This isn't censorship. It's worse.
It's self-censorship.
Studios aren't waiting for Chinese regulators to demand changes. They're preemptively sanitizing their own content. In true Bradbury fashion, we're burning our own books.
What Real Power Looks Like
Everyone thinks America's power comes from our military or our economy. But our real power has always come from two things:
The dollar as global reserve currency
Control of the global subconscious
That second one? We're giving it away for free.
When kids in Indian villages watch Mr. Beast, that's American power. When the Kardashians influence fashion in Asia, that's cultural dominance. When protesters worldwide demand their "Miranda rights" (even in countries where they don't exist), that's America shaping the global subconscious.
Now imagine that power in reverse.
The World's First Digital Colony
We're watching the birth of something new: digital colonization.
Traditional colonization claimed land and resources. Digital colonization claims something far more valuable: the global subconscious itself.
Why fight a war when you can just... change how people think?
Some numbers to consider:
TikTok users spend 95 minutes per day in algorithmic reprogramming
40% of Gen Z trusts TikTok to shape their reality
ByteDance (TikTok's parent) is worth more than Meta
This isn't just another social media platform. It's the most sophisticated consciousness control operation ever created.
What Happens Next?
Banning TikTok isn't enough. We need:
Cultural export subsidies (yes, even for influencers)
ex: subsidize movies that don't compromise for Chinese distribution
Ban foreign controlled algorithms
New frameworks for protecting the global subconscious
But first, we need to wake up.
The battle isn't about data privacy or screen time. It's about who controls humanity's shared reality. And right now, we're one congressional vote away from becoming history's first digital colony.
The choice is ours. But we're running out of time.