Disclaimer: The incident described occurred in 2022 during the height of my addiction; due to this I want to clarify that I’m sharing the incident as part of the larger post’s purpose from imperfect memory and not a retelling for purposes of truth or evidence.

Following the January 6th Insurrection on the U.S. Capitol I became very invested in learning what the hell was going on in the Right Wing cohort of voters. It had felt like the movement grew and collected slowly in caverns, places not readily discussed in mainstream media unless tied to a sensational and beneficial-to-the-media coverage. The darkness allowed the budding Right Wing groups to meet, organize, and grow mostly online in relative silence. The growth in part was driven by a few conservative creators of various audience sizes and a few Left Wing creators that commonly spoke out about them, all very vocal despite the relatively small community sizes.

The Left Wing creators, mostly comprised of small influencers, often warned fellow Americans that this new ideology, an amalgamation of Republicanism, Conservatism, Libertarianism, and Populism that had merged to form what we now call MAGA due to their slogan, Make America Great Again. This expanded movement grew in the background while many Americans turned their focuses back to everyday life following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Like myself many Americans I believed that Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election and subsequent excoriation of him by Republicans immediately following the insurrection meant that political life would return to a normal balance. The issues put on hold to fight off MAGA could go back to the background while worries about a constitutional crisis largely went to bed. Many anticipated charges being brought against Trump and his administration that would eliminate him from the political landscape, thus making even discussing his candidacy warrant pushback and ridicule.

Now with hindsight this collection of groups that cultivated into a movement from the mid-2010s through now called “The Alt-Right Pipeline” which is essentially the slow indoctrination and normalization of far right ideologies commonly viewed as extremist. At the time the notion of such a pipeline was largely written off as divisive fear mongering but following the insurrection reputable sources like the Harvard Political Review, the Berkeley Political Review, and the BBC, wrote and published pieces about it. Not until the murder of Charlie Kirk in September 2025 did the Alt-Right pipeline become a more commonly known and understood concept. Back in 2022 the pipeline funneled countless people, mostly young, white, men in particular towards more extremist Right Wing creators. Commonly held beliefs at the time ranged from the notion that women and minorities are the sole cause of any strife in the USA to that women should be subservient by nature in every man-woman relationship they have. Typically whenever #Trump2024 came up they argued that another 4 years of the Biden administration would result in armed agents invading cities that didn’t want or need their presence.

Many people in the USA, some women and minorities included, fell down the Alt-Right pipeline that generally voted for Republican candidates in the 2024 election, making it a highly relevant circumstance to understand. The sweeping wins for the GOP gave them the power to enact sweeping legislation that has caused civil unrest and division in almost every area of American life. As per usual the projection-not-accountability Republicans have now invaded multiple states against the resident’s and political majority’s will or desire under false pretenses. More and more the extreme, violent behavior that incites more violence feels like it connects back to the impending surveillance state money being dolled out in contracts to Republican donors rather than our safety in America.

Now, many MAGA supporters falsely believe their salvation is right around the corner in the form of reimbursement checks (they really believe that tariffs are a net positive for the economy). They’ve taken their fervor a step further and now expect punishment for anyone they deem un-American (which isn’t their determination to make when they are ripping up our constitution in real time). Due to this they are still defending, endorsing, and fighting on behalf of Trump and the larger Republican party. While calling Biden-supporters sycophants they erected shrines to Trump in their yards (literally—a neighbor of mine set up a full re-enactment of the assassination attempt viral photo in Butler, PA with plastic skeletons and a giant American flag erected behind them).

Due to my interest in figuring out what was going on and trying to aid in other Americans knowing about this growing threat to our republic I traveled down the pipeline through the eyes of Left-Wing creators and streamers. Countless hours spent in livestreams and Discord chats consuming information and accidentally learning awful truths about exactly where we were as a nation. This experience lasted from 2021-2024 and with that knowledge I felt unsure about Kamala Harris being able to pull out a win let alone Democrats being able to retain any sort of control in Congress or with court circuits, our other systematic checks and balances.

To me it felt like people had hung up their activism right when the battle really began in 2020 and we finally understood what had felt like a shadowy enemy prior. Rather than becoming quieter in their defeat and subsequent insurrection they grew more bold, louder, and more wrong by the day as grifting creators played on their emotions to sell supplements and merch. This worried not only me but many of the communities that I frequented during my involvement with the online political sphere. Few if any mainstream anythings paid close attention to the bubbling fervor or chalked it up to a nothing burger that would dissipate over time.

Biden had opted for a unity administration rather than a justice minded one and that only fueled the beliefs now being held on the Right, far and center included. The lack of accountability only allowed for more lies and misdirections to be spread until they cultivated a true belief in them, so much belief in fact that people online right now are defending the murders of Keith Porter, Nicole Goode, and Alex Pretti and still listening to the Department of Homeland Security despite them being shown evidence that DHS is lying about these incidents.

Rather than “Don’t Tread on Me” the same Libertarians that demonized Democrats for what they perceived as overreach on their own protests in the last decade are now arguing that peacefully protesting is actually obstruction of justice. Despite throwing cameras in every person’s face when they get called out for being despicable to other humans they now believe that using your phone camera to record federal agents on public streets constitutes as a terror attack against those very agents that allows them impunity to spray, gas, or shoot and kill any bystander they please.

All of this feels like something I and many others could feel happening and felt would happen if Trump got back into office and Republicans won either/or congressional body while the Supreme Court is as it is. The writing wasn’t just on the wall it was a flashing neon sign above a highway with extra arrow signs that also light up and say “Danger This Way—Do Something!” but even those that could see it like those in these communities like myself we opted for low-risk, rather small ways of resisting that often alienated anyone who might’ve agreed with the theories but weren’t as left leaning as the majority. Going after creators in versus battles that felt more like scripted WWE fights rather than actually calling politicians and showing the numbers behind it with protests and walks about present matters. Basically, we’re all complicit (in varying degrees like 25% if you didn’t vote but could’ve and 99.9% if you voted for Trump & worked to get him elected) in what is going on right now in our nation as citizens of that nation.

So, back to summer 2022 when I crashed out now that I’ve laid that foundation. After about a year and a half of being immersed in the online worries about Trump’s inability to leave politics alone I was discouraged to say the least. It seemed obvious that Biden was unliked (in part due to Democrats worrying more about currying favor with Independent Voters in their next election than supporting any worthwhile agendas) and that people weren’t pleased with the party. So obvious that most politically involved citizens assumed Republicans would take the House and Senate in the 2022 midterms.

I felt like the general public, in my interactions with it, was not only unaware of how this would impact Biden’s 2024 election chances without the ability to pass key legislation, but also how it would set the stage for a potential Trump win that had seemed impossible post 2020 election and January 6th. I also worked a job that put me directly in daily contact with the local public opinions about politics and could see the literal $ amounts being spent locally by Republican races. We made so much money and gained so much traffic that it breathed new life into the business that sustained well into 2023 to put into perspective how much effort they were putting into controlling the narrative and outcomes.

At the same time my drinking had increased significantly. This combined with my constant feeling that we were on a train heading towards a cliff (re-endorsed by my constant consumption of media that ended up being more like the Alt-Right or Right Wing than unalike which is a whole other post I could make) made for a very explosive afternoon. I decided to get drunk then go to my local park and sit in the sun and boy did was I drunk. So drunk in fact that the next part is a little hazy but the gist is: I ended up standing on the sidewalk along a main roadway in my suburb screaming about the state of our country at passerby’s.

I’m fairly certain I even singled and called people out I could tell were avoiding me. If I were a middle aged white man that looked a little disheveled or dirty I would’ve been perceived as a mentally ill person who probably had a substance abuse issue. Instead as a young woman wearing a tank top and short-shorts I probably just came off like a mad ex-girlfriend crashing out after a fight with some ex-boyfriend that must be nearby also yelling.

What I’d screamed though had been real political news of that time that pertained to the impending midterm elections so if anyone had listened (which I don’t blame them for not doing because the package of the information was insane to say the least) it is the drunken, slurred version of a cry for action. Eventually my political screaming devolved even further into just screaming about how no one was reacting and acted as if I wasn’t there. People averted their gazes, made plans to cross the street to avoid my path, and probably recorded from a vehicle or two but no one really engaged me, good or bad. Eventually I tired myself out without an interaction I recall and ended up walking around the nearby neighborhoods until I started to sober up and walk home.

My grand political action had lasted one drunken afternoon and probably resulted in more people being turned off by any ideals I espoused or my behavior than interested in what I had to say. Irregardless the feeling it gave me of literally screaming into the void and the void not answering (or even acknowledging you) back sunk deep inside my outlook on my country. Particularly I understood better my place within that country and just how insignificant it can feel to be in that place.

This feeling took root in me and disillusioned me out of any further “action” at all while I wallowed in my own issues and quit drinking (I’m over 3 years alcohol free). When it came time for the 2024 presidential election I felt resigned and dejected, having felt like Biden lost in the aftermath & U.S. mishandling of October 7th, 2023. This only worsened when the last minute Kamala Harris swap-in was solidified after one single debate performance. I likely turned a lot of people during the 2024 election cycle with my griping about the possibility of a loss and by election night I’d opted to stay self-righteously silent but hopeful.

Back in 2022 I felt like no one gave a single solitary shit, I felt like if and when we got invaded by any party, domestic or foreign, that people would just let it happen. That day screaming in the street warped my perception however and now it’s 2026 and while federal agents storm around like they’re in the most untrained Call of Duty sounding lobby to ever exist my fellow citizens, and people who are in our country and deserve non-violence from us are being killed in the street to stand up to these federal bodies. My people are fighting, they are waking up to whistles and running out of their houses to see how they can help, only to incur trauma and suffering on all of our behalves while uncovering even more terrifying truths about these agents.

I watched a video angle from inside the car directly behind the Alex Pretti murder that revealed an understandably frightened woman not only had filmed the incident but then had the guts to keep filming despite being yelled at. She then parks her car a block up the road and runs back and forth between the incident and her car to get aid and to assist, offering her car as a place that those attacked could go to warm up. These are my fucking heroes, everyday heroes like Alex Pretti whose last words were reportedly, “Are you okay?” to a fellow protestor. My heroes are the Nicole Goodes who assured her subsequent murderer that she wasn’t mad at him for having the job he did and Keith Porter who’s incident didn’t have the benefit of multiple video angles which the DHS has now taken advantage of to tell who knows how many lies about his murder.

Unidentified men are showing up with masks, street clothes, bullet proof vests, weapons, and face masks who refuse to identify themselves or show any evidence of a warrant pre-arrest and abuse from them. When did it become unreasonable in the self-proclaimed Home of the Brave and the Land of the Free with the constitutionally protected 2nd amendment right to literally bear arms to pull a weapon on a masked intruder who refuses to identify themselves?! Apparently to our former 2nd amendment activists these are justified murders of citizens because they weren’t perfect or shouldn’t have utilized their other rights like the right to protest and the right to free speech that are also constitutionally ensured and protected. Back in 2022 I would’ve thought this would go mostly unchecked, buried all together even, and that more people than not would agree with the administration. This hasn’t been completely the case however. 

More than ever before normal, everyday American people are over the bullshit from the Republican Party of Projection, feeling more and more that they are simply attempting to distract from the Epstein files and/or use the Insurrection Act to cancel the upcoming midterms. Likely these midterms will result in a similar situation to 2022 but on the opposite side of the aisle, this time for the crumbling Right Wing. Even if there’s an election and even if Democrats win they still need to be sworn in and the reigns of power transitioned peacefully.

If all of those things happen we will still face an uphill battle to undo the damage that we can undo and mourn what we’ve now lost forever as a nation because of the last year. Even then we have to rely on elected politicians that are notorious for accepting bribes and personally benefitting from the destruction of the United States to do the right thing for us rather than the right thing for them. This felt impossible to imagine in 2024 and even more impossible to imagine in 2025 but now in 2026 following murders of citizens and covered up torture and deaths of detained individuals (who by the way are innocent until proven guilty, which we’ve also forgotten along the way), it feels possible.

I want to believe in a United States that is like the one we thought existed before, I want to believe that now a vast number of people are paying attention rather than hiding, I want to believe that it will grow and not dwindle with time. I want to believe that the DNC will let progress happen if an overwhelming majority of the party demands it, I want to believe that establishment Democrats will step aside to let younger, more focused politicians take the reigns. I want to believe that every ICE agent will face persecution when this is done, and that all of their evil acts will be on display for the world to see. I want to believe those things, and I’m starting to believe in a very small way that it could at some point be possible to.

As has become customary on TikTok and other short-form video platforms each year videos from approximately 10 years prior start populating For You feeds. Oftentimes these are the highest highlights of the highlight reel and show parties or concerts particularly those that topped charts that year. Ever since we approached and crossed into 2026 the year we’ve begun romanticizing in hindsight is also the year some said was the worst in human history at the time, 2016.

Personally in 2016 I was 20 and in college, attending the very types of parties that are depicted in the aforementioned videos. At the time we romanticized the vision we had of parties that occurred in the 2000’s and 1990’s while feeling ours didn’t come close to comparing in quality. Music had been on an upward trajectory that hadn’t hit a ceiling yet, each new chart topper provided social media sing-alongs and challenges coupled with frequent car radio plays. This added to something I hadn’t noticed at the time that we didn’t necessarily continue in pop culture, we all knew the main songs even if it was against one’s will.

Rather than a segmented social media experience of now we all populated the same spaces and feeds, forming or coalescing with similar takes and takeaways. In hindsight this added to the ability to form community in any random location on any weekend night, regardless of arriving with one or two friends at a function. It allowed us to connect with one another, even if only for a moment, with most if not all of the other random college kids or teenagers that attended a gathering.

In addition socials served similar but smaller purposes, bragging about partying with particular people and that you’re at a party to your school community rather than anticipating your content will possibly be seen by a national or global audience. This insularity made what sort of content was created more lighthearted, less serious, and without privacy concerns of today more free. Consequences seemed smaller (or were entirely unthought about) and at the same time worthwhile benefits came frequently and often.

The American Dream still felt possible and threats to our institutions felt silly in comparison to their perceived strength. I think this relates to the heightened romanticization we’re feeling and seeing for a year that at the time we regarded as highly terrible. It’s hard to even recollect what we thought was so bad about the year other than the obvious presidential election outcome from our position in 2026.

Upon looking it up some big events likely contributed to this sense at the time:

1. North Korea conducted nuclear and missile tests

2. Bomber attacked Brussels resulting in over 30 deaths

3. Britain voted with a far-right agenda in favor of Brexit

4. Syrian civil war continued despite attempted peace deals

5. Zika virus outbreak occurred

6. Flint, Michigan water crisis went viral, drawing national outcry

7. Gunman killed 49 people at Pulse Nightclub in Florida

8. Icons like Prince, David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Muhammad Ali, and Gene Wilder passed away

9. American opioid crisis started to gain public awareness

10. Alton Sterling and Philando Castile murdered by police

    1. A gunman shot and killed 5 police officers in Dallas because of those police shootings

11. Brock Turner received his outrageous sentence of 6 months in jail

    1. Chanel Miller’s, author of Know My Name, victim impact statement went viral, sparking conversations about campus sexual assault and the culture that perpetuates it

12. In general fake news became a thing we have to talk about & since then we’ve determined that Russia interfered with the 2016 election with tools like “fake news”

    1. Harambe, a gorilla, was shot and killed at the Cincinnati zoo in order to save a child and he received enough votes to be newsworthy in the 2016 election

That isn’t a comprehensive list but when putting it together I had several a-ha moment memories and can specifically recall talking about and knowing about each instance. Not only did we know about these instances but we discussed them in detail online and often the news could be brought up in conversations with the assumption everyone knew about it and felt they knew enough to form an opinion. I think this also contributed to the easier sense of community we had with strangers and aquatinted peers at the time.

Since then the world has seemed much scarier, darker, and intense than it had been in 2016 and despite the long list of terrible occurrences it is easily romanticized from today’s perspective. I can’t attest to college party culture today but I can attest to party culture in 2016 and despite calamity at the time we found connection through music and gathering.

What at the time felt very vapid and silly like posing for Insta photos with the random group of girls you connected with over your matching makeup looks, discovering the girl you’d been throwing back shots with also broke down watching the Sterling and Castille footage, stopping your kickback for a moment of silence and discussion about hatred towards the LGBT community upon hearing the news about Pulse Nightclub, circling up with a random group of girls you’d never talked to before sharing your experiences after reading Chanel Miller’s letter, or informing someone about conflicts abroad that we’re involved in during a smoke break and it not derailing the night or devolving into violence, now feels like a half-happy medium we’d struck amongst living life and being in the world.

I think that is what set apart the mid-2010’s era of partying from other eras but I also know that my opinion is bias towards the college parties of my own time. While some portion of it was as noble as I’ve described I’d balance that take with the fact that the vast majority was shouting rap lyrics at the top of your lungs while receiving or giving twerking tutorials and posting selfies to your various stories. The past will always inherently feel simpler but I do think the simple things, like connection through music, and shared trends persist through today, albeit in alternative forms.

Introduction: Privacy Concerns

Since its inception in the early aughts most social medias have evolved from connection facilitators to business directories communicating with one another. Amid the flimsy pretenses that their goals are still virtuously connection focused CEOs have largely stopped listening to their users and bow down to the bottom line at the expense of those user experiences. At one time public outrage and backlash could change the winds at one of the big companies, altering what design decisions and business collaborations that they engaged in, fearing that people would turn away from them. Now the power rests in social media platform’s hands, knowing that many people rely on social media accounts for at least one need, whether that be income related or otherwise.

Each instance that social media companies chose their bottom line over their users they engaged in the enshittification of their once essential apps. Rather than doing an abrupt, coordinated rug pull that would leave them in complete control most are opting for slow bleed outs while still competing with one another (thankfully for us). In light of the changing landscape and fatigue many are expressing towards social media the big players like Meta and TikTok have tightened content controls, limited revenue for creators, and allowed AI-slop to overtake feeds and comment sections alike rather than address the core issues. Instead of a feed that shows the friends and family you actually follow, Instagram is spending time adding features no one wants while worrying about problems not even in the same room. Myself and many others think all of this is reaching a fever pitch and breaking point between apps and the users on them, with users pulling away back into the real world or more trusted platform alternatives and not giving them the chance to repair the damage done.

Part of the damage the main platforms have wrought comes in the form of privacy violations, many of which we only have suspicions or concerns about without hard evidence or validation from the platforms. As America turns our attention towards privacy with advents like the collaboration of police forces with companies like Flock Safety that specialize in AI tracking 360 cameras that film people on public streets then store that un-redacted footage on easily hackable cloud drives for a period of time. The government utilizing more software to track like the app that the Department of Homeland Security ICE agents use to track immigration status with biometric scanning tools leaves many wary, which I believe will translate to higher expectations for privacy from social media and other internet websites. This factors heavily into where I think social media is going in 2026 and why I believe that this year, if not next year at most, will be the tipping point in the internet yet again changing into the next version of itself. Keep reading to see what I think will happen with each platform and specifics about each.

Individual Platforms Predictions

TikTok: I think the buyout and leadership changes will lead to a rebrand that will cause them to focus too much on the wrong things. Already left-wing content is being stifled or downright removed, with accounts sometimes being banned all together, while it becomes less simple to go viral and the payoff for the virality is of less value. In light of all the changes TikTok has also chopped the creator revenue payouts by more than 50%, many reporting they can no longer support themselves on what had just last month been a lucrative opportunity.

One creator with a large following even stated he solely made more TikTok content because of the revenue benefits but would now be making more content on YouTube because the benefits are greater. He’s expressing a sentiment that many creators are likely to feel and then act on by also not creating as much content for the platform. Eventually that lack of good content becomes an issue for the app and maintaining user engagement. Additionally the other selling point for TikTok was the algorithm which magically knew exactly what each user would be more likely to watch and stay on the app for. I believe this will be in increased jeopardy as privacy concerns grow and TikTok has to reveal how it fuels its algorithm, which is likely breaching privacy settings for users without their explicit consent.

Instagram: In addition to privacy concerns that Meta in general will likely face (see the Meta section) seems to behave like they think people won’t leave but more than in recent years many people are claiming they’re getting off the app for at least a period of time if not for good. Before when people felt that Instagram wasn’t listening it was easy to still find value in using the platform, particularly for social life updates. With each new feature and tweak to the algorithm Instagram got further and further away from what people found it useful for. Now, viral videos spread on other platforms of people complaining they’re seeing random people’s feeds but never their loved ones or even people they know and they’re feeling fed up. What used to be a way to show your friends, and eventually family, cool moments from your life in picture form, then becoming how we showed the highlight reels of experiences. It seems that Instagram has become what Facebook had just recently been for a bit, a business directory with constant promotional content aimed at increasing profits.

Meta/Facebook: Meta has been exposed for illegally harvesting data and using that data to increase revenue as their main profit driver. Over the years Facebook has faded in popularity, now known for being the platform that elder citizens primarily use, but their stats tell a different story. Rather than stagnation or declination their growth has only accelerated, reporting an increase of users despite the constant news and social commentary to suggest the opposite. It appears like the veneer of success over a scam advertising scheme reliant on impressions that no longer exist on the platform. I think when people find out just how sloppy Meta has been with user data despite being caught red handed multiple times by multiple different countries and still not facing harsh regulations, they will continue to move away from the platform which will continue to harm the return on investment that advertisers see from their efforts and ad spend.

Reddit: I believe that Reddit is using AI way more than they are admitting and additionally believe that moderators for some large subreddits will be exposed as working for Reddit and not just random people who dedicate their time and energy to the site. I know they use Cookies more than they are open about from personal experience but I’m not sure how large scale that is or if it is even considered a violation or rather just bad practice. Now a place for left-wing news in particular Redditors will likely uncover that some large, active accounts on politics platforms are interconnected or paid by larger forces that in part aim to push misinformation. This feels like a similar situation that Twitter has faced when they turned on location features only to expose large MAGA accounts resided outside the USA.

BlueSky & Spotlight: I think both will face an uphill battle to win over users with interesting enough feeds while still trying to build their user base. I think Spotlight should’ve been called SkyLight to match with the theme of the sky and I feel like Spotlight sounds like a Mac computer software pre-load from 2012.

Twitter: Will continue to have a slow and painful death that will be boosted in spurts by the reveal that accounts aren’t run by who they say they are or are bots in entirety. I don’t believe they will get hit as hard when it comes to increased privacy concerns.

Conclusion

These are just my takes and are likely riddled with gaps in knowledge, bad takes, or tunnel vision opinions from my personal view. I am posting however so that if anything comes true from my predictions I can reference this. I really hope that an app like BlueSky becomes larger and more prominent, but I think we’re headed for a more segmented internet overall. The days of everyone in your family knowing about the same pop culture moment I think are behind us and now we have a niche internet that is made up of smaller cohorts that are having their own ecosystem of internet activity play out separated from one another rather than intermingling on the same platforms.