Unfortunately, it looks like we’re in for another four years of Donald Trump as president, after defeating Kamala Harris in the election. While I don’t extensively cover politics, this is too big an event to ignore.
As I’ve written before, Trump is bigoted, bullying, egotistical, corrupt, and knows little about the functions of government. He’s surrounded by a bunch of yes men with similar views. He also has ties to Project 2025, a conservative think tank’s wish list, which (if fully enacted) would pretty much spell the end of the modern United States as we know it. Trump’s not just a bad choice for a president—he’s by every measure a bad human being, period. He’s a prime example of someone who’s “failed up” his whole life; thus, Trump pulling a Grover Cleveland and serving two non-consecutive terms is, unfortunately, not surprising.
As for why Trump won the election: he’s white, unlike his opponent, Kamala Harris; he’s also male, unlike Harris. For the majority of voters willing/able to vote, this was apparently all that mattered… or they were willing to overlook his racism and sexism for some other selfish reason (tax breaks, lax gun laws, his reality show “charisma,” etc.). Trump’s incompetence didn’t matter, as the pandemic proved; right after the 2016 election, I wondered what’d happen if an emergency arose that “blame Black people” wouldn’t solve.
On topic for the blog, Trump’s policies will adversely affect media and technology in ways nobody (but maybe conglomerates or Trump’s cronies) will like. Below’s a list of my immediate concerns off the top of my head.
Media
- Trump’s “pro-business” mindset and various federal agencies staffed with similar minded people mean we’ll likely see more deregulatory “fun.” I also expect to see more rubber-stamping of media mergers, as Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav is longing for. At least, as long as Trump doesn’t hold a thin-skinned grudge against said conglomerate. See: the AT&T/Warner Bros. merger, which Trump tried to stall over CNN’s coverage about Trump’s first term.
- While Trump can’t revoke (nonexistent) TV licenses for NBC or CBS, he can throw up roadblocks to their business plans, or put pressure on them.
- I worry we’ll see more pressure on media conglomerates, or worse, their willing compliance, to reduce or avoid diversity in TV shows, movies, comics, etc., to avoid the Trump administration’s bigoted wrath. For cartoons, think more starring characters who look like Timmy Turner or Jimmy Neutron (i.e. white boys) than, say, Lunella Lafayette (a Black girl) or Luz Noceda (a Latino girl). Plots about anything deemed “woke,” such as educational shows like “Molly of Denali” teaching about Juneteenth, could also fall by the wayside. And speaking of Luz, we could even see things revert to 90s levels (at best) in terms of LGBTQ representation. That is, LGBTQ characters only seen or mentioned in adult-oriented animation (think Smithers on “The Simpsons”). Thus, no more kids’ show characters mentioning their “two Dads,” mentions of pronouns, or nonbinary characters (such as Lunella’s classmate Tai).
Tech
- More deregulation, including elimination of what passes for federal AI regulations.
- Privacy concerns?
- You can kiss any and all climate change goals goodbye, of course.
- Possible attempts to regulate any online LGBTQ-related content as “adults only” or “pornography,” which is a mentioned goal of Project 2025. By that definition, this very blog would fall under such, despite my going for a PG or PG-13-ish tone.
- The Verge has a decent article about Trump’s likely tech-related policies during his second term.
I have a few suggestions for tech under Trump’s next term:
- Leave Twitter now. Musk clearly has remade it to be a Fox News-esque social network; just switch to Mastodon, Bluesky, Google or Apple News, etc. already, even if they aren’t 100% exact Twitter clones.
- Follow basic online privacy tips.
- Trump’s proposed tariffs will likely send electronics prices skyrocketing. If you’re thinking about buying a new laptop, PC parts, or the like, this holiday shopping season (or before Trump’s January 20th inauguration) might be a good time to buy such.
- If using cloud storage, you might consider a non-American service, such as one based in the European Union (or with EU servers as an option, such as pCloud). Local storage is also an option. This suggestion is also aimed at creators or fans of material considered “adult” (read: romance, LGBTQ content, etc.) that could run afoul of the prudish Project 2025 goals.
Conclusion
My blog isn’t going anywhere. I’ll be here as long as it’s worth blogging, and others are interested in what I have to say. Given Trump’s a walking disaster area, there won’t be any shortage of media or tech related material to write about over the next four years.
“White House” by Seansie is licensed under CC BY 2.0. (Flickr / cropped from original)
