Libs of TikTok vs Taylor Lorenz, Part 1: What Libs of TikTok Is and Why the Left Hates It

PART 2

PART 3

Libs of TikTok is a Twitter account that reposts TikTok videos. That is literally it. The account focuses on videos shared publicly by left-leaning TikTok users, does not edit or trim the videos, and offers minimal commentary. It is under nearly-literal artillery shelling for just sharing content that was already online, which begs the question: Why are leftists so upset about leftist rhetoric being spread?

Probably because some of it is very concerning. Especially since the recent kerfuffle over Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill (you probably know it better as the misleading, borderline slanderous “Don’t Say Gay” Bill), Libs of TikTok has featured posts from LGBTQ-identifying individuals and especially teachers discussing how the bill basically gives Ron DeSantis permission to personally enter classrooms and gun down gay kindergarteners.

Wait, hold on, that can’t be right. Let me look into this. . .

OH, okay, the bill does absolutely nothing to silence, discriminate against, or otherwise endanger LGBTQ kids (insofar as they even exist, which is a topic for a different day because I am so tired, y’all, I am too f*cking tired of this STUPID WORLD to spend precious seconds of my life discussing the sexuality of LITERAL CHILDREN AND HOW IS THAT EVEN UP FOR DEBATE).

But that narrative is boring, so the world decided to make up a brand new bill and talk about that instead. Take a gander for yourself—starting with:

A teacher who clearly did not bother reading the bill:

Florida teacher is upset that teachers won’t be able to talk about their sexuality and claims simply saying the word gay can get you fired. pic.twitter.com/2Hf9CY9SDc

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 18, 2022

A teacher who has kids wear “pronoun pins”:

“Diversity is my favorite thing to teach” says non-binary preschool teacher who also makes 4 year olds pick a pronoun pin every day to wear pic.twitter.com/6IRmh4v8Co

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 12, 2022

A teacher who thinks 3 and 4 year olds are “ready” for discussions about gender identity:

Trans non-binary elementary teacher says 3 year olds are old enough to learn about gender identity, sexual orientation, and pronouns. These are the people teaching your kids. pic.twitter.com/fylE9jCQrF

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 10, 2022

A teacher who doesn’t understand what “developmentally appropriate” means:

The mental gymnastics to try to justify teaching 5 year old kids about sex… DeSantis broke these teachers. It’s epic pic.twitter.com/W2u2xZYa6E

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 6, 2022

I could go on, but I think we all kind of want to lay down in traffic now. And not because I hate LGBTQ people—I don’t! I doubt any of us do! But being totally fine with grown-ass humans deciding who they love or what they want their body to look like is not the same as being totally fine with talking to kids about complex, personal topics that have absolutely no bearing on their lives at that stage. Being mad about what the Florida bill actually says—which is that kids aged five to nine should not be taught about sexual orientation and gender identity in a way that is not age- and developmentally appropriate—is kind of creepy. I’d be uncomfortable if I had kids with a teacher who felt overtly limited by this bill, because the kind of conversations it affects shouldn’t be happening in the first place.

Now Libs of TikTok posts a bunch of other content mined from the far left corner of an app partially owned by the CCP (dwell on that for a minute), such as “fishgender” individuals or “family sex shows,” but I’ve focused on the “Don’t Say Gay” angle because I think it highlights what it is about Libs of TikTok that has leftists all wound up. The account poses a threat because it directly challenges the central tenet of the “establishment” left’s narrative: Not that far.

The proliferation of many leftist goals has been successful because people were promised that the achievement of that goal would be “it.” We were told that it would “just” be this, they “only” want that, and because these stated goals were modest and seemed relatively harmless, they got what they wanted. Then they pushed a little further. Think about the COVID-19 pandemic—what was “just a piece of cloth” very quickly snowballed into the executive branch of the federal government attempting to mandate that citizens put something in their body whether they want it or not.

The people that make the videos featured on Libs of TikTok undoubtedly represent the furthest reaches of the left. They are the minority, that is for certain. But Democrat politicians have made it crystal clear that they are prioritizing the farthest left faction of their base—and that was fine for them when they were able to say what that faction was. Now that the far leftists are not just speaking for themselves (they’ve always done that), but being featured on an enormous mainstream platform, the establishment can’t pretend they’re not there. They can’t claim “no one’s saying” when there is self-published, unedited video proof of lots of people saying.

For a political group who depends almost unilaterally on controlling the narrative, accounts like Libs of TikTok represent their biggest threat: More information.