<span class="vcard">Karlo Lukić</span>
Karlo Lukić
Political Philosophy

Gen Z and Tik Tok – A Combination that Republicans Could Not Handle

Now that the US Midterm Election is nearly over, Democrats can’t help but laud Millennials and Gen Zs who wisely cast votes based on important advocacies. The young people’s allegiance is not based on traditional political affiliation, but on issues that matter most to them. Gen Zs, in particular, wielded their collective Tik Tok Power by rallying youths from all walks of life and across the US, even in the so called Red States. Democratic candidates benefited because they are also pushing for actions that address climate change, preserve women’s reproductive rights, eradicate gun violence, uphold racial justice and institute laws that clearly state the rights of the members of the LGBTQ population. There was no reason for the majority of Gen Z voterd not to vote Democrats.

Although there are Gen Zs who were raised believing in the white supremacist principles of the MAGA movement, there was little they could do to assert their beliefs at Tik Tok.

Why Tik Tok is Regarded as a Significant Element in the Midterm Campaigns

It can no longer be ignored that the young Tik Tokers made a significant difference in certain key states, where many adult voters were undecided. It helped the Democrats that american Gen Zs have a virtual social space in which messages pressing young people to take action and to spread ideological posts; or even troll others just to stir political activism. Apparently, traditional Republican politicians who have no idea what the young people are doing, are no match for the Tik Tok-based pundits.

Tik Tokers take pride that they are the creative and the smart generation who can see through the self-serving hypocrisy of traditional politicians like Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham.

How Gen Zs Use Tik Tok to Boost Support for Their Advocacies

First off, Gen Zs do not just believe in political advertisements in forming their collective opinion. Besides, Tik Tok does not allow the appearance of political ads, which all the more gives the platform greater credibility for many young users – knowing that such ads could be profitable if the platform chooses to accept them.
Yet Tik Tok has proven that it can thrive and flourish by being the platform that provides support to the sector that they care about the most, the youth, including the socio-activist organizations.

Young Americans appreciate having a platform where even the non-voting age youths are already actively performing drives to derail MAGA rallies. The most helpful are the spread of carefully edited video clips exposing and amplifying police brutality and in supporting not only Black Lives Matter but also for the different protests taking place all over the world.

The difference is that these young people have their style of conveying serious messages, oftentimes with humor, sarcasm or both. You can find youths using specific songs and dance moves to troll posts containing racist, sexist, idiotic conspiracy theories and misinformation to coverup political lies.

SocialBoosting is an easy feat for Tik Tokers, as they are quite savvy with the vernacular language that can connect them to legit like-minded peers.

 

Politics and Digitalization

A Closer Look at Ireland’s Flourishing Video Game Industry

Video game companies that set up offices in Ireland are now reaping the rewards of a business strategy originally considered for tax reduction purposes. While the gaming industry in general has been enjoying growth despite the pandemic outbreak, among the biggest earners are companies that shifted some of its operations in Northern Ireland.
Aside from the tax shields and tax credits, the country’s video games market has been experiencing phenomenal growth since 2020.

Irish Consumers are Now Spending More on Video Games

A market research report from Statista showed that Irish consumers have increased their spending on video games, the industry is currently experiencing impressive growth in terms of sales. Prior to the pandemic, video game revenues have been constantly growing at an annual rate of 5.2%. Yet the strong demand for video games in 2020 boosted revenue growth to €91 million. As the growth trend continues, revenue is estimated to hit €112 million by the year 2024.

Actually, the news journal The Independent already took notice in 2014 that video gaming in Ireland was already showing an upward trend. At that time, much of the increased interests in video games were coming from Ireland’s esports gamers and enthusiasts. However, the larger portion of the gaming revenues did not actually go to Ireland.

Ireland’s “Double Irish” Tax Tool

The Double Irish tax scheme introduced by European countries as a way to lure foreign businesses to set up shop in their soil was banned by the European Union in 2015. The scheme though is still in effect in Ireland and other non-EU member countries.

The Double Irish Tax Scheme(/strong) is actually a tax strategy available to multinational companies looking to reduce tax liabilities in their country of origin. In a Double Irish arrangement, the multinational companies need only to set up part of their business in a country offering the Double Irish tax tool. That way, they can shift some of their profits in the foreign country that imposes lower tax rates.

 The term Double Irish is used because the tax strategy requires the Irish subsidiary to first register its tax residency in a tax haven country like Switzerland or the Cayman Islands.

Overtime, the tax tool worked wonders for many tech companies, particularly the video games development industry. The Independent cited Riot Games as an example, which started out as a local tech support for irish players engaged in Riot’s massive multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPG.)

The company later recruited and trained Irish talents to develop skills in designing, programming and publishing game content. Eventually Riot Games evolved into becoming a branch in which engineers, developers and publishers contributed to the tech giant’s overall gaming operations.

However, training local talents also posed as a setback for the company as some of the people they trained ventured into setting up their own video gaming business in Ireland. Somehow, the Double Irish scheme became a win-win situation for Ireland.

The indie Irish gaming companies proved instrumental in giving the country’s video gaming industry a boost. They developed games that met the gaming preferences of both young and adult Irish gamers. To date, there are nine home-grown video game companies in Ireland, which the Irish government supports with numerous tax credits, particularly for costs incurred in the development of video games.

The additional benefit is that other businesses like the gaming chair sector, are also benefiting from the popularity of video gaming. Households now recognize the importance of gaming chairs not only for their gaming pleasure but also for work-from-home and educational purposes.

As an aside inasmuch as gaming chairs have proliferated in Ireland as well, the website gaming chairs ireland have a large range of choices that have been tested by experts and reviewed by satisfied consumers.

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