The Kids Are Alright: Clicking “Like” For Nepal

The house
The house
The house of Parliament is on fire

I want to say that the kids in Nepal are showing the U.S. how its done; I mean, we have a fascist coup here in the U.S. and we’re still chanting and waving placards around but Nepal just banned some social media sites and now the Prime Minister has resigned and Parliament is on fire. Damn.

But that would be unfair.

Funny, yes, but unfair.

Not unfair to the U.S., mind: the lack of burned buildings here is kinda an indictment of how settled and comfortable and tame the U.S. has become. I certainly haven’t done anything more direct than write a blog and have a nice morning out at the No Kings protest.

So, yeah; I am part of that problem.

But it would be unfair to the folks in Nepal.

This is not just a Gen Z tantrum over losing access to Twitter.

Nepal hasn’t manged cleanly their transition from monarchy to parliamentary democracy, and has a post-monarchy history of unstable and corrupt governments being accused of using their positions to enrich themselves at the expense of the citizenry.

And then using their control of the police and military services to maintain those positions, including having killed “at least” 19 people in the protests yesterday.

So, banning social media platforms that didn’t register with the State is not really what’s going on there; it’s just the inciting incident with a much bigger and more tangled background.

They have a lot going on.

And the international press is really going heavy on the “Gen Z tantrum” angle, so you might find it difficult to find a window into the actual complexity here.

Maybe start with Nepal’s Wikipedia page for some historical background.

And you can follow Al Jazeera’s coverage here.