The Revolution Will Not Be Streamed! (All apologies to Gil Scott-Heron)

 

The revolution will not be streamed, brother

You will not be able to log in, scroll down, and zone out
You will not be able to binge-watch your way through it,
Or mute the truth while doomscrolling through TikToks, because
The revolution will not be streamed

The revolution will not be brought to you
By Amazon Prime in four parts without unskippable ads
The revolution will not show you deepfakes of Trump blowing a bugle
And leading a charge by Elon Musk, Ron DeSantis, and Mark Zuckerberg
To seize control of an AI-powered drone battalion

The revolution will not be streamed

The revolution will not be brought to you by the Netflix algorithm
And will not star Zendaya, Pedro Pascal, or a CGI James Dean
The revolution will not give you influencer clout
The revolution will not make your abs pop in the right lighting,
Or boost your engagement metrics, because
The revolution will not be streamed, brother

There will be no clips of you and your cousin
Trying to DoorDash your way through the uprising
Or flipping a Meta Quest headset for crypto during peak chaos
CNN will not call it by 8:32 PM based on early polling data
The revolution will not be streamed

There will be no viral footage of cops unloading tear gas on protesters
Looping endlessly on your For You Page
There will be no police body cam footage, conveniently edited
No lagging livestreams of a senator ducking behind his Tesla Cybertruck
No slow-motion drone shots of Wall Street billionaires
Boarding rockets to their luxury Mars bunkers

The revolution will not be streamed

The Masked Singer, Love Is Blind, and whatever dystopian reality show
They cooked up this year will no longer be your distraction
And nobody will care if a Kardashian finally married an AI-generated boyfriend
Because Black people will be in the streets looking for justice,
For breath, for a future that wasn’t bought and sold behind closed doors

The revolution will not be a trending hashtag
The revolution will not be a PR stunt
The revolution will not be a brand collab
The revolution will not be rebranded with a new logo and sleek UX
The revolution will not be streamed

There will be no push notifications to tell you when it begins
And no autoplayed recap when it ends
The theme song will not be written by Max Martin, Drake, or AI
And it won’t be performed by Taylor Swift featuring Kendrick Lamar
The revolution will not come with a Spotify playlist
Or a limited-edition Nike drop

The revolution will not be monetized, sanitized, or optimized for clicks
The revolution will not come in a limited-time offer
With free shipping on orders over $99
The revolution will put you in the driver’s seat

The revolution will not be streamed
Will not be streamed
Will not be streamed
Will not be streamed
The revolution will be no re-run, brother
The revolution will be live