Alayna Cowan, a college student in Savannah, Ga., learned about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump from a news alert on her phone. She read the accompanying article, which reported that Trump’s health was stable. Then she opened TikTok.

The first thing she saw was a TikTok edit — a video splicing different clips together — featuring images of President Joe Biden talking about trying to reach Trump after the event set to the lovesick Chappel Roan song “Casual.” As she scrolled, she saw video after video in the same vein: The point was that there is no point.