Comment by doctorpangloss
Comment by doctorpangloss 4 days ago
> US citizens do not want this
Ha ha, I guess you are discovering, many many people do want this.
Comment by doctorpangloss 4 days ago
> US citizens do not want this
Ha ha, I guess you are discovering, many many people do want this.
It's like the non-addicts banning heroin. You don't have to be a Tik Tok user to understand that it's bad for it to be PRC-controlled!
I'd rather be able to choose to consume propaganda than for than the government to be able to decide what I should and should not consume.
That is a fine take, but the assumption that all other forms of media masses of people are exposed to aren’t also propaganda is a foolish one to make. We have an entire advertising industry in this country. Something like $300 billion in ad spend a year in the US. Ad spend is literally propaganda lest we forget.
> aren’t also propaganda
It's not that other propaganda doesn't exist, it's that a likely intended effect of Chinese propaganda is destabilization and/or delegitimization of hostile governments. Ad spend is more about destabilizing consumers' savings.
Why is it bad when China (supposedly) creates propaganda on tiktok but it’s good when the US creates propaganda on facebook?
You’re not a government, you’re a person. Either way you’re being manipulated, and the US government definitely doesn’t have your best interests in mind.
Because we live in a world of Sovereign States, where the point of discrimination very much is between Citizen and Non-Citizen? You free to renounce your citizenship and live without the Protections of the Government, there are many who would be quite happy with that to take your wealth freely then :)
The only people thinking in such a arrogantly privileged manner ironically are Westerners, try saying this crap in China or India and people will laugh at you all day. Or I doubt this poster has the best interests of Americans in mind either.
> Why is it bad when China (supposedly) creates propaganda on tiktok but it’s good when the US creates propaganda on facebook?
Because this imaginary world where the US somehow equally controls Facebook on the level that China directly influences TikTok isn’t one that exists?
This low resolution view of the world is grating. “Facebook is a US based social media company so it’s exactly the same as China and TikTok” is completely devoid of the context of reality.
Not only does Facebook actually have 1st amendment speech rights with a judicial system empowered to enforce them. But even the slightest appearance that the US government was attempting to influence speech on Facebook would be a career ending scandal.
Compared to TikTok where the CCP literally has a seat on ByteDance’s board by law and has for its entire existence had its algorithm nuke political topics that China does not want discussed.
It’s not the same thing.
Honestly, I don’t believe China has as much control over TikTok as you claim, and I believe the US government has much higher control over FB than you.
So from where I’m standing it’s the same thing.
And to give you some perspective, there’s plenty of content critical of China on TikTok even though that stuff gets banned on DouYin.
You're getting it. It is like vegans banning steak!
> "lower primate improv troupe"
> "No one who actually uses it or understands it wants this."
"Everyone's generalizations are stupid, except mine."
The users for sure don't want this. Among non-users, I'd say there's a sizable difference (let's say 50/50)...
Many things aren't that democratic when you look at it like that!
US citizens elected representatives to make laws for them. Even more so, this is a bipartisan law.
Tiktok US users of voting age are already accounted for in that process, they don't get extra sway just because they use the app.
> US citizens elected representatives to make laws for them. Even more so, this is a bipartisan law.
A majority of American citizens want affordable healthcare, housing, and education, net neutrality, an arms embargo vs Israel, an end to illegal forever wars, stronger environmental protections, cleaner water, less fossil fuel use and an end to fracking, etc - and there's still bipartisan resistance in our politics and media against all of those.
Congress doesn't actually represent us, it represents capital. Been like that for a long time. https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746
I don't understand this. In my view most people don't want this otherwise they would have implemented a government where the majority is heard, but they didn't. And don't even seem to try.
Either it's a dictatorship or it's listening to the majority. There is nothing democratic about acting against the majority. Never was
> In my view most people don't want this
The polls on all the above are pretty clear. There's no need to rely on your own viewpoint.
> otherwise they would have implemented a government where the majority is heard, but they didn't.
May I suggest reading some Chomsky, or at least watching Manufacturing Consent.
> Either it's a dictatorship or it's listening to the majority.
It's a plutocracy, and this has never been more obvious.
> There is nothing democratic about acting against the majority.
Well, there you go. Do check out those polls.
Nevertheless, the voters made their choice and actively voted for these representatives.
If everyone is so outraged and there's so many TikTok users, they can rally and vote out the people who voted for this.
I for one support this ban fwiw. You'll find out a lot of people do too. So in this instance and quite a few others, my representative has voted in my favor.
No one who actually uses it or understands it wants this. This is like vegans banning steak.