this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2024
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Crazy that the proposed solution to propaganda is banning media instead of investing in education that promotes critical thinking. Or maybe the idea here is "no propaganda except mine".
Investing in education is counter to the clear goals of the USA. Smart people would revolt, protest,and you know, hold companies and billionaires accountable. Uneducated people are often poor, can’t afford to fight back and are scared they will lose what little they have.
At some point we need all to fight back, but it might be too late. And worse, too few will join in out of fear of death.
Looking at things pragmatically widespread education of the population takes time and simply won't take for some people. There are folks today complaining that "they don't teach taxes in school". These people have a problem filling out a 1040EZ. Not exactly encouraging.
At the same time Tic Tok represents a single vector for current or potential foreign propaganda and intelligence gathering targeting the American public. Opportunities to nip a single bud (so to speak) are few and far between and probably won't be possible in the near future.
TL;DR - The "sell or ban" is a short term measure that won't take a lot of time, education is a long term measure that takes years.
If people can pick apart China's propaganda it means they can pick apart US propaganda, too.
Can't have that.
I have to tell you, I know many intelligent people that have succumbed to propaganda, and outrage porn addiction. I see it continue to happen on all sides of the political isle. (This isn't a both sides kind of statement, simply acknowledgement that the same tactics work on our brain, indifferent of political ideology.)
Whether they are hooked on the dopamine rush of rage baiting up votes, likes or comments; or only seeing everything in the world through a myopic lens of negativity, it has captured many of my friends and family, including myself for a time.
For some their drug is Fox News, others it's Reddit, Facebook or TikTok, the results are often the same.
I have yet to figure out a manner in which to communicate with individuals who spend considerable amounts of time in echo chambers, constantly having their personal beliefs reinforced. Evasion of cognitive dissonance and social conflict are very powerful psychological motivations. I wish I knew the solution.
Fuck that bro, get mad as hell.
We deserve better lives, and we should be pissed it's being taken from us.
Not really sure what you're getting at. Getting mad is good, getting locked into an echo chamber and eschewing critical thinking in lieu of groupthink is bad.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
get mad as hell
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Well, of course. They aren't banning Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. That's exactly how they want it.
they aren't even banning tiktok, at least they're trying not to. What they're trying to do is force a sale specifically to US government insiders. They're seizing it. They want that sweet, sweet propaganda and data mining for themselves.
Wow good find. The revolving door in action.
What do you think billionaires are bribing congress for? Regulatory capture keeps all the competitors out. Whereas actually fixing the problem of social media brainwashing would cost them money.
And yet China is banning basically the whole Western internet, foreign companies must enter joint ventures with Chinese companies under government control. Reciprocity is fair. Why should Byte Dance be allowed to take in billions to fund Chinese gulags?
China does thing: Bad
America does same thing: Good
At least the US government can't harvest US citizens social media data without a warrant (excepting all the patriot act stuff). But there is zero protection for your data from the CCP if it's on TikTok. That's understandably a pretty huge security concern. I can also understand China not wanting data from their citizens in the hands of American social media companies. Idk if any if it is good or bad but it's certainly common sense on a national level.
As someone who's neither chinese nor american I want nothing more than these countries to keep their hands to themselves. I don't like China doing it, and I don't want the US doing it because China does it. Are y'all gonna hand a piece of your companies to every country they operate in? I'm guessing "no".
Why do you want our social media to mirror China? That's the real question. What's the US gonna do with our data that's so much better? Oh yeah, fund our allies genocides! Yay! 🥳
I want Chinese companies face exactly the same hurdles in the west as western companies face in China. Applies to all economic branches, not just social media.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
In what way is taking a platform away from millions of Americans an acceptable way to do that? Yes, our taxes are funding a genocide and instead of listening to the droves of people protesting that they suddenly all get together and magically agree to ban tiktok. They can't agree to feed school children but still agreed to ban TikTok. The fact that you see it as retaliation is also hilarious because that's supposed to be illegal and they're still claiming that's not why they're doing it. Even you see through that bullshit on accident
Everything I said was relevant to my point. You linked the wiki to whataboutism and still used it wrong lmaooooo.
Against China: Yes.