this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2024
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Political Memes

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You can't just make me spit out my wine with this incredible Simpsons meme hahaha jk I love it 🤣

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Why do people deny this? I think it is maybe somewhat difficult to see through the smokescreen but the timing of all this is what makes it so obvious. I am not a tiktok user but I've seen the pro-palestine content that is so prevalent there and just the sheer volume of it. The US was more or less fine with China harvesting our data for years before this, but suddenly now we have to ban it in 6 months?? It is entirely about Israel and anti-Israeli government sentiment.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (3 children)

This is the red herring that the CCP is throwing out all over social media for us. They want to conflate support for Palestine with TikTok use, and shift the narrative away from the problems with TikTok's doomerism-inducing algorithms of intentionally addictive and divisive content.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Yeah definitely not a campaign that the ADL has been heavily pushing for lately to maintain control over their propaganda narratives.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

Except it's not just the CCP, there's a leaked audio of pro-Israel lobbyist and CEO of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, saying “We really have a TikTok problem” in the US.

And others stand to gain from the TikTok ban, like Meta and YouTube. So maybe the CCP is pushing a narrative, but there's more than one angle here

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

From famous CCP propaganda outlet, the Wall Street Journal:

Gallagher is well-liked by Democrats and his GOP colleagues and respected as an expert on the issue. His efforts appeared to stall in 2023, but were revived in part by the fallout from the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, according to people close to TikTok and people close to lawmakers. TikTok’s users quickly inundated the platform with videos about the attack and Israel’s war on Gaza. Some lawmakers said TikTok appeared to favor pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel content, and renewed calls to ban the app in the U.S.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It’s because they’re shipping all the user data back to China despite repeatedly promising they wouldn’t.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

do you believe, for even a single moment, that all the US-based companies selling our data are not selling it in China?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

Two wrongs don't make a right

[–] [email protected] 84 points 7 months ago (6 children)

Tiktok has some serious problems with censorship. It's been absolutely proven that Tiktok censors content that the Chinese government dislikes. Even if Tiktok/Bytedance insists that they aren't owned by the Chinese government, they are owned by Chinese entities, which subjects them to Chinese government censorship, and may require them to deny that censorship.

The study: https://networkcontagion.us/wp-content/uploads/A-Tik-Tok-ing-Timebomb_12.21.23.pdf

Article about the study: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/21/business/tiktok-china.html

Antipaywall link to that article: https://archive.ph/MLATC

I don't disagree that Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter have their own set of things they censor. I don't disagree that Tiktok is being singled out by Congress. I don't disagree that there are big privacy problems with all of the above platforms.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

The devil you know vs the devil you hey, wait, no I wasn’t calling China a d

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (2 children)

To solve this problem, I'm thinking of just getting a dumb phone again, and maybe throwing out all of my other electronics. Actually, I'll have to just move to the middle of the woods somewhere with no electricity to get actual privacy.

Man this sucks. I wish we could all just mind our own business.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

idk. i think you just don't need all the "smart" devices in your hut in the woods. electricity is fine. we had solar panels in dumb calculators and dumb watches for >20 years. plus the dumb stuff needs even less electricity and is easy to repair. you can have a dumb mixer, dumb fridge,, dumb washing machine, dumb dishwasher and a vacuum, just not a roomba that scans your home while it cleans.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

Funny you mention dumb devices.I've been searching for a dumb TV now for a bit, can't find them anymore. It's so annoying that everything is connected to the internet now. I don't need my entire life hooked into the internet.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

yeah, anything media is hard to get without "smart" stuff, but you don't need the bluetooth enabled shaver, trust me.

i also bought a tv/monitor recently and the size and features i wanted were only available on a smart one, but i never connected it to the web. it just complains about it in a grey box top right every start. it probably uses a bit more electricity, because of a proper CPU running all the time.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Probably not in stores, but you can get PC monitors up to about 43", and there are also "commercial signage" or "business" displays which are about $150-200 more than a similarly spec'ed smart TV from the same company (lots of Samsungs on Amazon), and may not come with a stand or possibly speakers. Some smart TVs also let you switch inputs without connecting to WiFi. I think most mainstream media projectors are not smart yet, though it's creeping into that space as well. If everything else is already tracking you, I do tend to wonder how much worse the TV is, but there are ways to pay for a little less privacy invasion from your "TV."

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

We have never, at any point in human civilization, ever just minded our own business.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Don’t think that’s humanities M.O. we kinda tend to be in each others shit constantly. If there is anything we need to learn as a species it’s to focus on our own shit.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

The only reason humanity has a civilization is its preoccupation with its members shit. You see this in some other intelligent group species. Wolves, apes, anything with group dynamics. Enforcing conformity was essential to survival. You can argue that's no longer necessary, but it's how we evolved.

[–] [email protected] 76 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (5 children)

I'm not gonna suggest that it's right that US companies often evade government scrutiny and action, but I also don't think it's hypocritical for a country to be interested in protecting itself from other countries. That's just national interest. We need protections within the country too, but that's not the same conversation.

And tbh, the meme is pretty on point because a family may treat each other poorly often, but they are much less accepting of an outside party doing the same as it can be seen as a risk to the group at large.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

I find it hypocritical that America forces it's tech down other countries throats and demands open markets globally while wanting to now close off their market once they have a viable foreign competitor. I agree it's logically the right move but, I still find it hypocritical.

[–] [email protected] 62 points 7 months ago (4 children)

people seem to glaze over the fact that China is at odds with the United States politically, the ban has little to do with protecting people's privacy and more to do with preventing another country from having such an influential tool ready at their fingertips.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Bull. Being at odds with someone is about protection. We should want our information to be free from whatever they want it for. I don't like the bigger US companies doing it either. But that is usually for profit. Who knows what a foreign nation that hates us wants it for.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (13 children)

Also I know it's the whole "you are not immune to propoganda" meme but look at the reactions to this bill online. If this isn't proof enough that ByteDance has the tools and ability to push an agenda through their app idk what is, and the U.S. has already had enough problems with foreign interference. If we cannot trust ByteDance not to retaliate against the U.S. when profits are on the line, they probably shouldn't be trusted with so much control on what our citizens are watching and hearing.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago

Not to mention how the local area average content algorithm is a known tool of those foreign policing units to keep Chinese nationals abroad in line even when they specifically avoid downloading anything the CCP could normally use to keep an eye on them.

People are getting mad that their right to participate in the extraterritorial oppression of Chinese folks is being infringed because it also involves them getting to watch videos of reddit drama stories set to shitty Minecraft parkour.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago

You're not wrong.

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