The Founders DEFINITELY wanted us to be Able to Shoot up Kindergarteners. THAT’S Crystal Clear! But their views on Democracy are MUCH more newanced and Unknown!
Man, I really didn’t realize how bad people were butchering her name on purpose.
I’ve seen plenty of clarification on the subtleties of “kama-la” (correct) vs. “ka-ma-la” (incorrect) vs. “ka-mala” (incorrect), which helped me get her name right back during the 2020 primaries.
But these racist fucks are pronouncing it like “camel-ah”, “karma-la”, or just saying her name with a weird fake pseudo-african dialect.
Let’s be clear, though, all major companies do this. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, even non-social media like Amazon. They all track users in this way. TikTok is just making the news because it’s controlled by China, who has an adversarial relationship with the US.
Let’s be clear, though, all major companies do this. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, even non-social media like Amazon. They all track users in this way.
I’ve never actually seen it argued, yet it’s brought up every time like it is. You’d have to be under a rock the last 20 years to think that’s not the case.
We all understand that the solution is not banning one app, but instead setting rules all apps have to follow. But here we are and just because US companies are doing it, doesn’t somehow make it OK TikTok is.
Why?
The concern is ultimately influence. TikTok , controlled by China, was easily able to influence their users to take action when the initial talks of banning the app occurred. The data collection mentioned in this article is just one of many concerns that make up a much larger concern.
I think it’s twofold. There is an influence concern, but I think it’s more that the US doesn’t feel like it can lean on TikTok to push their propaganda while it very clearly does on other social media platforms. I also think that there’s a monetary thing. Congress doesn’t have an issue with American companies doing it because the companies make a ton of money selling influence and advertising data. Congress doesn’t like the fact that those advertising dollars aren’t going to US billionaires
TikTok , controlled by China, was easily able to influence their users to take action when the initial talks of banning the app occurred.
Were they? I don’t really recall users doing much to help Tik Tok at all.
And US companies do the same thing but arguably in a way that’s worse for our country. Elon is actively interfering with X/Twitter to make a more conservative user base, and Facebook is famous for giving this influence to other private companies leading to Trump. US companies, and the billionaires who own them, are using their influence to make the country more fascist by actually getting us people like Trump or asking the next President to change out the effective FTC leader or making us give tax money to a foreign power like Israel instead of US citizens. Meanwhile Tik Tok is, so far, just kind of limply asking users to save them when banned (equivalent to Google’s pleas during like the SOPA talks) and it resulting in… not much.
Do I want Chinese companies having my data? No. But I also don’t want US companies having my data, and I’d rank them equally, if not the danger of the latter to my well being actually higher.
And US companies do the same thing but arguably in a way that’s worse for our country. Elon is actively interfering with X/Twitter to make a more conservative user base, and Facebook is famous for giving this influence to other private companies leading to Trump.
Again, I don’t understand why we have to keep going back to a known problem and try to use it to justify a different concern. The topic is China’s TikTok.
TikTok sent users in the US a push notification on Wednesday, warning that “Congress is planning a total ban of TikTok” that would “[strip] 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression.” The page says that a ban would “damage millions of businesses, destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country, and deny artists an audience.” The alert includes a way for users to find their representative and call their office.
Again, I don’t understand why we have to keep going back to a known problem and try to use it to justify a different concern. The topic is China’s TikTok.
Because the other problem is worse and more of a concern? Because it shows our politicians are either hypocrites, have a different agenda, or both? Because it tricks people into thinking their enemies are abroad rather than the rich at home, preventing international solidarity and underselling the problem of the influence of our own home grown businesses, billionaires, lobbyists? Because it strengthens their power by preventing another alternative avenue of information away from their censorship? Because usually the first solution takes away momentum from the problem, preventing a better solution for a longer period of time?
“They’re teenagers and old people saying they spend their whole day on the app and we can’t take it away.”
But did all those calls actually result in anything? No, Tik Tok is still being banned. Did the things I talk about result in anything, the influence of American companies? Yes, it’s increased and strengthened conservatives, the Citizens United scandal helped lead to Trump the first time, they’ve suppressed dissent against Israel, helping to justify genocide, normalized racist, homophobic, and transphobic rhetoric online in a more mainstream space (X), etc. These are hard facts, not conspiracy theories dreamed up about what China could do.
Not to mention that asking users to save their app is something literally any app run by a business would do. They would do that even if they were owned by an American company and were getting threatened by a ban. Like I said, no worse than the SOPA blackout by companies like Google and Reddit where they asked users to contact representatives. Meanwhile, American companies Uber and Lyft did huge lobbying efforts and spent record breaking amounts of money making life harder for gig workers in California with Prop 22, for example, and did a huge advertising campaign lying about the effects of it.
Let me ask another way: Do you really, in your heart, truly believe that they’re going to circle back to dealing with the privacy of American companies after Tik Tok? Be honest. This conversation will be permanently tabled once these Tik Tok articles are out of the zeitgeist.
But did all those calls actually result in anything? No, Tik Tok is still being banned.
I wear a helmet and a seatbelt because I’m aware of the potential injuries that could occur if I don’t. I’m not going to stop wearing a helmet because it hasn’t saved my life yet.
I agree, especially now that the fediverse is starting to become a thing 🤘. As long as we can keep the fediverse controlled by the users, and not dominated by companies like Meta’s Threads
Controlled by China is a strong way to put it. China doesn’t need TikTok to get info on anyone. It’s not like there’s a government official pouring over TikTok data. I’m sure if the Chinese government asked for information on someone TikTok would give it over but that’s no different than how the US government gets their data.
Came here to say this. The ability to infer the interests, opinions, and (by a pretty simple extension) political views of users is the cornerstone of all social media. TikTok is clearly being singled out here.
I would hope that the public would be educated enough by now to realize that they are always the product with any “free” service. But I also know that is a lofty wish.
What gets me this dude embezzled so much but had no idea what to do with it once he got the money. Sure, let’s just jam your $16 mil in a old fridge to rot. At least buy a safe and a dehumidifier dude.
Trump using the language of a tyrant is not an accident. When people say that democracy is on the line this election, we’re not being hyperbolic, we’re saying that because of statements like this. Please get out there and vote this November.
While that may be true, I also think it’s because he feels comfortable enough to say it out loud. These people and a fanatic third of the US are that far gone.
When people say that democracy is on the line this election, we’re not being hyperbolic
The election system in the US has been under siege since the end of Jim Crow. The conservative response to the civil rights act has been to egalitarianize disenfranchisement.
We’ve had Republicans chipping away at the functional organs of democracy since Eisenhower’s Red Scare leveraged the Hoover FBI to infiltrate and eradicate self-sufficient communities and their unionized labor leadership back in the 50s.
Meanwhile, the Democrats’ leadership have never sat particularly well with the influx of minority voters following the Civil Rights Act. They’ve had to digest racist backlashes within their own party from the George Wallace Dixiecrat break away campaign under LBJ to the Hilary Clinton “birther” attacks launched at Obama during the '08 primary.
The end result is Republicans openly embracing fascism at the state and local level, while Democrats dissolve their own primary system in pursuit of a rigid corporate sponsored nomination process.
This isn’t something that’s going to be fixed in an election cycle. Trump losing won’t make Republicans less fascist. Kamala taking the nomination of the discarded carcass of an establishment insider like Biden won’t heal the divide in the Democratic Party. And it certainly won’t undo the fascist GOP takeovers in Texas, Florida, and Ohio.
We’re in for a rocky road ahead under either Presidency.
I 100% refuse to agree that a candidate asshole like Trump should have access ever again to top secret information. Specially when they are not president yet, and hopefully won’t be.
Someone who actually cared about his own children wouldn’t be capable of saying this shit with so much confidence because they’d capable of seeing other adults and kids as “their own” too, a kind of empathy you can kinda only develop by being a parent.
The fact he uses them more like status quo trophies shows a really disgusting and inhumane side of him. He probably only had children to accomodate a social quota, not because he actually loves them. He doesn’t value human life as human, but more like a transaction, a holy duty or even monetary. It’s just gross and hard to explain how it feels to hear this dumb motherfucker
Some folks may need to become a parent to develop this form of empathy, but it isn’t by any means required. A ton of the childfree folks I’ve met are extremely empathetic and forward about wanting to better things.
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