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".
this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2024
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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.
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.
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.
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?
Well, of course. They aren't banning Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. That's exactly how they want it.
I see no issue with banning tik tok.
It's not even "banning tik-tok". It's "separate your interests, or we block your product".
Which isn't exactly something that we haven't seen before in the U.S. and it for sure isn't anything new in China where plenty of services, games....etc are blocked with "Chinese only" versions of those services.
Except they would be ignoring all the other shitty social networks but it's a start.
grabs popcorn
mimes eating popcorn, while pointing to overlayed captions, with a Taylor Swift song playing in the background
This person TikToks!
Well the Senate killed the earlier bill. There's a decent chance they pass the Ukraine/Israel aid bill without this amendment. It would then be stricken in reconciliation. Unfortunately there's also a decent chance the Senate passes it because this version probably fixes things the Senators had problems with.
If it does get passed there's a very good chance there's a court order to prevent anything until the courts rule on the constitutionality of the law. If Bytedance loses that there's zero chance they sell though. The US market is not big enough for them to jettison an international company.
Not big enough. I imagine it’s their biggest market.
It's the biggest single country but in a world of 7.9 Billion people, 148 million is a fraction.
But it's also not available in China correct? They have a separate version with a different name from what I understand. They could do the same for the other regions they serve and sell the US user base to a new company.
Why would they sell? That would create a competitor that could easily expand into other markets and take away that user base as well.
It's not even about propaganda it's not having it until their thumb, they can't push a button and ensure the top video under trans on every search is Matt Walsh, and yeah on all other major platforms if you search trans people critical of trans people pop up. The reasoning isn't popularity or engagement, the US government has ordered them to do it through backroom tax deals and Slapp orders. Next stop for the US gov is gonna be the fediverse and AT proto, they are gonna argue that not just anyone should be trusted and that running a social media server is a big task. security blah blah children, protecting your data. Than lass a bill require you to obtain an FCC license to host your own social media site. It only gets worse from here folks
I didn't really like your attitude about it, but you're probably right. Moving goalposts is what the US does to establish precedents.