How does this even make sense? This bill would be perfectly happy selling TikTok to Meta even, it's not killing social media it's just telling China to GTFO.
How do you come to that conclusion? I can rant and rave here about the shit and aberrant government and if I had an account, reddit, FB, etc without repercussions. We can call out GW Bush for committing warcrimes and killing 100k+ Iraqis. Or Obama for drone strikes on Afghan civilians. Or Trump for existing. Or Biden for killing Afghan civilians on the final day, the day we pulled out of that complete shitshow.
Criticism of the US Govt is a favorite pastime, from anti-Capitalist humanist socialists like myself to the far right white supremacists.
I’m sure now that I’ve said that, the FBI and DIA will be making a visit, right?
The topic that you're missing is coverage of Palestine and the sustained pressure that BDS and other movements are putting on Israel and US foreign policy, using Tiktok as a messaging platform. Palestine related content is heavily suppressed on most American social media networks. Israeli leaders have also expressed their concern over the "tiktok problem" and have failed to gain traction on the network with their counter-posting. From my perspective, at least, its pretty clear that this move is killing two birds with one stone by eliminating foreign competition and suppressing content that Israel doesn't want out in the wild.
The issue of free speech in America is that anything is allowed, until it starts forcing the hand of the elite in some way.
> “In the context of social media platforms used by nearly half of Americans, it’s not hard to imagine how a platform that facilitates so much commerce, political discourse, and social debate could be covertly manipulated to serve the goals of an authoritarian regime, one with a long track record of censorship, transnational repression, and promotion of disinformation.”
Mark Warner (D-VA), Senate Intelligence Committee Chair
That's the crux of it for me. Not protecting the data of Americans.
Mark Warner has gotten $343,211 from AIPAC. He cares about placating Israel, not protecting our data. If you can find a politician who says this but doesn't take money from AIPAC, I might be a little more convinced.
If wanting better conditions in the US is something Gen-Z wants, that does not make them anti-American. Criticism of our government and corporations is one of the most pro-American action one can be.
They want an America that is humane and cares for its citizens. Good for them. Anything less makes for a subhuman individual.
I get the impression it's less about constructive criticism and more about hating America by the scenes of young protestors in America burning the flag of the United States. Both the left and the right should be mindful of not becoming traitors giving comfort to enemies that would like to destroy our goverment and make America their colony.
This is supposed to get everyone's attention. Symbilolicly it represents the betrayal the protester feels from the government. Sadly, too many people are desensitized to this. I guess if the only thing that will get real attention is burning yourself in protest, then there will be fewer protesters and the government and corporations can continue doing whatever they want.
I don't recall a lot of violent protests against the war in Iraq after the initial protests. It seems young people lost interest. They certainly care very little for the vets that return broken.
Forgetting the 99 WTO protests? going into the 00s there were scores of cancellations and career ending events during the early years of the Iraq war. Remember Bill Maher, the dixie chicks etc.?
Also consider, it was more difficult to organize due to lack of ubiquitous broadband and tooling. Now with the democratization of information and tooling to organize protests (things like Slack, Discord, Google Docs sharing features all running on a super computer in everyones pocket) it has grown in scope.
Finally Gen Y and Gen Z took different paths. Gen Y graduated into the new great depression, got duped by Obama's Hope and Change, and then when they finally got back on track headed right into the post-pandemic economy. GenZ never had any illusions given what they saw their older siblings go through.
I guess my point is: it seems like a lot of people believe China is subtly manipulating public opinion via TikTok, but I think it's more likely that these feelings are just organic and they surface in TikTok because people agree with them.
Gen Z is the future of the US and I'm glad for it. The kids are alright. They want better conditions and a better future for themselves and others. This isn't anti-American at all.
I think ignorance like this is the true source of many problems in the US. Maybe its a side effect of our individualistic culture to not consider what another group might be going through?
>It'd be nice if Gen Z became less anti-American.
It'd be nice if Gen Z wouldn't have to graduate with a ton of college debt into a post pandemic job market that now treats their newly minted CS degrees as worth less per day
It'd be nice if Gen Z could have a viable pathway to live in an area with the remaining good jobs and be able to buy a home to start a family
>America deserved it in the Vietnam war. Now, not so much.
I came of age in the 70's with the fallout from the Mai Lai Massacre, oil embargoes, 16% inflation, high unemployment, New York City going bankrupt (Gerald Ford to NYC: Drop Dead). That's why I joined the military. It never occured to me to become anti-American. Other countries weren't doing so hot either. What does blaming "America" for my problems get me? "America" is not responisble for the pandemic or greedy colleges that prey on vulnerable high school students who want to get ahead. We need new laws to fix these problems, which means electing politicians who will fix these problems.
If merely accepting donations invalidates a politicians ability to have their own views then I suppose no politician legitimately cares about anything (perhaps that’s true, but I wouldn’t bet on it).
Its accepting donations from PACs and corporations. This is outlawed elsewhere as "bribes". If the politician goes against what the donor says they get nothing the next time around at the best(so now they needs to raise money elsewhere) and at the worst the donor funds their opponent.
There are a handful of politicians that refuse to take any corporate PAC money (The Squad, Sanders etc.) instead electing to only take small dollar donations from regular people. Its reasonable that you will take money from the people you are elected to serve, not corporations and superpacs. There have been attempts to just get money out of politics altogether and instead introduce a general fund from taxes to pay out the expenses of running for office while banning all other forms of donations. That would be the best because it gives even small time people a chance.
It's hard to tell whether you're being intentionally obtuse or are just naturally pedantic, but look at the headline in every news article (including this one on HN).
No reasonable person in the US knows this as anything but The TikTok Bill.
The only thing they are afraid of is being exposed. Simply exposing the vast weaknesses of the ruling elite in the country is has a stronger effect than what most people consider to be overtly propaganda.
Sen. Mark Warner has uncovered that "all 20" major tech companies are colluding to silence content that challenges government-approved stories about election "misinformation" and "disinformation."
Senator Pete Ricketts explains why the government wants to ban TikTok: "Pro-Palestinian and Hamas videos on TikTok have more reach than the top 10 US news websites combined."
Can you explain in what way the US is authoritarian? I don't feel it on a personal level at all. I mean, the dept of motor vehicles is pretty strict, but other than that...
But you get to keep your money in America if you start a successful business. You don't see billionaires getting crushed like Jack Ma in China or the oligarchs in Russia, although I wouldn't mind a little of that in America to be honest
* An ENEMY STATE has controlling influence of a widely used social network in the USA. People's minds are influenced by it .. "You are what you eat" holds for what you read/watch and consequently think
* This legislation won't lose Biden the election, banning abortion by an insurrectionist will win it
* We are in a country that needs people to work together to be a successful country - we are big and highly populated democracy
* Rugged individualism - "me first" - is easily attacked by influencers, subject to divide-and-conquer techniques. From marketing to foreign influence, it is a weakness.
* Healthcare (even as expensive as it still is), reproductive rights, free ability to vote, and ability to have civil-war-free existence in our lifetimes are contingent on a healthily functioning government.
* To support OUR STATE we must find a middle ground of unity. We must recognize the forces that divide us. We must choose the path to that maintains our ever-evolving sense of personal "freedom". We must be good citizens.
> An ENEMY STATE has controlling influence of a widely used social network in the USA. People's minds are influenced by it .. "You are what you eat" holds for what you read/watch and consequently think
How are you defining an enemy, and why does it matter whether they're a state or not? There are several domestic entities (governmental and non) that I would consider much bigger threats to me and the people I care about than the PRC government.
And if you're not willing to let people read/watch widely and make up their own minds, what good is being a "democracy" or even an independent state at all? If I wanted to only watch state-approved media then I'd move to China.
> There are several domestic entities (governmental and non) that I would consider much bigger threats to me
We can address multiple threats at once, and are not compelled to address them in priority order. Any improvement is good.
> if you're not willing to let people read/watch widely and make up their own minds
This seems a very weak argument. Of course nobody wants to make it illegal to see propaganda. But if you think propaganda doesn't work, then I've got a bridge to sell you. Yes, there are lots of kinds and sources and degrees of propaganda, from every side. But it exists on a spectrum - and when it's being controlled by one country, covertly, for the consumption of another country, with whom you have a tense military standoff, then it's a little more insidious than the "let the people decide!" stance you're advocating.
> We can address multiple threats at once, and are not compelled to address them in priority order. Any improvement is good.
Not necessarily. A balance of power can be better for us regular folks at the bottom. Frankly I feel safer in a world where there's at least some non-US social media than a world where people who run the US run everything and no-one can call them out.
> Of course nobody wants to make it illegal to see propaganda.
> A European social media company would not be facing the same backlash
Maybe. Or maybe the US would find some excuse to ban them too. Or the same one - remember the US considers it appropriate to spy on and read the emails of the German chancellor. Conveniently, there isn't any major European social media to compare to.
> That's not the issue, and it's disingenuous to suggest otherwise.
> It's not the non-US source, it's the governmental control for specific purposes
Perhaps. Or perhaps it's the US that's being disingenuous, and the real issue is that TikTok threatens what's otherwise a total US dominance of social media. (And note that the national security letter system means that the US has a similar level of governmental control)
I am not saying I agree with grandparent, but I would like to point out that both your statement and grandparents statement could simultaneously be true with zero conflict between the two
I'm just saying it's a bit late to start raving about "enemy state" influence after they outsourced the manufacturing capacity of the entire country to it.
The difference is largely in the products produced, for example, no one is building anything close to the F-35, which is a significant export for the US.
> America is a manufacturing superpower: Of the 22 manufacturing categories tracked by the U.N., the U.S. ranked first in six categories and second in 13 others, underscoring the breadth and competitiveness of American manufacturing. In only three sectors—apparel, motor vehicles and leather—did the U.S. fail to rank either first or second.
Sounds nice to say "Americans" did this, to socialize accountability, like this was some democratic decision and not the product of corporations having no loyalty to anyone or anything.
It's definitely "Americans" that did this. It came from the hubris of seeing the Soviet Union fall and deceiving ourselves that we were living in some capitalist liberal democratic end of history and letting the political system make decisions to match.
And frankly, attempting to not "socialize accountability" and instead pin the blame on some othered corporations would have the effect of fostering a helpless outlook in the face of those corporations.
IMHO, the way forward is to realize the collective mistake and fuck those corporations good and hard as part of the correction (e.g. lets make an example of Apple).
> Veto it on the grounds that it would cost Biden the election
No it won’t. Firstly because the hammer won’t fall until months after the election, and secondly it’d be hard for China-hawk Trump who attempted the same thing during his presidency to take a pro-China position, but finally and most importantly because TikTok is disproportionately popular with young voters who are terrible at actually voting. Plus the move is popular with older likely voters.
> Because paying $5/gal gasoline and $8 for a carton of eggs is disastrous for me personally.
I get $5/gal gasoline being a bummer (not that I would notice since I have an EV), but where do you live where eggs cost $8 a carton? I can get 18 for < $5, that's like a cart 1.5. Or do you mean at the organic health food place, and they are handled via soft gloves or something?
Seriously, I wonder if Trump supporters are just making bad buying decision and then blaming Bidenomics for it?
When I lived in Switzerland, I had a lot of price shocks to go through, but my stipend was pretty high so I guess it made sense (more money, more expensive eggs). The recent inflation has been kind of like that (but my earnings went up a lot at the same time, maybe that's not usual?).
> Seriously, I wonder if Trump supporters are just making bad buying decision and then blaming Bidenomics for it?
People don't seem to realize that, although Biden hasn't helped reduce inflection, Trump and those before him all the way back to Clinton (exclusive) all poured gasoline that fueled this inflation fire.
Ya, let’s give some blame to Obama as well, and Biden was his vice president. We knew low interest rates for more than 20 years was going to mess things up, cheap money couldn’t last forever.
I wish we could run the economy more like adults, not calling for a Fed ouster when they only cut rates by .25 during what the president at the time was calling the best economy ever.
If you are buying $8 cartons of eggs, you either live in Hawaii or are buying some special organic ones that probably are in indistinct from the carton you can get for $3-4.
Biden seems to be pretty much doomed in the election anyway. Of course he might pull out an upset but it’s hard to pin it on this being the cause of his loss
FYI, I used a tool I develop [1] to look into this, and came to the following conclusions:
- Biden will sign the bill (>95%)
- The Commerce Secretary will start the 12 month clock (>95%)
- TikTok will challenge the ruling (>95%), which may delay the clock starting to delist or divest, but they are unlikely to win (20%)
- And if they lose, they will succeed in selling to a US company (75%)
- The sale will be for $30-50B (CI 50%), assuming it does not include certain ByteDance IP
- Walmart and Oracle won’t compete to buy it this time. Microsoft or Amazon are the top contenders, along with a consortium led by Susquehanna or Steven Mnuchin, possibly in partnership with Snap or X.
Yeah about that. There is no sign of genocide within Israel, Arab citizens are growing as fraction of population and have serious political power. Population of Gaza is likewise growing tremendously due to very high birth rate and there have been no attempts at coerced sterilization like China does to Ughurs.
Now lets turn to ethnic cleansing. It's true that ethnic cleansing of Arabs took place during formation of Israel. It's also true that ethnic cleansing of Jews took place in many/most Middle East countries like Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and so on. Now lots of people are displaced, how come no other country is given responsibility to help with aftereffects? Egypt lost Gaza as a result of attacking Israel and losing the war. Maybe they should take it back and spend resources to restore peace?
Or lets consider apartheid. Any monarchy - such as Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Morocco etc is by definition an apartheid. The king privileges Islam over other religions and minorities don't get a say in what the laws are, even in case of relatively tolerant kings like in Morocco. By contrast, Arabs/Muslims within Israel have full voting rights and Gazans were left alone to run their own affairs until Oct 7 attack. West bank is in a weird state for various reasons - religious zeal of settlers, PLA not forming a viable government, interference from foreign powers like Iran.
I am not trying to paint Israel as a perfect country. But which country is perfect when attacked? US literally nuked Japan and caused mass civilian casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq. Russia? China? India?
I don't care either way. I think it'll be really interesting to see how people react to this though. Do Americans learn how vpns work suddenly, do tiktok users just switch to reels like nothing happened. Do we snap out of our social media trance. It's like playing sim city and causing a little social chaos lol
> do tiktok users just switch to reels like nothing happened
Yeah. The content there is already crossposted from TikTok anyway, now it will just be created there by default. Zero functional difference. Plus the YouTube Shorts algorithm has gotten a lot less overtly awful in the last year.
I just tested this and scrolled for a couple minutes straight — not one short was anything remotely substantive or interesting to me. An endless fountain of brain rot and offensively low quality content. Lots of it ai generated audio (wouldn’t be surprised if the content was too).
Is there something I’m doing wrong? Because mine is still very very bad. It seems to ignore my actual channel subscriptions and usual viewing habits entirely.
I don't use it signed into YouTube at all, but it's pretty good to me. A short cruise through the short just now got me: Animal Crossing island building tips; sketch comedy; linguistics trivia; Ukraine war intelligence analysis; European history; rocket league trick shots; etc. I saw one or two irrelevant brainrot clips that I scrolled passed quickly, got an ad for Temu and Battle Royale which I also scroll by quickly, but by and large it was a fun/interesting way to spend 4 or 5 minutes.
are they going to have a firewall to block tiktok? I would think the government will just ask Apple and Google to take tiktok from their store, then tiktok can be a web app, and there is no one can stop it.
For those who say "TikTok can just exit the US market", when the Trump administration came close to forcing a divestment/shutdown on TikTok in 2020,^1 Americans were 10% of TikTok's user base but 50% of revenue. Of the top 50 most-followed accounts <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-followed_TikTok_a...>, 21 of 50 are American.
TikTok's buyer does not have to be American. If TikTok were a Canadian, British, French, German, Korean, Japanese, or Taiwanese company, the US government wouldn't have intervened in the first place.
Conversely, if TikTok were a Canadian, British, French, German, Korean, Japanese, or Taiwanese company, American would not have to fear a hostile government silently gathering data on American users, or a company repeatedly shown to be lying about using its app to do so.
^1 And boy, do Democrats who shouted Orange Man Bad back then now wish they had supported the move
I'm seeing a lot of comments like this, but I have no idea what your camp is trying to say.
The bill isn't a criticism of TikTok's operation, its a criticism on its ownership and how that ownership + influence creates an exploit that poses a threat to NatSec.
This kind of reactionary framing feels like an attempt to put Facebook and TikTok on a level playing field, but the premise of the bill is about tech ownership and influence by companies of or from a foreign adversary.
I think this just validates China’s social, cultural, and digital hegemony.
Banning (if you can call it that? Divesting?) a single product like this is a strange move. It’s using a shovel to clear the early crumbs of an avalanche.
I don’t think this is the right move. Yes, it threatens the monopolies that companies like Facebook have established. And let’s assume that Haidt is right and social media and the surrounding ecosystem is a cesspool of negativity being lunged at the youth. I still think that it’s in a way petulant and reactive to pass a bill for this. A foreign country is not responsible for our leaders having failed to nurture us into sensible adults who do not fall prey to these dark patterns and tactics. I will refrain from the angle that our leaders intentionally did not want us to be critical, independent thinkers to further their own agendas by treating us like lepers.
I hope ByteDance sell tiktok to North Korea. This bill is so misguided and inflammatory. It's clearly OK for Google and Meta to freely harvest our data and sell it for a profit, but I guess they can't charge tariffs on data so they'll make up excuses and bully foreign companies over it. I hope the Chinese join the EU and start pushing on our tech monopolies since our government is too busy with bills like this to uphold the laws already on the books.
> This bill is so misguided and inflammatory. It's clearly OK for ${US_COMPANIES} to freely harvest our data and sell it for a profit, but I guess they can't charge tariffs on data so they'll make up excuses and ${PREVENT_THREAT}.
watching from the sideline, I think this move has a lot to do with Palestine. Do you know how much Palestine information on TikTok, comparing to YouTube and Facebook, apparently those contents were suppressed on other platforms, and TikTok is the odd one here. I personally believe, regardless what politicians are saying, this is actually a big reason.
123 comments
[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 176 ms ] threadCriticism of the US Govt is a favorite pastime, from anti-Capitalist humanist socialists like myself to the far right white supremacists.
I’m sure now that I’ve said that, the FBI and DIA will be making a visit, right?
The issue of free speech in America is that anything is allowed, until it starts forcing the hand of the elite in some way.
So far mostly true if you are in the UK. Search YouTube for "uk police visit social media post"
Mark Warner (D-VA), Senate Intelligence Committee Chair
That's the crux of it for me. Not protecting the data of Americans.
They want an America that is humane and cares for its citizens. Good for them. Anything less makes for a subhuman individual.
Suppressing freedom of speech is the most anti-American stance one could take.
There's literally nothing wrong with being happy to be an American despite it's flaws
Also consider, it was more difficult to organize due to lack of ubiquitous broadband and tooling. Now with the democratization of information and tooling to organize protests (things like Slack, Discord, Google Docs sharing features all running on a super computer in everyones pocket) it has grown in scope.
Finally Gen Y and Gen Z took different paths. Gen Y graduated into the new great depression, got duped by Obama's Hope and Change, and then when they finally got back on track headed right into the post-pandemic economy. GenZ never had any illusions given what they saw their older siblings go through.
>It'd be nice if Gen Z became less anti-American.
It'd be nice if Gen Z wouldn't have to graduate with a ton of college debt into a post pandemic job market that now treats their newly minted CS degrees as worth less per day
It'd be nice if Gen Z could have a viable pathway to live in an area with the remaining good jobs and be able to buy a home to start a family
>America deserved it in the Vietnam war. Now, not so much.
You sure about that?
There are a handful of politicians that refuse to take any corporate PAC money (The Squad, Sanders etc.) instead electing to only take small dollar donations from regular people. Its reasonable that you will take money from the people you are elected to serve, not corporations and superpacs. There have been attempts to just get money out of politics altogether and instead introduce a general fund from taxes to pay out the expenses of running for office while banning all other forms of donations. That would be the best because it gives even small time people a chance.
And that's what this TikTok bill feels like to me. The fact that it's called the TikTok bill should be embarrassing to every politician involved.
Just be honest and call it The We-Don't-Like-China-Except-For-The-Times-We-Do Bill.
I don't live in an important state and if Biden signs this thing I'll probably just abstain during the November elections.
The official name is "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act".
No reasonable person in the US knows this as anything but The TikTok Bill.
Can you list the companies that will need to divest as a result of this bill passing?
So…the US government then?
It's reciprocal since the CCP has the similar policy towards Western social media
After years of contentious debate, the bipartisan measure marks a significant step toward passing a landmark federal privacy law
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/04/07/congres...
Bit of discussion (on CNN article) here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39980232
* This legislation won't lose Biden the election, banning abortion by an insurrectionist will win it
* We are in a country that needs people to work together to be a successful country - we are big and highly populated democracy
* Rugged individualism - "me first" - is easily attacked by influencers, subject to divide-and-conquer techniques. From marketing to foreign influence, it is a weakness.
* Healthcare (even as expensive as it still is), reproductive rights, free ability to vote, and ability to have civil-war-free existence in our lifetimes are contingent on a healthily functioning government.
* To support OUR STATE we must find a middle ground of unity. We must recognize the forces that divide us. We must choose the path to that maintains our ever-evolving sense of personal "freedom". We must be good citizens.
How are you defining an enemy, and why does it matter whether they're a state or not? There are several domestic entities (governmental and non) that I would consider much bigger threats to me and the people I care about than the PRC government.
And if you're not willing to let people read/watch widely and make up their own minds, what good is being a "democracy" or even an independent state at all? If I wanted to only watch state-approved media then I'd move to China.
Good news, looks like for now you can watch China-approved media without leaving your own country;)
We can address multiple threats at once, and are not compelled to address them in priority order. Any improvement is good.
> if you're not willing to let people read/watch widely and make up their own minds
This seems a very weak argument. Of course nobody wants to make it illegal to see propaganda. But if you think propaganda doesn't work, then I've got a bridge to sell you. Yes, there are lots of kinds and sources and degrees of propaganda, from every side. But it exists on a spectrum - and when it's being controlled by one country, covertly, for the consumption of another country, with whom you have a tense military standoff, then it's a little more insidious than the "let the people decide!" stance you're advocating.
Not necessarily. A balance of power can be better for us regular folks at the bottom. Frankly I feel safer in a world where there's at least some non-US social media than a world where people who run the US run everything and no-one can call them out.
> Of course nobody wants to make it illegal to see propaganda.
Then what exactly is this bill aiming for?
Russia, China, and Iran are at war with the West, the West has not acknowledged it widely yet
Maybe. Or maybe the US would find some excuse to ban them too. Or the same one - remember the US considers it appropriate to spy on and read the emails of the German chancellor. Conveniently, there isn't any major European social media to compare to.
That's not the issue, and it's disingenuous to suggest otherwise.
It's not the non-US source, it's the governmental control for specific purposes
> Then what exactly is this bill aiming for?
Not making it illegal to see- just not making it easy for china to do covertly on a broad scale.
> It's not the non-US source, it's the governmental control for specific purposes
Perhaps. Or perhaps it's the US that's being disingenuous, and the real issue is that TikTok threatens what's otherwise a total US dominance of social media. (And note that the national security letter system means that the US has a similar level of governmental control)
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/global-manufacturing-scor...
The difference is largely in the products produced, for example, no one is building anything close to the F-35, which is a significant export for the US.
> America is a manufacturing superpower: Of the 22 manufacturing categories tracked by the U.N., the U.S. ranked first in six categories and second in 13 others, underscoring the breadth and competitiveness of American manufacturing. In only three sectors—apparel, motor vehicles and leather—did the U.S. fail to rank either first or second.
From: https://www.barrons.com/articles/china-manufacturing-semicon...
If we move beyond the US vs China to the West vs Authoritarians, the comparison becomes dominating
Because Americans have been foolish and short sighted.
So then they're presented with a choice: continue making the mistake or take the difficult steps to attempt to correct it.
And frankly, attempting to not "socialize accountability" and instead pin the blame on some othered corporations would have the effect of fostering a helpless outlook in the face of those corporations.
IMHO, the way forward is to realize the collective mistake and fuck those corporations good and hard as part of the correction (e.g. lets make an example of Apple).
No it won’t. Firstly because the hammer won’t fall until months after the election, and secondly it’d be hard for China-hawk Trump who attempted the same thing during his presidency to take a pro-China position, but finally and most importantly because TikTok is disproportionately popular with young voters who are terrible at actually voting. Plus the move is popular with older likely voters.
I get $5/gal gasoline being a bummer (not that I would notice since I have an EV), but where do you live where eggs cost $8 a carton? I can get 18 for < $5, that's like a cart 1.5. Or do you mean at the organic health food place, and they are handled via soft gloves or something?
Seriously, I wonder if Trump supporters are just making bad buying decision and then blaming Bidenomics for it?
When I lived in Switzerland, I had a lot of price shocks to go through, but my stipend was pretty high so I guess it made sense (more money, more expensive eggs). The recent inflation has been kind of like that (but my earnings went up a lot at the same time, maybe that's not usual?).
People don't seem to realize that, although Biden hasn't helped reduce inflection, Trump and those before him all the way back to Clinton (exclusive) all poured gasoline that fueled this inflation fire.
I wish we could run the economy more like adults, not calling for a Fed ouster when they only cut rates by .25 during what the president at the time was calling the best economy ever.
Yeah people like me who have been buying the same food for the last ten years just happened to buy new items at the same time inflation started.
https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/president/general/202...
Please vote.
Will it start to lean towards the nonsense we are seeing with Meta platforms? (Limiting Pro-Palestinian voices, boosting Pro-Israel content).
Now lets turn to ethnic cleansing. It's true that ethnic cleansing of Arabs took place during formation of Israel. It's also true that ethnic cleansing of Jews took place in many/most Middle East countries like Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and so on. Now lots of people are displaced, how come no other country is given responsibility to help with aftereffects? Egypt lost Gaza as a result of attacking Israel and losing the war. Maybe they should take it back and spend resources to restore peace?
Or lets consider apartheid. Any monarchy - such as Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Morocco etc is by definition an apartheid. The king privileges Islam over other religions and minorities don't get a say in what the laws are, even in case of relatively tolerant kings like in Morocco. By contrast, Arabs/Muslims within Israel have full voting rights and Gazans were left alone to run their own affairs until Oct 7 attack. West bank is in a weird state for various reasons - religious zeal of settlers, PLA not forming a viable government, interference from foreign powers like Iran.
I am not trying to paint Israel as a perfect country. But which country is perfect when attacked? US literally nuked Japan and caused mass civilian casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq. Russia? China? India?
Yeah. The content there is already crossposted from TikTok anyway, now it will just be created there by default. Zero functional difference. Plus the YouTube Shorts algorithm has gotten a lot less overtly awful in the last year.
Is there something I’m doing wrong? Because mine is still very very bad. It seems to ignore my actual channel subscriptions and usual viewing habits entirely.
TikTok's buyer does not have to be American. If TikTok were a Canadian, British, French, German, Korean, Japanese, or Taiwanese company, the US government wouldn't have intervened in the first place.
Conversely, if TikTok were a Canadian, British, French, German, Korean, Japanese, or Taiwanese company, American would not have to fear a hostile government silently gathering data on American users, or a company repeatedly shown to be lying about using its app to do so.
^1 And boy, do Democrats who shouted Orange Man Bad back then now wish they had supported the move
The bill isn't a criticism of TikTok's operation, its a criticism on its ownership and how that ownership + influence creates an exploit that poses a threat to NatSec.
This kind of reactionary framing feels like an attempt to put Facebook and TikTok on a level playing field, but the premise of the bill is about tech ownership and influence by companies of or from a foreign adversary.
Facebook is a US company. What am I missing here?
Banning (if you can call it that? Divesting?) a single product like this is a strange move. It’s using a shovel to clear the early crumbs of an avalanche.
I don’t think this is the right move. Yes, it threatens the monopolies that companies like Facebook have established. And let’s assume that Haidt is right and social media and the surrounding ecosystem is a cesspool of negativity being lunged at the youth. I still think that it’s in a way petulant and reactive to pass a bill for this. A foreign country is not responsible for our leaders having failed to nurture us into sensible adults who do not fall prey to these dark patterns and tactics. I will refrain from the angle that our leaders intentionally did not want us to be critical, independent thinkers to further their own agendas by treating us like lepers.
Care to elaborate your point? I tried to understand what point you tried to make,but it heavily contrasts with reality.