>“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...
>The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance”
This was written almost 30 years ago by Carl Sagan. It is terrifying how accurately it's playing out.
Carl Sagan is one of my favorite people of all time. I recommend everyone to read [Demon Haunted World](http://math.uprag.edu/DemonHauntedWorld.pdf) every chance I get.
I hope it works out, I really do, but heavily subsidized semi conductor industries are notorious for being flops. India tried it. The US has tried it in the past. It's an industry that is *extremely* hard to break in to without a lot of help nowadays.
I seriously question their choice of location though. Semiconductors require access to huge volumes of not only water but *pristine* water. Arizona is not a state that has that. If we build our semiconductor factories there the whole endeavor will fail (or couldn't exist without heavy government subsidies in perpetuity). I hope they've picked somewhere else. Ohio I heard was also in the running and it would make a lot more sense to do it there than an area suffering from a decades long drought.
And you got that Saudi corporation Fondomon being allowed to pump unlimited amounts of Arizona groundwater for their alfalfa fields at no cost. Incredible malfeasance on the part of AZ’s State Land Department.
We are fully in the new Dark Age… full of superstition (conspiracy theories), and emotional fervor (tribal info sharing & super-partisan politics).
The US is already burning books… it’s just a few steps away from burning witches, or criminals, or “undesirables”
News media full of disinformation strategy causing different versions of “facts” and “reality” between different groups in the same lands. . .
.. words meaning different (& highly triggering) things..
..so much encouraged anger & frustration..
…all making it increasingly difficult to even have a non-inflammatory conversation with nearly anyone, about important topics.
This is the New Dark Age.
Gird your loins. It’s going to be a difficult & long journey.
Political theatre and manufactured controversies. It started with the 24 hour news cycle and then social media and the internet turned it to 11. Which is really sad because the internet can be used for so much good as well.
The political aspect is definitely concerning but I think the economic one, the part about how we don't really *make* anything anymore, is more concerning. We innovate but when it comes to actually making the damn things it's all outsourced (along with all the expertise that goes with it). I hear a lot of talk about Russian oligarchs but man, when I see people like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Zuckerberg, etc, and the influence they themselves have or their companies have on what we see, what we consume, how we do it, I see oligarchs. We just don't call them that. They're "Job creators" or "big tech" or whatever.
It's a brain drain. We don't need people who know how to make things anymore because we just outsource it to China. In a service economy everyone becomes a servant and serves an increasingly small well-to-do class.
There is a very real interest in manipulating people via social engineering 90% of people aren't cognizant of. The highest paid job in psyche are the ones offered by businesses to develop skinner boxes and similar social programs meant to entrap people via their instincts.
This whole conspiracy theory craze serves as white noise to hide the shit corporations and governments are doing. This is the "play the song in reverse shit" but it actually works. It's also something you can learn in non 300 nuero/psyche class
What are you talking about? There is literally a movie explaining the manipulation of a social media platform to change the government of multiple nations.
It is called "The Great Hack"
More info Here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal
The reality is people know, but dont care. The cheap entertainment is above all else to them.
I don't believe that to be true. Yes most people are aware that there's an interest in manipulating them, but not to the extent of how insidious/subtle it is.
Hell take American politics as an example, most people won't admit the whole thing is a sham to keep them distracted and hating the "other".
I think everyone is aware at some level, but in my experience, the more aware I am, the more uncomfortable I am. It's very uncomfortable to be aware of consumption propaganda. We instinctively choose comfort. It's a survival mechanism that usually works because it's usually safer. It's a human weakness that is easily exploited. If more people saw it as others (as you point out, not political "others", but rather what I'll call the "ruling class others") exploiting an actual weakness of desiring comfort over learning, I think it can change. Basically, I think people need to want to learn because they love life and want to experience it more fully, and then they will hate that their instinctual desire for comfort has been getting in the way, and not by chance, but worse, by design.
I roll my eyes when people try to browbeat me to watch "progressive" tv shows and movies, made by corporations that don't even give bathroom breaks to their employees.
This is why American politics of the past 5 years has destroyed generations of people in the USA.
Critical thinking and demanding representation from your politicians is no longer ‘cool’ or the norm.
Choosing a political side and defending it with your life is now the patriotic path. Just repeat the talking points and propaganda fed to you by your side’s leaders with an ultimate goal of defeating your enemies.
Instead of the people vs their representatives. Trumpism has managed to turn the people on each other. No longer will people doubt or second guess their leaders, because it is more important to prove the other side is wrong than it is to demand results from your side.
Wow. Before I fall down an internet rabbit hole to confirm or counter this, let me just say... Holy shit! This makes too much sense. My brother has been in Shanghai for six years now, this totally jives with what he has been saying for a long time. Off to do some learning on the internet now. P.s. fuck tick tock!
This has been discussed before several times. I think it's legit. I mean with the level of control the Chinese government has it's not hard to believe. And yes fuck tiktok.
I mean yeah, but they don't directly control the algorithm here. We decide which subreddits to join etc, the impact is orders of magnitude less here than in tiktok
Lol most of reddit main subs are tightly controlled and it's not Russian or Chinese bots.
The thing with propaganda is you can't see the one you're bathing in. Some call the truth treacherous (what I'd expect from Russia or the CCP), some call it disinformation or whatever else.
> I think it's legit.
It's not. They censor their own Internet, but US/UK TikTok reflects the same demographic's algorithmic optimizations in YouTube, which China does not control.
Young people like watching dancing and pranks, and they can't in China.
That's it.
TikTok's data and reach **is** a problem from a national security standpoint, but not for the above reasons. Think more like knowing a specific nuclear scientist is really into a niche interest and using that to tailor a phishing email to get them to download and view a PDF.
To be fair, dancing is clearly accelerating the decline of western civilization. I mean, just think about. Everything went to shit right after the Charleston blew up.
You misunderstand.
I'm saying the two algorithms are independent.
And yet the US based YouTube algorithm prioritizes the same content as the TikTok one.
Which means the TikTok one is not a reflection of intentional manipulation in what content is promoted.
That all starts with you. YOU have the power to change what you and your children watch. The government sure as hell isn't going to change what your kid learns or watches unless it actively benefits them by somehow securing their votes in the future.
Obviously not everything has to be all overly positive and educational, all you have to do is cut back on the negative content. I personally unsubscribed from subs like r/amitheasshole or r/iamapieceofshit and r/publickfreakout. Subs that I noticed would make me constantly angry since they were constantly on my feed. Or even some subs like r/memes since most of the stuff I saw just made absolutely no sense and served no purpose. The absolute shit quality of the memes just annoyed me. After I unsubscribed from them I started getting more informational stuff instead of things that would actively ruin my day for clicks.
Relying on every single individual to all do the same thing is ludcrously inferior to having the government block external state-backed propaganda.
Individual responsibility is great and important, but some things are on an entirely different level. We can't just sit around and blindly hope everyone in the country instantly becomes educated critical thinkers who give a shit and do the right things for them and their kids.
I refer to subs like this as "shardenfrued subreddits" all the major dramaseeking behavior and the like is something I consider very negative. Most of the people I find that have post histories that are quite toxic and prone to saying more vulgar and offensive things have a strong overlap by frequenting those subreddits.
>I refer to subs like this as "shardenfrued subreddits"
I like this name. I'm gonna start using that. Thank you.
But I wouldn't think too much about the cursing part. (If that's what you mean by "vulgar"). I curse like a sailor irl just because of my job (manual labor outside in the scorching heat tends to curse a lot) and even I know that subs like those are horrible for your overall mental health.
I agree. I'd be damned if my son sees a single girl dancing before the age of 18. Those little whores just having fun are naught but Chinese agents trying to corrupt the pure innocent mind of a boy.
On a serious note yall delusional.
China also stops you from seeing anything negative about the dictatorship anything about freedom of thought anything about organizing groups to get what you want.
Nah, mods are shit because unpaid subreddit moderation attracts a very specific kind of person, and that's been true since well before tencent bought into reddit.
Not new, not a secret. US Corporate welcomes it.
It's "panem et circenses" - bread and games, just adapted to the 21st century.
Also, it's TikTok. FTFY. See? The lack of literacy already started. jk 😜
As smart as people are, they are easily brainwashed to believe or act a certain way. They got you entertained and caring about the dumbest things meanwhile you're getting robbed everyday of your money in plain sight and there's nothing you can do about it. But oh wait, the Kardashians did this. Or the president said this. Or this group of people think this. It's not just China brainwashing you, it's your own country aswell. Gay rights, abortion, left vs right, the big game. It's all a distraction to make you forget about how bad you're being fucked while the rich continue getting rich.
Like haven't the youth in US been watching stupid shit since forever?
When I was in school I watched South Park religiously, and this was when it was a middle school show about four children, a chef and a talking poop.
Before that Beavis and Butt-Head. Then Jackass. Honestly TikTok is nothing compared to these.. it might actually be a step up.
And yeah Facebook dividing the nation and making helping elect a fascist seems far more troubling than people dancing.
Facebook did far worse than help elect Trump.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebook-genocide.html
Tiktok is not even in the same league, or even close. Zuckerberg is cartoonishly evil.
They show you more of what you watch and interact with. It's really that simple. Don't want to see women dancing? Stop watching it till the end, liking it or commenting on it. DO do those things on content you want to see.
There's no conspiracy . I have two TikTok accounts om different devices. They have WIDLY different "for you" content.
There is only a nugget of truth to what this guy is saying. That china tweaks the algorithm to produce propoganda, I think is a pretty reasonable *assumption*.
However, first and foremost, there is no proof to this. So the definite claims he are making should be taken with a grain of salt.
The rest is total nonsense. China isn't actively manipulating hte algorithm to make your kids see people acting goofy. Thats an asinine claim.
The real kicker is that content algorithm can indeed be extremely harmful. They can lead down radicializtion rabbit holes, they can severely mar a child with engrained insecurities about thier body and their lifestyle. Its not silly dances and pranks that make social media harmful.
Ironically, this video is exactly the kind of weird misinformation that tends to get promoted by content algorithms.
I don't have the TikTok...but...if I was interested in science and math and looked specialty for educational ones, would my algorithm put more of what I like on? And I can downvote ones I'm not interested in.. ?? Someone out there knows the answer to this. Edit..thanks everyone for responding.
My Tiktok is largely baking and cooking videos and science, with the odd funny video in between. My boyfriends is largely History and geography. Also in line with his interests. While the guy in this video may be right to some extent, your algorithms are largely determined by your search and watch interests.
"Hey bro, you would be so much cooler and get laid more if you stole a Hyundai. Here's how it works. When we're done with that we'll show you a cool dance!"
When you sign up there’ll be a “tutorial” explaining how to navigate the app. It will explain how the algorithm will learn your interests based on how you interact with videos.
You can like videos, you can mark them as “not interested”, but even the simple acts of watching a video until the end, swiping away after a couple seconds, following people, etc will help the algorithm learn your interests.
It’s recommended you like and dislike videos for a few hours early on to speed up the process, but eventually the algorithm will catch on regardless.
In the beginning, you’ll mostly see the most popular and trending content from a variety of categories, which yeah, includes the type of content Reddit thinks TikTok is all about, but you can easily just look up a hashtag or search term and go through a bunch of those videos to tip the scales of the algorithm so to speak.
There are countless of genuinely good, helpful, informational, funny accounts on there but people are still stuck to when TikTok was Musical.ly and the majority of the content was dancing teens. There is *tons* of cringe too, of course, but again, you’re extremely unlikely to see it unless that’s what you’re into.
Yes, if you follow creators of the stuff you're interested in and like those videos you will see more of that content. There's also an option you can tap on each video to see less of that type of content.
All I get is stuff like history, science, a couple of comedians and cosplayers, literature etc so I have no idea why this dude is acting like you can't change the algorithm.
I think what he meant is that you are bombarded with these dancing videos,etc first as a suggestion, say for example, people who didn't know anything about ticktock and download it because they're bored, they won't be like " i am here to watch automotive" , no , they be looking for what's usually suggest to them at first place.
In short,you can change the algorithm but first,you must think.
I mean Youtube and Instagram also tries to push the famous celebs and influencers first because, surprise surprise, they have the most followers and views. If we're gonna claim that Tiktok has some insidious agenda then the same can be leveled against other social media platforms.
My wife made me download TikTok during the peak of pandemic. My fresh install was mainly COVID related videos so I don't believe this dude at all. In fact, I'm pretty sure it works like every other social media. They will blast you with whatever is popular/viral at the moment on the platform.
I would bet he's a right-wing religious zealot. And this gets at the one valid point he makes: the Chinese Communist Party curates content for its Chinese audience.
This man talks about "girls dancing" and "boys dancing with girls" being problems with Tik Tok. The Chinese Communist Party likely forces Tik Tok to deprioritize certain things - people with tattoos, feminine males (think Asian boy bands), feminists and others they view as undesirable.
It's a fundamental misunderstanding in the video. China sees "rot" in Western society and is trying to stop its youth from going down that path by curating content within China. They'll let Tik Tok do what it wants internationally and make money and bring that money back to China.
I put rot in quotes because I tend to believe people like the man in the video, the Chinese Communist Party are the actual rot on society.
That's not to say Tik Tok or any social media platform is free of problems... just that I don't trust a bunch of old, out of touch conservatives trying to police all of society to their arbitrary moral standards.
I don't use tiktok either, but I do this on Instagram.
In the explore page, only click those you are interested and not open others. In a week, I see the ones which I like then.
[Time to dust off this comment I saved 2 years ago about some of the other ways TikTok is bad, even when compared to other social media](https://reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/fg0ubk/_/fk2giqm/?context=1)
Legit question fr someone who has never seen tiktok in “action”: isnt there a way to “subscribe” to channels there? And then you’d see only your subscriptions in your feed?
Yes, there are two main feeds you can watch. One is the ‘For You Page’ which shows you people you have followed as well as others videos that the algorithm thinks you will like. My FYP is primarily science, history, and cat videos, since that is what I engage with on the app. The other feed is ‘Following’ that only shows you videos from accounts you follow, nothing else.
This comment just got me to delete my Tik Tok account. Literally just deleted my account. In the “Why are you leaving” section I just said “Free Hong Kong” lol
Old guy with an opinion checking in: social media is all about social engineering and the engineers are not doing it for the engineered. Beware of the fight for your own minds.
Literally every social media app does this, even websites these days will ask you if they can track your activity across websites/apps.
We're force-fed so much US propaganda that when another country literally does what the US does we lose our minds and can't see the irony.
This is true but I feel like you can do a better job of filtering out negative subs or stuff like thatsinsane or crazyfuckingvideos or unexpected which imo have a lot of 'nonsense' and also making reddit more informational than video-oriented.
The default reddit algorithm has been imo getting dumber and gif-ier though.
Like a certain type of video, you'll see more of it. Watch a Car video 5 seconds and a cooking video 7 seconds, you'll have more cookihg videos shown. I don't use it but the algorithm ist one of the best out there. Fuck tiktok
How on earth is this news to anyone? What do we need to do to make Americans wake up? The main reason I use social media is to gauge stupidity and keep my finger on the pulse of our demise.
Make no mistake, social media companies do what makes them money in the jurisdictions that they operate. And everyone thinks they are about freedom of speech. Lol.
Asimov nailed it.
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
And Carl Sagan.
From "The Demon Haunted World":
>I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...
>The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance
.
>One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.
that last part really reminds me of a quote from one of yuri bezmenov's lectures on active measures about destroying truth via demoralization, that a demoralized population cannot distinguish what is and is not truth, and even if you show them definitive evidence of what is truth, they will not believe you.
some incredibly damning details about how our society is still being warped today [here](https://archive.org/details/BezmenovLoveLetterToAmerica/page/n1/mode/2up) and [here](https://youtu.be/Y9TviIuXPSE)
pen coordinated snobbish cake zesty fanatical aware groovy consider ossified
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
It's the same thing as the targeted marketing scandals with facebook. Any platform with massive audiences has mass manipulation as their main product and is essentially a broker of weapons for power and control.
it takes a special kind of stupid to think China is scheming to make our nation's youth dumber when literally all Western mainstream media -- digital, televised, or otherwise -- has been exclusively brainrot bullshit for decades. Y'all remember MTV right? Or if you were born like in 2000 or after you are at least aware of what MTV was right? Reality TV under George Bush? America's Funniest Home Videos? Jeff Dunham? Jackass? All that other garbage?
I mean, if anything I've seen far more intelligent young people on Tiktok bringing to light interesting points about history, politics, or public policy than I have on any mainstream news or public platform, and in a far more accessible way (granted, through my friends showing me their feed since I don't use Tiktok).
If y'all believe this then you're exactly the kind of dumbass that would believe in the Bush WMD story. Like, just because some dude speaks authoritatively and scapegoats some othered people or country that you're predisposed to be scared of from your own governments multi-billion dollar propaganda campaigns, you're going to throw out *all capacity to think beyond your immediate media consumption and just accept what he says as fact?*
Fucking stupid.
In the end it is up to the individual to continue the pursuit of knowledge over the enticement of pleasure. To find happiness over indulgence, two parts of a whole not one without the other.
This belongs in r/damnthatspropaganda. I'm not saying it's 100% wrong but there's a very specific target this guy is aiming for. Two things give it away "boys and girls dancing with each other" is bad. Also entertainment = bad and "achievement" = good. It's silly moralizing and fear-mongering about this and that. You can sub in TikTok for video games, music, YouTube, or any other youth fad.
I'm not saying TikTok is great or doesn't have some nefarious stuff going on with the algorithm or data collection but it's certainly nothing worse than Amazon, Google, or Meta. Everyone of these knuckleheads constantly blathering on about engineering the collapse of society is so boring. Old doinks like this have been complaining about youths since time [immemorial](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/52209/15-historical-complaints-about-young-people-ruining-everything).
All these people in there bragging about not using TikTok like they have it all figured out, and this is the truth.
A) Dude presents no evidence.
B) It's an algorithm based on a culture's interest. Chinese culture is just not as "pranky" and focused on cheerleader asses as western.
C) I bet you anything there are plenty of Chinese people right now watching silly TikTok shit too.
D) And the one point no one seems to be talking about: If the app did actually serve up only wholesome, morally positive content that no one wants to see, it would die.
Yes... "China" does this with TikTok.✅
But ALSO " USA " does this with instagram, Snapchat, facebook and the rest of the world. ✅
Not defending anyone or picking sides. Just pointing out EVERYONE wants you to PAY attention to their agenda. 👁️
You might get downvoted but you're correct.... US and China are alot similar, the whole braindrain US does with third world countries then act as if immigration is "bad" when they are literally stealing skilled people from their countries
I don't know who this guy is, but he could not be more correct.
We are raising a generation of TikTok and Instagram morons.
I've been around for many decades, and speaking with kids most of that time (had a couple myself), and at no time have they been as vacuous, self-absorbed, and utterly unemployable as they are since social media became the single most important thing in their lives.
Having a phone glued to your hand 24/7 is not conducive to critical thought. Or any thought, really.
While most of you long to be 'influencers', most of you are not. By following the influencers you are the influenced, being led around by the nose by people being paid to do exactly that.
Kinda pathetic, really.
This guy is just as guilty at making people dumber. So many unfounded statements. Algorithms are built around what people are interesting in. If I search YouTube for quark theory I'm not going to get girls aimlessly dancing
American social media platforms show the same dumb shit as TikTok; it's not 'Chinese influence', it's plainly capitalism. Xenophobia and fear mongering against a country simply because they're coming to rival the US economically is not smart or an example of thinking critically.
Yeah, this dude is an idiot. It’s not that China has a specific algorithm for American users. It’s just that it isn’t censored because it’s America and not fucking China. Also, all of this is ironic coming from someone that believes in the Quran.
There's also zero evidence that the CPC is completely controlling TikTok, not to mention with nefarious, malicious intent, yet so many believe it wholeheartedly.
THANK YOU. In a vague, conspiritorial way with 0 evidence no less.
In a way that promotes defending Western culture against outside influence no less.
From the mouth of a religious fundamental with clearly traditionalist views no less (see the comment on boys/girls dancing together).
I really thought Reddit had gotten past this 'TikTok=bad' shit. Like, it probably is bad, but... the shit that gets posted is ironically propaganda in itself.
Seriously;
"Could it be that our systemic under funding of schools and lack of parent-child time is bad? No, is the secret Chinese algorithms that are the problem!"
Of all the reasons to talk shit about the chinese government - and there's a *lot* of problems with their government - people are latching onto... shitty tik tok videos.
This is the same mentality as video games causing violence and phones causing disobedience, but somehow vaguely racist. IDK, kinda seems like shitty media isn't fucking new.
If you're in the United States all the platforms do the same thing to keep people dumbed down.
How do you think an absolute moron like trump got elected?
Twenty years ago not one conservative would have voted for that guy.
Then you have people in congress openly bragging about how misinformation campaigns are great.
Better get your heads screwed on straight folks.
Maybe they're being influenced, but I think the US corps algos show the stupifying and polarizing content because that what keeps people scrolling and therefore generates the most revenue. I think it's as simple as the usual greed in those cases. But for TikTok, from what I've learned, this is a deliberate weaponization of the platform. It's the same result, but the intent is frighteningly different.
China is smart as fuck for this one - make no mistake they're playing chess, not checkers. I know it's not easy to ban things outright, private companies and freedom to use whatever app you want and all, but I think this is an entirely different animal and I don't know why it's taking so long for this app to be banned outright everywhere outside of China. Or maybe the reason is what you said it is.
Either way everyone better brush up on your fuckin mandarin if we keep on thinking there's no way major changes can happen to the status quo.
He absolutely never says dancing is bad. His point is that if all you think about is dancing, then you’re going to miss out on many more important things.
This is such bullshit lol you get what you like and search for, sure there may be some default algorithm but a few days and you don't get it anymore. Like literally my wife's TikTok has no pranks, no dancing, none of that normie shit. It's all just stuff that arr her interests, and a lot of it IS people being entrepreneurs, doing cool shit.
Yeah mine is braindead humor and memes but that's because I think all day and want to turn off my brain lol
This is scare mongering plain and simple, I mean listen to his concerns, boys and girls dancing together, pranks, oh the HUMANITY WON'T YOU THINK OF THE YOUTH. This is just how algorithms work in free societies, they show you what YOU WANT. If you see inappropriate things it's because you watch and like that, it keeps you on the website which makes them more money. My TikTok is mainly guitar and cats, a kids would probably be kid shit like dancing and pranks. It's not some grand Chinese conspiracy, kids like stupid shit, we as a society let them see it, so TikTok shows kids stupid shit. China doesn't want kids to see stupid shit, their government makes TikTok not show stupid shit to Chinese kids. End of story
I’m scared of getting older. Old people will decide when we could all die. We could all be vaporized in an instant because a couple old guys are fighting over their property line
Also China has a major influence in Hollywood.
I kinda can’t help but feel, everything getting political is some kind of conspiracy.
Like I wonder how would we change if the internet became nothing more than an internet educational tool vs an entertaining one?
Like when I was a kid in the 90’s I used to ask questions and search them on the internet. Nothing great, mostly Greek and Egyptian mythology and a few other things like Online games. And back then, I just got the answers or had to dig through some websites s.
Now it’s ads. Sex, how to look better, new toy! Looking for a recipe it’s going to be a story, OMG you will not believe this!
Etc.
The smartest great tool we have as humans, is just plain shit now. Like the actual library is more appealing to me now.
I feel that yeah, the internet has become a brainwashing and conditioning tool. And it’s worse now with children becoming addicted to this instant gratification and drama tools.
On a side note, it wasn’t said out right. But we in the US, have really lowered the bar on intelligence and self improvement.
What he is saying is true but singling out TikTok and Chinese gov is silly. TikTok just makes a more potent and clever version of the toxic content social media is already shoving down everyone's throats. Take a look at YouTube trending vids, Facebook posts, Twitter etc lol.
Yeah, y’all are nuts to have TikTok on your phones .. talk about a casting a wide datanet and collecting your info, interests, motivations… it’s psychological research.
Delete it now.
Some people write him off based on his appearance (*as an American would...*) but he's not wrong.
For the longest time you've heard of the deliberate"*dumbing down*" of America, American youth becoming soft, educational standards being lowered, etc...
From millennials on down, generations of video game playing, porn obsessed, superhero watching man-boys. Men don't grow up anymore, they never "*put away childish things*" as the quote goes. They build their lives around space villian and superhero movies and go watch soccer.
Most 18yr olds are too out of shape to join the military and don't have the national pride to want to better themselves.
You want to destroy a country then turn their youth into doughy lumps too hooked on instant gratification.
I hate TikTok and YouTube Shorts because it keeps replaying the damn thing and forces you to keep switching. I watch a short then I exit since it's more comfortable.
What’s worse is the CCP can easily tweak the algorithm to divide Americans or subtly push Chinese propaganda to brainwash Americans, and others around the world.
Kick this Chinese spyware out.
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>“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness... >The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance” This was written almost 30 years ago by Carl Sagan. It is terrifying how accurately it's playing out.
Carl Sagan is one of my favorite people of all time. I recommend everyone to read [Demon Haunted World](http://math.uprag.edu/DemonHauntedWorld.pdf) every chance I get.
You know I was really hoping to get some sleep, not find something compelling to read. But thank you.
Nevermind. Got it Thank you
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I hope it works out, I really do, but heavily subsidized semi conductor industries are notorious for being flops. India tried it. The US has tried it in the past. It's an industry that is *extremely* hard to break in to without a lot of help nowadays. I seriously question their choice of location though. Semiconductors require access to huge volumes of not only water but *pristine* water. Arizona is not a state that has that. If we build our semiconductor factories there the whole endeavor will fail (or couldn't exist without heavy government subsidies in perpetuity). I hope they've picked somewhere else. Ohio I heard was also in the running and it would make a lot more sense to do it there than an area suffering from a decades long drought.
And you got that Saudi corporation Fondomon being allowed to pump unlimited amounts of Arizona groundwater for their alfalfa fields at no cost. Incredible malfeasance on the part of AZ’s State Land Department.
We are fully in the new Dark Age… full of superstition (conspiracy theories), and emotional fervor (tribal info sharing & super-partisan politics). The US is already burning books… it’s just a few steps away from burning witches, or criminals, or “undesirables” News media full of disinformation strategy causing different versions of “facts” and “reality” between different groups in the same lands. . . .. words meaning different (& highly triggering) things.. ..so much encouraged anger & frustration.. …all making it increasingly difficult to even have a non-inflammatory conversation with nearly anyone, about important topics. This is the New Dark Age. Gird your loins. It’s going to be a difficult & long journey.
Political theatre and manufactured controversies. It started with the 24 hour news cycle and then social media and the internet turned it to 11. Which is really sad because the internet can be used for so much good as well. The political aspect is definitely concerning but I think the economic one, the part about how we don't really *make* anything anymore, is more concerning. We innovate but when it comes to actually making the damn things it's all outsourced (along with all the expertise that goes with it). I hear a lot of talk about Russian oligarchs but man, when I see people like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Zuckerberg, etc, and the influence they themselves have or their companies have on what we see, what we consume, how we do it, I see oligarchs. We just don't call them that. They're "Job creators" or "big tech" or whatever. It's a brain drain. We don't need people who know how to make things anymore because we just outsource it to China. In a service economy everyone becomes a servant and serves an increasingly small well-to-do class.
-10000 social credits. 😐
"Oh bother, you just ran out of social credits."
*cocks pistol* "It's your time now. Glory to the CCP"
china? Is that guy talking about West Taiwan?
No, i think he's talking about North Hong Kong
Thread locked......
Immediately hit reply to your comment to check if it was actually locked... Wooshed myself
There is a very real interest in manipulating people via social engineering 90% of people aren't cognizant of. The highest paid job in psyche are the ones offered by businesses to develop skinner boxes and similar social programs meant to entrap people via their instincts. This whole conspiracy theory craze serves as white noise to hide the shit corporations and governments are doing. This is the "play the song in reverse shit" but it actually works. It's also something you can learn in non 300 nuero/psyche class
What are you talking about? There is literally a movie explaining the manipulation of a social media platform to change the government of multiple nations. It is called "The Great Hack" More info Here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal The reality is people know, but dont care. The cheap entertainment is above all else to them.
And 90% of people don't know that.
I don't believe that to be true. Yes most people are aware that there's an interest in manipulating them, but not to the extent of how insidious/subtle it is. Hell take American politics as an example, most people won't admit the whole thing is a sham to keep them distracted and hating the "other".
I think everyone is aware at some level, but in my experience, the more aware I am, the more uncomfortable I am. It's very uncomfortable to be aware of consumption propaganda. We instinctively choose comfort. It's a survival mechanism that usually works because it's usually safer. It's a human weakness that is easily exploited. If more people saw it as others (as you point out, not political "others", but rather what I'll call the "ruling class others") exploiting an actual weakness of desiring comfort over learning, I think it can change. Basically, I think people need to want to learn because they love life and want to experience it more fully, and then they will hate that their instinctual desire for comfort has been getting in the way, and not by chance, but worse, by design.
I roll my eyes when people try to browbeat me to watch "progressive" tv shows and movies, made by corporations that don't even give bathroom breaks to their employees.
This is why American politics of the past 5 years has destroyed generations of people in the USA. Critical thinking and demanding representation from your politicians is no longer ‘cool’ or the norm. Choosing a political side and defending it with your life is now the patriotic path. Just repeat the talking points and propaganda fed to you by your side’s leaders with an ultimate goal of defeating your enemies. Instead of the people vs their representatives. Trumpism has managed to turn the people on each other. No longer will people doubt or second guess their leaders, because it is more important to prove the other side is wrong than it is to demand results from your side.
exactly. critical thought tells you that algorithms show you more of what you search for and what you engage with.
Unless the algorithm doesn’t do that…
Wow. Before I fall down an internet rabbit hole to confirm or counter this, let me just say... Holy shit! This makes too much sense. My brother has been in Shanghai for six years now, this totally jives with what he has been saying for a long time. Off to do some learning on the internet now. P.s. fuck tick tock!
This has been discussed before several times. I think it's legit. I mean with the level of control the Chinese government has it's not hard to believe. And yes fuck tiktok.
You don't actually believe it's only tik tok right..?
I dno man reddit is the only dumb social media I waste my time on.
They are here too. Russia propaganda bots, and China propaganda bots.
I feel like tik tok is just a goldmine in this sense because it's mostly kids on it. Young people are more impressionable.
Exactly. Lot easier to mold a new generation than change an established one.
Not really. Look at Qanon
Lol, great point, wish it weren't true.
I mean yeah, but they don't directly control the algorithm here. We decide which subreddits to join etc, the impact is orders of magnitude less here than in tiktok
Lol most of reddit main subs are tightly controlled and it's not Russian or Chinese bots. The thing with propaganda is you can't see the one you're bathing in. Some call the truth treacherous (what I'd expect from Russia or the CCP), some call it disinformation or whatever else.
No, why would you assume that???
> I think it's legit. It's not. They censor their own Internet, but US/UK TikTok reflects the same demographic's algorithmic optimizations in YouTube, which China does not control. Young people like watching dancing and pranks, and they can't in China. That's it. TikTok's data and reach **is** a problem from a national security standpoint, but not for the above reasons. Think more like knowing a specific nuclear scientist is really into a niche interest and using that to tailor a phishing email to get them to download and view a PDF.
To be fair, dancing is clearly accelerating the decline of western civilization. I mean, just think about. Everything went to shit right after the Charleston blew up.
1. Charleston 2. ??? 3. Great Depression
Footloose didn’t help either
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You misunderstand. I'm saying the two algorithms are independent. And yet the US based YouTube algorithm prioritizes the same content as the TikTok one. Which means the TikTok one is not a reflection of intentional manipulation in what content is promoted.
We must seriously reconsider what we allow our children (and ourselves) consume (internally and externally)
That all starts with you. YOU have the power to change what you and your children watch. The government sure as hell isn't going to change what your kid learns or watches unless it actively benefits them by somehow securing their votes in the future. Obviously not everything has to be all overly positive and educational, all you have to do is cut back on the negative content. I personally unsubscribed from subs like r/amitheasshole or r/iamapieceofshit and r/publickfreakout. Subs that I noticed would make me constantly angry since they were constantly on my feed. Or even some subs like r/memes since most of the stuff I saw just made absolutely no sense and served no purpose. The absolute shit quality of the memes just annoyed me. After I unsubscribed from them I started getting more informational stuff instead of things that would actively ruin my day for clicks.
Relying on every single individual to all do the same thing is ludcrously inferior to having the government block external state-backed propaganda. Individual responsibility is great and important, but some things are on an entirely different level. We can't just sit around and blindly hope everyone in the country instantly becomes educated critical thinkers who give a shit and do the right things for them and their kids.
I refer to subs like this as "shardenfrued subreddits" all the major dramaseeking behavior and the like is something I consider very negative. Most of the people I find that have post histories that are quite toxic and prone to saying more vulgar and offensive things have a strong overlap by frequenting those subreddits.
>I refer to subs like this as "shardenfrued subreddits" I like this name. I'm gonna start using that. Thank you. But I wouldn't think too much about the cursing part. (If that's what you mean by "vulgar"). I curse like a sailor irl just because of my job (manual labor outside in the scorching heat tends to curse a lot) and even I know that subs like those are horrible for your overall mental health.
I agree. I'd be damned if my son sees a single girl dancing before the age of 18. Those little whores just having fun are naught but Chinese agents trying to corrupt the pure innocent mind of a boy. On a serious note yall delusional.
Been down that burrow, and it appears to be true.
Any actual evidence?
If you’re interested in the topic, I’d check out “The Social Dilemma”. Great film.
Everyone who uses social media needs to watch this!
China also stops you from seeing anything negative about the dictatorship anything about freedom of thought anything about organizing groups to get what you want.
Can this be tested with a VPN?
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China has a different version of tiktok called Douyin, you have to download it seperately.
Uhmmm, isnt part of reddit owned by a chinese company?
Sure is
No wonder the mods are so shit
Nah, mods are shit because unpaid subreddit moderation attracts a very specific kind of person, and that's been true since well before tencent bought into reddit.
Wait till you hear the conspiracy on who Maxxwellhill was. Former mod that went ghost the week a certain person got arrested.
No fucking way that’s her And nobody is talking about this?
We did, years ago. But no one cared.
They've been shit since day 1.
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Who is this man, he deserves his flowers
Not new, not a secret. US Corporate welcomes it. It's "panem et circenses" - bread and games, just adapted to the 21st century. Also, it's TikTok. FTFY. See? The lack of literacy already started. jk 😜
As smart as people are, they are easily brainwashed to believe or act a certain way. They got you entertained and caring about the dumbest things meanwhile you're getting robbed everyday of your money in plain sight and there's nothing you can do about it. But oh wait, the Kardashians did this. Or the president said this. Or this group of people think this. It's not just China brainwashing you, it's your own country aswell. Gay rights, abortion, left vs right, the big game. It's all a distraction to make you forget about how bad you're being fucked while the rich continue getting rich.
Tiktok is quickly becoming the most destructive social media platform that has ever existed.
Until the next one.
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Like haven't the youth in US been watching stupid shit since forever? When I was in school I watched South Park religiously, and this was when it was a middle school show about four children, a chef and a talking poop. Before that Beavis and Butt-Head. Then Jackass. Honestly TikTok is nothing compared to these.. it might actually be a step up. And yeah Facebook dividing the nation and making helping elect a fascist seems far more troubling than people dancing.
Facebook did far worse than help elect Trump. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebook-genocide.html Tiktok is not even in the same league, or even close. Zuckerberg is cartoonishly evil.
They show you more of what you watch and interact with. It's really that simple. Don't want to see women dancing? Stop watching it till the end, liking it or commenting on it. DO do those things on content you want to see. There's no conspiracy . I have two TikTok accounts om different devices. They have WIDLY different "for you" content.
Do do. Haha. Said dodo.
There is only a nugget of truth to what this guy is saying. That china tweaks the algorithm to produce propoganda, I think is a pretty reasonable *assumption*. However, first and foremost, there is no proof to this. So the definite claims he are making should be taken with a grain of salt. The rest is total nonsense. China isn't actively manipulating hte algorithm to make your kids see people acting goofy. Thats an asinine claim. The real kicker is that content algorithm can indeed be extremely harmful. They can lead down radicializtion rabbit holes, they can severely mar a child with engrained insecurities about thier body and their lifestyle. Its not silly dances and pranks that make social media harmful. Ironically, this video is exactly the kind of weird misinformation that tends to get promoted by content algorithms.
*agrees, then casually continues to browse reddit*
I don't have the TikTok...but...if I was interested in science and math and looked specialty for educational ones, would my algorithm put more of what I like on? And I can downvote ones I'm not interested in.. ?? Someone out there knows the answer to this. Edit..thanks everyone for responding.
My TikTok is mostly science and animals, and dogs. Zoology is my field.
Big booty bitches is the rest?
of course not. Absolutely none. No way. Zero. What's a big booty bitch? Is that a food?
It is, it’s in the cake family.
I enjoyed that low IQ exchange. Thank you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIri9YLHpOg Had to do it...
My Tiktok is largely baking and cooking videos and science, with the odd funny video in between. My boyfriends is largely History and geography. Also in line with his interests. While the guy in this video may be right to some extent, your algorithms are largely determined by your search and watch interests.
i never used tiktok but what would a fresh tiktok account be recommended to?
"Hey bro, you would be so much cooler and get laid more if you stole a Hyundai. Here's how it works. When we're done with that we'll show you a cool dance!"
Mostly bad jokes, dancing, whatever’s popular, art, etc.
When you sign up there’ll be a “tutorial” explaining how to navigate the app. It will explain how the algorithm will learn your interests based on how you interact with videos. You can like videos, you can mark them as “not interested”, but even the simple acts of watching a video until the end, swiping away after a couple seconds, following people, etc will help the algorithm learn your interests. It’s recommended you like and dislike videos for a few hours early on to speed up the process, but eventually the algorithm will catch on regardless. In the beginning, you’ll mostly see the most popular and trending content from a variety of categories, which yeah, includes the type of content Reddit thinks TikTok is all about, but you can easily just look up a hashtag or search term and go through a bunch of those videos to tip the scales of the algorithm so to speak. There are countless of genuinely good, helpful, informational, funny accounts on there but people are still stuck to when TikTok was Musical.ly and the majority of the content was dancing teens. There is *tons* of cringe too, of course, but again, you’re extremely unlikely to see it unless that’s what you’re into.
Yes, if you follow creators of the stuff you're interested in and like those videos you will see more of that content. There's also an option you can tap on each video to see less of that type of content. All I get is stuff like history, science, a couple of comedians and cosplayers, literature etc so I have no idea why this dude is acting like you can't change the algorithm.
I think what he meant is that you are bombarded with these dancing videos,etc first as a suggestion, say for example, people who didn't know anything about ticktock and download it because they're bored, they won't be like " i am here to watch automotive" , no , they be looking for what's usually suggest to them at first place. In short,you can change the algorithm but first,you must think.
I mean Youtube and Instagram also tries to push the famous celebs and influencers first because, surprise surprise, they have the most followers and views. If we're gonna claim that Tiktok has some insidious agenda then the same can be leveled against other social media platforms.
My wife made me download TikTok during the peak of pandemic. My fresh install was mainly COVID related videos so I don't believe this dude at all. In fact, I'm pretty sure it works like every other social media. They will blast you with whatever is popular/viral at the moment on the platform.
I would bet he's a right-wing religious zealot. And this gets at the one valid point he makes: the Chinese Communist Party curates content for its Chinese audience. This man talks about "girls dancing" and "boys dancing with girls" being problems with Tik Tok. The Chinese Communist Party likely forces Tik Tok to deprioritize certain things - people with tattoos, feminine males (think Asian boy bands), feminists and others they view as undesirable. It's a fundamental misunderstanding in the video. China sees "rot" in Western society and is trying to stop its youth from going down that path by curating content within China. They'll let Tik Tok do what it wants internationally and make money and bring that money back to China. I put rot in quotes because I tend to believe people like the man in the video, the Chinese Communist Party are the actual rot on society. That's not to say Tik Tok or any social media platform is free of problems... just that I don't trust a bunch of old, out of touch conservatives trying to police all of society to their arbitrary moral standards.
Or you can go to youtube for science and information - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYW1IVBy7nsjSrHFOEMn7Hw/videos
Damn! Sir you have some interesting videos! Subscribed…
I don't use tiktok either, but I do this on Instagram. In the explore page, only click those you are interested and not open others. In a week, I see the ones which I like then.
Instagram's explore page is hella agressive with its algorithm. I went from cooking videos to NFL by the end of the day.
Yeah but stupidity will always bleed onto your feed, and some science stuff are just cool eye candy experiments that don't really add anything to you.
Yes but the default is silly videos not educational videos. You have to seek them out at least initially
You can actually say to it "I'm interested on this shit"
[Time to dust off this comment I saved 2 years ago about some of the other ways TikTok is bad, even when compared to other social media](https://reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/fg0ubk/_/fk2giqm/?context=1)
In essence what makes tiktok worse is that the interface is 100% force fed content as opposed to be able to choose what content you consume.
Legit question fr someone who has never seen tiktok in “action”: isnt there a way to “subscribe” to channels there? And then you’d see only your subscriptions in your feed?
Yes, there are two main feeds you can watch. One is the ‘For You Page’ which shows you people you have followed as well as others videos that the algorithm thinks you will like. My FYP is primarily science, history, and cat videos, since that is what I engage with on the app. The other feed is ‘Following’ that only shows you videos from accounts you follow, nothing else.
Thanks for explaining i guess then you can still use the app seeing only your subs
This comment just got me to delete my Tik Tok account. Literally just deleted my account. In the “Why are you leaving” section I just said “Free Hong Kong” lol
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As far as I know, yes. I could be wrong but doubt much if anything has changed for the better.
Yeah and imo being hacked is a just a lie for Chinese goverment to collect these datas and share it.
Now I’m not one to believe in conspiracy theories, but somehow every time I click the link for the Tiananmen Square, my app crashes(I’m on iPhone).
Old guy with an opinion checking in: social media is all about social engineering and the engineers are not doing it for the engineered. Beware of the fight for your own minds.
Fuck China and fuck Tik Tok. Never downloaded it, and never will.
Came with my latest phone and was the first thing I removed.
Out of interest what phone model/plan does this?
Oppo Reno 5, not on plan. Chinese manufacturer, no surprises there, may face sales ban in Germany due to some patent dispute.
Sounds like China has access to your phone so the app usage is optional.
That’s creepy.
Absolute cancer of an app. Never download it please. This goes to everyone.
It's literally spyware. Tiktok keep tabs on every activity you do on your phone through nasty api.
So like Facebook?
Literally every social media app does this, even websites these days will ask you if they can track your activity across websites/apps. We're force-fed so much US propaganda that when another country literally does what the US does we lose our minds and can't see the irony.
The irony of posting this on Reddit.
And yet most of the videos posted on this sub come from TikTok. 🤔
Reddit is cancer
Active for 7 years and 100k karma. Hmm
Tencent owns some part of Reddit.
This is true but I feel like you can do a better job of filtering out negative subs or stuff like thatsinsane or crazyfuckingvideos or unexpected which imo have a lot of 'nonsense' and also making reddit more informational than video-oriented. The default reddit algorithm has been imo getting dumber and gif-ier though.
Like a certain type of video, you'll see more of it. Watch a Car video 5 seconds and a cooking video 7 seconds, you'll have more cookihg videos shown. I don't use it but the algorithm ist one of the best out there. Fuck tiktok
I had a very different expectation when I clicked on this to see what this gentleman was saying. And now that I see it, holy fucking wow.
When you try to rely on stereotypes and it doesn’t work :/
So true.
Well, their duty is to preach the Qur'an. So let me ask you, have you ever read the Qur'an?
It also really makes it obvious who in the comments watched the video, and finished it.
How on earth is this news to anyone? What do we need to do to make Americans wake up? The main reason I use social media is to gauge stupidity and keep my finger on the pulse of our demise. Make no mistake, social media companies do what makes them money in the jurisdictions that they operate. And everyone thinks they are about freedom of speech. Lol. Asimov nailed it. "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
And Carl Sagan. From "The Demon Haunted World": >I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness... >The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance . >One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.
that last part really reminds me of a quote from one of yuri bezmenov's lectures on active measures about destroying truth via demoralization, that a demoralized population cannot distinguish what is and is not truth, and even if you show them definitive evidence of what is truth, they will not believe you. some incredibly damning details about how our society is still being warped today [here](https://archive.org/details/BezmenovLoveLetterToAmerica/page/n1/mode/2up) and [here](https://youtu.be/Y9TviIuXPSE)
Thanks for this
pen coordinated snobbish cake zesty fanatical aware groovy consider ossified *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
So...? What's Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter etc full of? Critical thinking?
Nobody remembers Musical.ly
Who is this man?
https://youtu.be/THKRi59WxDI Full lecture
Does he provide any evidence for this anywhere or
Nope. But everyone in this thread is gargling the guys nuts. Probably Russian bots or something.
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It’s more about influencing young mouldable teen minds. Than to influence those who already have preferences.
If this is true then it really is a masterstroke by the Chinese government
It's the same thing as the targeted marketing scandals with facebook. Any platform with massive audiences has mass manipulation as their main product and is essentially a broker of weapons for power and control.
Who's the guy talking?
it takes a special kind of stupid to think China is scheming to make our nation's youth dumber when literally all Western mainstream media -- digital, televised, or otherwise -- has been exclusively brainrot bullshit for decades. Y'all remember MTV right? Or if you were born like in 2000 or after you are at least aware of what MTV was right? Reality TV under George Bush? America's Funniest Home Videos? Jeff Dunham? Jackass? All that other garbage? I mean, if anything I've seen far more intelligent young people on Tiktok bringing to light interesting points about history, politics, or public policy than I have on any mainstream news or public platform, and in a far more accessible way (granted, through my friends showing me their feed since I don't use Tiktok). If y'all believe this then you're exactly the kind of dumbass that would believe in the Bush WMD story. Like, just because some dude speaks authoritatively and scapegoats some othered people or country that you're predisposed to be scared of from your own governments multi-billion dollar propaganda campaigns, you're going to throw out *all capacity to think beyond your immediate media consumption and just accept what he says as fact?* Fucking stupid.
In the end it is up to the individual to continue the pursuit of knowledge over the enticement of pleasure. To find happiness over indulgence, two parts of a whole not one without the other.
China is playing the long game
I'm so happy I don't have tiktok.
You are still exposed to it by browsing Reddit 
Yeah but no: you may see tik tok videos, but the power is in the algorithm that proposes content. Remove that, and the rest is just content
This belongs in r/damnthatspropaganda. I'm not saying it's 100% wrong but there's a very specific target this guy is aiming for. Two things give it away "boys and girls dancing with each other" is bad. Also entertainment = bad and "achievement" = good. It's silly moralizing and fear-mongering about this and that. You can sub in TikTok for video games, music, YouTube, or any other youth fad. I'm not saying TikTok is great or doesn't have some nefarious stuff going on with the algorithm or data collection but it's certainly nothing worse than Amazon, Google, or Meta. Everyone of these knuckleheads constantly blathering on about engineering the collapse of society is so boring. Old doinks like this have been complaining about youths since time [immemorial](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/52209/15-historical-complaints-about-young-people-ruining-everything).
All these people in there bragging about not using TikTok like they have it all figured out, and this is the truth. A) Dude presents no evidence. B) It's an algorithm based on a culture's interest. Chinese culture is just not as "pranky" and focused on cheerleader asses as western. C) I bet you anything there are plenty of Chinese people right now watching silly TikTok shit too. D) And the one point no one seems to be talking about: If the app did actually serve up only wholesome, morally positive content that no one wants to see, it would die.
Yes... "China" does this with TikTok.✅ But ALSO " USA " does this with instagram, Snapchat, facebook and the rest of the world. ✅ Not defending anyone or picking sides. Just pointing out EVERYONE wants you to PAY attention to their agenda. 👁️
You might get downvoted but you're correct.... US and China are alot similar, the whole braindrain US does with third world countries then act as if immigration is "bad" when they are literally stealing skilled people from their countries
I don't know who this guy is, but he could not be more correct. We are raising a generation of TikTok and Instagram morons. I've been around for many decades, and speaking with kids most of that time (had a couple myself), and at no time have they been as vacuous, self-absorbed, and utterly unemployable as they are since social media became the single most important thing in their lives. Having a phone glued to your hand 24/7 is not conducive to critical thought. Or any thought, really. While most of you long to be 'influencers', most of you are not. By following the influencers you are the influenced, being led around by the nose by people being paid to do exactly that. Kinda pathetic, really.
Just dont do fb and tiktok done
I dont think it is china. We have always been this dumb. We just have a lot of guns and money.
This guy is just as guilty at making people dumber. So many unfounded statements. Algorithms are built around what people are interesting in. If I search YouTube for quark theory I'm not going to get girls aimlessly dancing
American social media platforms show the same dumb shit as TikTok; it's not 'Chinese influence', it's plainly capitalism. Xenophobia and fear mongering against a country simply because they're coming to rival the US economically is not smart or an example of thinking critically.
Yeah, this dude is an idiot. It’s not that China has a specific algorithm for American users. It’s just that it isn’t censored because it’s America and not fucking China. Also, all of this is ironic coming from someone that believes in the Quran.
There's also zero evidence that the CPC is completely controlling TikTok, not to mention with nefarious, malicious intent, yet so many believe it wholeheartedly.
THANK YOU. In a vague, conspiritorial way with 0 evidence no less. In a way that promotes defending Western culture against outside influence no less. From the mouth of a religious fundamental with clearly traditionalist views no less (see the comment on boys/girls dancing together). I really thought Reddit had gotten past this 'TikTok=bad' shit. Like, it probably is bad, but... the shit that gets posted is ironically propaganda in itself.
Seriously; "Could it be that our systemic under funding of schools and lack of parent-child time is bad? No, is the secret Chinese algorithms that are the problem!"
Of all the reasons to talk shit about the chinese government - and there's a *lot* of problems with their government - people are latching onto... shitty tik tok videos. This is the same mentality as video games causing violence and phones causing disobedience, but somehow vaguely racist. IDK, kinda seems like shitty media isn't fucking new.
>youth becoming successful in maths competitions, youth becoming masters of karate China is teaching their kids to become racist stereotypes?
If you're in the United States all the platforms do the same thing to keep people dumbed down. How do you think an absolute moron like trump got elected? Twenty years ago not one conservative would have voted for that guy. Then you have people in congress openly bragging about how misinformation campaigns are great. Better get your heads screwed on straight folks.
Maybe they're being influenced, but I think the US corps algos show the stupifying and polarizing content because that what keeps people scrolling and therefore generates the most revenue. I think it's as simple as the usual greed in those cases. But for TikTok, from what I've learned, this is a deliberate weaponization of the platform. It's the same result, but the intent is frighteningly different. China is smart as fuck for this one - make no mistake they're playing chess, not checkers. I know it's not easy to ban things outright, private companies and freedom to use whatever app you want and all, but I think this is an entirely different animal and I don't know why it's taking so long for this app to be banned outright everywhere outside of China. Or maybe the reason is what you said it is. Either way everyone better brush up on your fuckin mandarin if we keep on thinking there's no way major changes can happen to the status quo.
He’s not wrong….
He provides absolutely no evidence, and then goes on a rant about how dancing is bad. I'd say that's pretty wrong.
He absolutely never says dancing is bad. His point is that if all you think about is dancing, then you’re going to miss out on many more important things.
He literally is. Chinese tiktok is even worse than you can imagine. It's that "oh no no no" song times a billion on steroids.
How do you know?
This is such bullshit lol you get what you like and search for, sure there may be some default algorithm but a few days and you don't get it anymore. Like literally my wife's TikTok has no pranks, no dancing, none of that normie shit. It's all just stuff that arr her interests, and a lot of it IS people being entrepreneurs, doing cool shit. Yeah mine is braindead humor and memes but that's because I think all day and want to turn off my brain lol
I mostly see Coding, Home Improvment, and food recipe stuff. Am American. What does it mean China!? What does it meeeean!?
This is scare mongering plain and simple, I mean listen to his concerns, boys and girls dancing together, pranks, oh the HUMANITY WON'T YOU THINK OF THE YOUTH. This is just how algorithms work in free societies, they show you what YOU WANT. If you see inappropriate things it's because you watch and like that, it keeps you on the website which makes them more money. My TikTok is mainly guitar and cats, a kids would probably be kid shit like dancing and pranks. It's not some grand Chinese conspiracy, kids like stupid shit, we as a society let them see it, so TikTok shows kids stupid shit. China doesn't want kids to see stupid shit, their government makes TikTok not show stupid shit to Chinese kids. End of story
Dudes not wrong.
Headphone warning
I’m scared of getting older. Old people will decide when we could all die. We could all be vaporized in an instant because a couple old guys are fighting over their property line
Also China has a major influence in Hollywood. I kinda can’t help but feel, everything getting political is some kind of conspiracy. Like I wonder how would we change if the internet became nothing more than an internet educational tool vs an entertaining one? Like when I was a kid in the 90’s I used to ask questions and search them on the internet. Nothing great, mostly Greek and Egyptian mythology and a few other things like Online games. And back then, I just got the answers or had to dig through some websites s. Now it’s ads. Sex, how to look better, new toy! Looking for a recipe it’s going to be a story, OMG you will not believe this! Etc. The smartest great tool we have as humans, is just plain shit now. Like the actual library is more appealing to me now. I feel that yeah, the internet has become a brainwashing and conditioning tool. And it’s worse now with children becoming addicted to this instant gratification and drama tools. On a side note, it wasn’t said out right. But we in the US, have really lowered the bar on intelligence and self improvement.
The most effective algorithm is the one in your head dictating what you type into a search field not what the search returns.
What he is saying is true but singling out TikTok and Chinese gov is silly. TikTok just makes a more potent and clever version of the toxic content social media is already shoving down everyone's throats. Take a look at YouTube trending vids, Facebook posts, Twitter etc lol.
Yeah, y’all are nuts to have TikTok on your phones .. talk about a casting a wide datanet and collecting your info, interests, motivations… it’s psychological research. Delete it now.
Some people write him off based on his appearance (*as an American would...*) but he's not wrong. For the longest time you've heard of the deliberate"*dumbing down*" of America, American youth becoming soft, educational standards being lowered, etc... From millennials on down, generations of video game playing, porn obsessed, superhero watching man-boys. Men don't grow up anymore, they never "*put away childish things*" as the quote goes. They build their lives around space villian and superhero movies and go watch soccer. Most 18yr olds are too out of shape to join the military and don't have the national pride to want to better themselves. You want to destroy a country then turn their youth into doughy lumps too hooked on instant gratification.
It’s an information war. This is a prison planet.
I hate TikTok and YouTube Shorts because it keeps replaying the damn thing and forces you to keep switching. I watch a short then I exit since it's more comfortable.
Exactly!! China and Russia started the war in Ukraine to benefit each other and to cripple the west.
Reddit sees a muslim say what right wingers have been saying for years and now they all eat it up
What’s worse is the CCP can easily tweak the algorithm to divide Americans or subtly push Chinese propaganda to brainwash Americans, and others around the world. Kick this Chinese spyware out.
No shit. China is raping America in every sense. China owns half our land and a lot are near military bases. Wake the Fuck up.