I’m surrounded by people who care more about Charlie Kirk than about Gaza, sometimes it’s hard not to believe that most people are drones or just horrendous people. I can’t even watch a video my colleague sent me on AI because it’s so western centric and anti-China and I can’t get past that to have a conversation about the other stuff. It’s so isolating and disconnecting.
This is what really bugs me about the TikTok deal. People are moving away in droves from traditional news sources like TV and newspapers. Any resources that are US-based WILL be compromised and brought to heel (i.e. facebook, twitter). We got to see so much pro-Palestine content on TikTok specifically because it wasn’t controlled by the US. The deal shows us that the American people will NOT be allowed to view content not regime-approved under any circumstances, even “new media”. It’s honestly more effective and pernicious than any “Great Firewall”.
Maybe the Trots have the right idea with those newspapers 🤔
But really, the way people lap up complete BS from these sites is scary. It seems like most people choose to build a low-information bubble around themselves. It’s bot even about the propaganda as much as the stuff is more potent because the average American doesn’t bother to learn anything about the world or history or anything outside their world of treats. The propaganda isn’t very effective against people who do even a little bit of reading.