> There’s a culture war, not a real war with China
China’s a geopolitical adversary. We didn’t need to go to war with the Soviets for the Cold War to be real. (Also what on earth is a “culture war” in geopolitical terms?)
> If we censor the CCP just like they censor us then we are just as authoritarian as them
Only to someone with no sense of scale. Again, you can do that. But you expand the definition of authoritarianism to cover just about any human activity.
>Only to someone with no sense of scale. Again, you can do that. But you expand the definition of authoritarianism to cover just about any human activity.
So start referring to America as "softer authoritarians than China" instead of this charade you put up now. Then people would be less miffed by your hypocrisy.
Everything political that comes out of America is such self-serving slop that I don't understand how anyone above age 30 buys it. When mass-censorship and consensus manufacturing is enacted on mainstream social media (oh sorry, when the US does it it's just "the algorithm" and "alignment", not a mean evil dictatorship), when Americans are forbidden from having a chance to vote for their preferred president in Colorado, when you wage a proxy war against Russia to the last Ukrainian man, when you get Ukraine to ban all opposition political parties, when you bomb countries for decades in the Middle East, every time it's done in the name of democracy.
Unfortunately a lot of 'special interests' are trying as hard as they can to turn that culture war into a genuine hot war - which I don't feel anyone has any real appetite or need for - and all/most of the media seem to be playing along.
It's a bit exhausting and frankly, pathetic, to watch people literally talking it into existence out of thin air.
Fair point. Banning a social media platform because of topics discussed though seems like a dangerous precedent to set. Seems like a free speech issue to me though.
I think most people are aware of the CCP influence on TikTok. I hope reports like these make people question if they’re being manipulated on the platform. People should always question the validity of the media they consume.
This is nonsense. In war, is it hypocritical to bomb the enemy but not your own side? Of course not. Propaganda is a weapon, you deploy weapons against your enemies and you protect your own people from your enemy's weapons.
Foreign adversaries do not have free speech rights in the United States.
To the degree war and competition are hypocritical, sure. All you’ve done is expanded the definition of hypocrisy to meaninglessness.