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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 27, 2024

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The one article is interesting because it says the far-right is being spread on tick-tock. In the U.S. we generally view tick-tock as China spreading ideologies that weaken our nationalism (transgender, river to sea Hamas stuff).

Perhaps this is just counter-culture that the young do because they are young and rebel. But rebellion for rebellion sake implies that the rebellion is wrong and fueled by misinformation. What if this is real and being fueled by a realization that the old emperor has no clothes? And open-borders suck for Germans? That Germany as they know it won’t exists in 50 years and they will be a conquered people?

In the U.S. we generally view tick-tock as China spreading ideologies that weaken our nationalism (transgender, river to sea Hamas stuff).

I think it's important to note that "ideologies that weaken our nationalism" doesn't specify an inherent political direction, and seems to look more like amplifying scissor statements to make us mad at each other. I think the modal example looks less like high-level direction to allow trans athletes in women's sports, and more like observing that people have surprisingly strong feelings on the issue (fairness vs. inclusion) and constantly highlighting the issue in ways that maximize outrage on both sides.

In much the same vein, I thought a lot of the 2016 Russiagate coverage was inherently counterproductive. Sure, maybe the Russian intelligence apparatus wanted Trump to win to stoke discord in American politics, but from where I sit it looks like we devolved into political infighting almost more over the specter of such meddling than from the actual political actions themselves: The rumors and investigations of their involvement seem to me have been far more pernicious for American unity than any of the direct actions.

Everything bad is spread on social media for a certain generation.

It could be anorexia, it could be communism, transgenderism, it could be fascism, it could be islamism. TikTok is just the new thing, before it was Instagram, then Facebook, then MySpace or whatever else (or indeed just 'the internet').

Social media tends to amplify things that are trendy locally. And extremism tends to get trendy because the people who like it watch it, and those who don’t like it tend to hate-watch it. Since it’s getting lots of views it goes to the top. But since what people get excited about varies by community, you can easily find the same SM platform promoting opposing views to different people.

As well as judaism or philosemitism, we need to protect our kids.

If you were a relatively fresh user, I’d warn you to put more effort and tact into your position. If I thought you were being facetious to make a point about 2rafa’s subject, I’d remind you to speak plainly.

Neither of those things are true. You have a long history of one-liners and a longer history of insisting one particular group is actually the worst. I conclude that you’re proudly ignoring our rules about evidence and effort specifically to remind everyone that you despise your outgroup.

Banned for one week.

Plenty of stuffy blue tribers will claim ticktock spreads pro-Trump sentiment, or worry about like tradwife content or whatever. I think the common denominator is that old, established people just don't like ticktock and it spreads mildly taboo things.