Comment on US lawmakers vote 50-0 to force sale of TikTok despite angry calls from users
radiofreeval@hexbear.net 8 months agoThis is in the process of trying to fire up another Yellow Peril. Access to data and profit might be the driving factors, but so is creating a new enemy class to scapegoat. Just look at how the media talks about China and how anti-Asian hate has been rising in recent years. Of course race is a factor because you need race to create a racial enemy.
Cethin@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
It’s about power, not about race. International politics is always about power. I don’t get how some people don’t understand that. You’re right that many people are creating a scapegoat out of China, but (the intelligent and influential ones) aren’t doing it out of racism. It might be racist, but they don’t buy it, they’re only selling it. It’s about solidifying power and controlling means and methods. That’s always the case for governments, no matter when or where.
frauddogg@lemmygrad.ml 8 months ago
Power and racism are inextricably bound together when it’s the Americans doing things.
Cethin@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
It’s about soft power. I don’t think it has to do with people of the western world seeing what’s being done either (they don’t and won’t if Tic-Tok is the thing they’re using). It’s just about gathering data and also having control over a service that could be used to influence people. It wouldn’t matter if it’s China or Russia (mostly white) in control of it.
Is it? Many people saw through the racism of slavery and yet still used it, because racism was an excuse, not a reason. Usually racism is an excuse. It’s something that’s easily sold to the masses, and for some reason people still buy it, and people like you buy that that’s still the reason and not seeing what’s really being played. Sure, there are a lot of racist people, but even that is only because some people use it to gain power. Racism has the same purpose as religion. It’s a method of control, by defining “the enemy”. Usually if anyone is defining an enemy it’s a form of control for that matter. There are plenty of bad people, but it’s hard to say any group is bad by default. There are bad systems though.
frauddogg@lemmygrad.ml 8 months ago
Tiktok is literally how my nieces, nephews, and their peer groups have been learning about American malfeasance, but sure, they’re TOTALLY not seeing anything.
Bull, if it was ‘just about gathering data’ they’d go after Zuck and Musk too. Further, if Russia were considered ‘mostly white’, NATO wouldn’t be trying to encircle and exterminate them. Try again.
Further bull, America’s done everything in its power to keep forms of slavery in play; specifically pipelining the minorities they used to keep as chattel into prison slavery instead. It’s always maintenance of an Anglo status quo. Don’t try again here; I know you’re not going to go look up the Fourteenth Amendment to see how the Anglos have historically played with legalese to maintain unjust systems.
Four hundred years of slavery, genocide, resource extraction, ignorance of sovereignty, and extrajudicial murder says what now? Tell your handler I said hi.
SSJ2Marx@hexbear.net 8 months ago
If TikTok was owned by a German or English corporation, would it be facing this kind of scrutiny? Of fucking course not, don’t be dense.
Cethin@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
No, because they’d share the information with the US. Just like China doesn’t allow US corporations into China. Don’t be dense.
SSJ2Marx@hexbear.net 8 months ago
And I suppose the reason all of the euro countries share information with each other and don’t let China into their special club is just a natural phenomenon? Completely arbitrary and random?
radiofreeval@hexbear.net 8 months ago
TikTok stores American data via Oracle. They also have servers in Virginia and Singapore.
sooper_dooper_roofer@hexbear.net 8 months ago
like pottery
Cethin@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
And you’re better, right? No. You aren’t. I’m on hexbear fairly frequently. I don’t have any issue with hexbear or lemmygrad. I’m just not ignoring the fact all these nations do this. China has an almost exclusive ecosystem, yet somehow when the US does it it’s racism? No. It isn’t about race. It’s about control. This apiea to China, Russia, and the US, and any other power in the future or past. Anyone who has the capability to gain control also has disposition to exploit their control. You don’t gain control without that.
RuthlessCriticism@hexbear.net 8 months ago
Except it isn’t actually the same. Bytedance can give the US government all the control literally everything they asked for and it hasn’t been enough, because ultimately that is not what it’s about.
frauddogg@lemmygrad.ml 8 months ago
Ion’t recognize you, peckerwood.
sooper_dooper_roofer@hexbear.net 8 months ago
literally half your political establishment (meaning 70% of the whites) like Russia for no other reason other than them being white
LOTTA WHITE NOISE IN HERE
AdlachGyfiawn@lemmygrad.ml 8 months ago
Racism is an action word. Not “believing” in it doesn’t make it suddenly not racist.
Cethin@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
Sure, but they’d do it with Russia too, and they’re “the same race”. It has nothing to do with race. Race is just a convenient way to criticize the US here without examining the actual issue. China has their own ecosystem for fucks sake. If any nation is being racist it’s them, but it’s not because of race that they have that.
frauddogg@lemmygrad.ml 8 months ago
“WAH THEY WON’T LET US PILLAGE THEIR ECONOMY THE WAY WE PILLAGED AFRICA” do you fucking hear yourself lmfao. You fixate on this “they’re not in our ecosystem” horseshit and it’s really just starting to sound like you’re mad you don’t get to consoom their produce too, mad that your straw just can’t reach far enough into their milkshake for you to Daniel Day-Lewis it
ToxicDivinity@hexbear.net 8 months ago
Yes it’s about power. And the powerful use racism to get or keep power. So it’s about both.