Subversion was already happening. Bytedance keeps lying and claiming Tiktok's being banned - the truth is they're being forced to sell, and the Chinese government will not let Bytedance sell Tiktok. This in itself proves that actually banning Tiktok is a good idea.
There was also the flood of direct messaging to users when the divestiture law first passed. Many people called their representatives in hysterics, even threatening to kill themselves. They were told by Bytedance to do so. This absolutely constitutes direct interference.
What you are feeling is definitely withdrawal. Just about any other social media video game is better and more meaningful than Tiktok. Tiktok just has a better algorithm for producing dopamine.
There's been some amazing content on TikTok admittedly and lots of followers I'm deeply sympathetic to. But I feel it definitely made reading harder. Just use it for 10 minutes and then try to pick up a book. It's like forcing yourself to walk on a treadmill you've already cranked up. Except it's easy to generalize that effect to a more permanent state. It makes the "heart rate" increase of twitter resolve entirely, yet relegates it to a "slow refresher" in the hierarchy of distraction. Was this not the same for you? Or for a generation of kids? If the medium is the message then the message must be—move, at any cost, all the time.
I'm glad that there exists a mediator (Katherine) through whom I can track developments that I would find intolerable to witness first hand. Thanks for always taking one for the team in this way.
That whole TikTok video you posted here grates on me so hard. Because this self-righteous fgt is sitting here being like "Oh China so scary? This made in China. This made in China. This made in China..." Great, great for him, MISSING THE ENTIRE POINT. The whole concern with TikTok was not "China own our economy," it was "China has access to all our data: our likes, our trends, our reactions to specific ideas." That's the sort of shit that provides exactly what you need to cook up very, VERY targeted propaganda to sway politics, promote insurrection, civil war, etc. I am all about an American TikTok clone existing that just doesn't have its servers within the Chinese Communist Party's easy reach. Oh wait, we had one, it was called Vine, and Zuckerberg bought it up just to shut it down. Don't trust that guy, no matter what he's said lately, he sways with the wind. Hell, he has a Communist waifu. But friggin'... the concerns are legit, bro. And by the same token, I understand the *justified* counter-arguments about people making money through it, support this way and that, yada yada. But the smug Millennial Snot coming out of this fgt, like friggin' .... This was rejected at the ballot box, is all I gotta say. I love being lectured by hopelessly misinformed retards claiming the moral high ground.
I remember being 12 and getting upset at conservatives online suggesting we should nuke North Korea or Iran. I instinctively wished that I was Iranian, and imagined that North Koreans must not be so bad, and the bad stories about it were propaganda. I projected onto these nations a kind of kindred spirit. Since I perceived conservatives as brutish bullies who picked on nerds, I imagined that, reciprocally, Iranians and North Koreans must be sensitive, cultured, and would probably enjoy the same anime that I did. I made up these imaginary friends in my head that I wanted to defend. We were all underdogs.
I also assumed that the Native Americans loved nature and respected animals, and felt disturbed and betrayed to learn about Mayan human sacrifices. I was a consistent anti-American, to the point where when I heard my 8th grade teacher salivating over the idea of killing baby Hitler, I assumed that war was also based on propaganda. I know I'm not alone in this tendency, since the Bernie-left and alt-right follow the same pathways. When you feel like you're getting beaten down at home, you imagine that the mythological enemies abroad are "in the trenches" with you. It's a psychological survival mechanism, the same one that motivates the children of strict Christian parents to identify as "satanists." Goth and emo never died, it just expresses itself in more abstract ways.
As an aside, I think the reason why the aesthetics of goth/emo/scene died out is because they were successfully appropriated by the popular kids. Ke$ha, for example, had enough eyeliner to blur the lines in this regard. I think of Madonna as the origin point of the aesthetic, and Lady Gaga as its end point, where the rainbow-rave aesthetic overwhelmed it. The keyword for Gen Z is "non-binary," which also seems, aesthetically, to be trying to emulate Woodstock in the 21st century. "Chilling" is like "groovy," as in "lofi hip hop radio 📚 beats to relax/study to."
> But there’s something about the tone of this newfound admiration for China that feels... off. Smug, maybe? Half ignorance, half this weird urge to stick it to “the Man” in a way that makes me uncomfortable. It feels like a kid going to someone else’s house and being like, “Damn, Billy’s mom is better than my mom.” You know what I mean? Maybe “guy who just came back from Berlin” is a better analogy.
Well, you can shimmer all your life in a shit-filled pool and think it's the best.
Sometimes you need to see other pools, puddles, and lakes. Even if they're not perfect at everything, or part of them has toxic waste, or you idealize them because they just have some nicer aspects, at least you now know your pool isn't the be all end all - which is what you're taught from age 0.
I think the worst attribute of younger people in the 2020s, which makes them unable to be non-ironic or get inspired about anything, is their severe lack of ability to "romanticize". We could use more of it, even misguided is better than the lack. At least is starts the conversation going...
I appreciate the comments about TikTok as a virtual third space. I was more in the "brainrot" camp but I can see it.
Having just come back from visiting family in China, I can't help but laugh in absurdity at the strong pro-China sentiment. It's quite bad over there (esp. economically and politically), way worse than the US on average imo.
I think it's exactly like you said: a big driver for this is sticking it to The Man (amplified by the Left's pre-existing leaning of "America has so many problems"). And honestly, this pro-China sentiment wave is kind of proving the point of the potential of TikTok to influence the US negatively
"The word "demon" has a fascinating etymological journey. It originates from the Ancient Greek word **"daimōn" (δαίμων)**, which had a range of meanings, often denoting a spirit or divine power. In its original context, a daimōn could be either benevolent or malevolent, often acting as an intermediary between gods and humans or influencing human destiny." OpenAI GPT is clear on this point, lol . P.S. I'm not an occultists, just a philosopher
What about the first line? Care to elaborate? It's a barb, joshing, jest fren.
Your line on political instability though, is relatively untrue when it comes to my home country of Romania. I'm living in the US, so I heard of the happenings though the internet grapevine.
Here is the gist of it (thanks, Google):
"Report ties Romanian liberals to TikTok campaign that fueled pro-Russia candidate"
What a fascinating article, this was the most cogent, intelligent commentary I've seen on this recent Tiktok ban, which I must admit I hadn't given much thought to. I don't think about or operate with tiktok, and have been confused by the Rednote popularity that suddenly surged.
Usually I'm too preocuppied with writing my fantasy serials for my substack to take much stock of the digital landscape but this sounds like it's been a nuke going off and like it's changed everything.
What advice would you give a writer utterly inept at how to predict the 'tide' and trying to stay ahead? All this happened so fast and suddenly it really did take me by unawares as I didn't think that lawmakers were serious.
It's tough. I think about it all the time, and still struggle with it. I think the role of social media is changing and quickly. My topline bet is to get embedded in your local community as much as feasible. More coming.
Sometimes I wish the same then at other times I remember it was created per the size it was always meant to be. It is for me to make the sacrifices and compromises to get where I need to.
Appreciate your kind words and advice madame and wishing you the best.
Culture is shaped by available and supposedly upcoming Technology. We moderns kid ourselves and think that we're above being influenced or manipulated by that, but we're not. Just look at how swiftly media has changed since the 1960s and how much the moral and ethical dimensions of anything in our lives has been deconstructed on a parallel track. That's not entirely by design, but that's been no accident either. Tech and progress are the new gods that have atomized and rearranged human culture and freed us from Nature's limits and depending upon each other. Have faith in them and they will fill the emptiness you feel! Not those burdensome and demanding provincial personal relationships, civic duties, gender roles and responsibilities, sacrifices, etc., that provided structure and enabled the survival of the species for thousands of years. Nah. Those are oppressive and obsolete now, and it's really different this time. All tech is good tech, so scroll Baby, scroll!
A harsh but not unfair description of TikTok here:
"On Wednesday, in a vote of 352-65, the House of Representatives passed important legislation to counter the hostile espionage efforts of a genocidal slave state against America and our allies in other free societies.
"I’m referring to the bill which may result in the banning of the stupid TikTok video addiction app if its parent company (which is functionally controlled by the Chinese Communist state) does not sell it to a company based in a free society."
late night more lucid. this was great and especially endearing; hope you expound further on your rejection of brainrot, but digital animism is here to stay. it compensates for the ever widening valley in understanding technology at a technical level for regular people. a neosuperstition. the more of everyday life ceded to the digital maw, the more these types of panics will arise I suspect. Tech Left is perfect for this as it’s foundation because of your observation that their mostly made up of progressive consumers, who were brought up in these enclosures and crèches without never really understanding it’s nuts and bolts. good stuff
Subversion was already happening. Bytedance keeps lying and claiming Tiktok's being banned - the truth is they're being forced to sell, and the Chinese government will not let Bytedance sell Tiktok. This in itself proves that actually banning Tiktok is a good idea.
There was also the flood of direct messaging to users when the divestiture law first passed. Many people called their representatives in hysterics, even threatening to kill themselves. They were told by Bytedance to do so. This absolutely constitutes direct interference.
What you are feeling is definitely withdrawal. Just about any other social media video game is better and more meaningful than Tiktok. Tiktok just has a better algorithm for producing dopamine.
There's been some amazing content on TikTok admittedly and lots of followers I'm deeply sympathetic to. But I feel it definitely made reading harder. Just use it for 10 minutes and then try to pick up a book. It's like forcing yourself to walk on a treadmill you've already cranked up. Except it's easy to generalize that effect to a more permanent state. It makes the "heart rate" increase of twitter resolve entirely, yet relegates it to a "slow refresher" in the hierarchy of distraction. Was this not the same for you? Or for a generation of kids? If the medium is the message then the message must be—move, at any cost, all the time.
I'm glad that there exists a mediator (Katherine) through whom I can track developments that I would find intolerable to witness first hand. Thanks for always taking one for the team in this way.
That whole TikTok video you posted here grates on me so hard. Because this self-righteous fgt is sitting here being like "Oh China so scary? This made in China. This made in China. This made in China..." Great, great for him, MISSING THE ENTIRE POINT. The whole concern with TikTok was not "China own our economy," it was "China has access to all our data: our likes, our trends, our reactions to specific ideas." That's the sort of shit that provides exactly what you need to cook up very, VERY targeted propaganda to sway politics, promote insurrection, civil war, etc. I am all about an American TikTok clone existing that just doesn't have its servers within the Chinese Communist Party's easy reach. Oh wait, we had one, it was called Vine, and Zuckerberg bought it up just to shut it down. Don't trust that guy, no matter what he's said lately, he sways with the wind. Hell, he has a Communist waifu. But friggin'... the concerns are legit, bro. And by the same token, I understand the *justified* counter-arguments about people making money through it, support this way and that, yada yada. But the smug Millennial Snot coming out of this fgt, like friggin' .... This was rejected at the ballot box, is all I gotta say. I love being lectured by hopelessly misinformed retards claiming the moral high ground.
I remember being 12 and getting upset at conservatives online suggesting we should nuke North Korea or Iran. I instinctively wished that I was Iranian, and imagined that North Koreans must not be so bad, and the bad stories about it were propaganda. I projected onto these nations a kind of kindred spirit. Since I perceived conservatives as brutish bullies who picked on nerds, I imagined that, reciprocally, Iranians and North Koreans must be sensitive, cultured, and would probably enjoy the same anime that I did. I made up these imaginary friends in my head that I wanted to defend. We were all underdogs.
I also assumed that the Native Americans loved nature and respected animals, and felt disturbed and betrayed to learn about Mayan human sacrifices. I was a consistent anti-American, to the point where when I heard my 8th grade teacher salivating over the idea of killing baby Hitler, I assumed that war was also based on propaganda. I know I'm not alone in this tendency, since the Bernie-left and alt-right follow the same pathways. When you feel like you're getting beaten down at home, you imagine that the mythological enemies abroad are "in the trenches" with you. It's a psychological survival mechanism, the same one that motivates the children of strict Christian parents to identify as "satanists." Goth and emo never died, it just expresses itself in more abstract ways.
As an aside, I think the reason why the aesthetics of goth/emo/scene died out is because they were successfully appropriated by the popular kids. Ke$ha, for example, had enough eyeliner to blur the lines in this regard. I think of Madonna as the origin point of the aesthetic, and Lady Gaga as its end point, where the rainbow-rave aesthetic overwhelmed it. The keyword for Gen Z is "non-binary," which also seems, aesthetically, to be trying to emulate Woodstock in the 21st century. "Chilling" is like "groovy," as in "lofi hip hop radio 📚 beats to relax/study to."
> But there’s something about the tone of this newfound admiration for China that feels... off. Smug, maybe? Half ignorance, half this weird urge to stick it to “the Man” in a way that makes me uncomfortable. It feels like a kid going to someone else’s house and being like, “Damn, Billy’s mom is better than my mom.” You know what I mean? Maybe “guy who just came back from Berlin” is a better analogy.
Well, you can shimmer all your life in a shit-filled pool and think it's the best.
Sometimes you need to see other pools, puddles, and lakes. Even if they're not perfect at everything, or part of them has toxic waste, or you idealize them because they just have some nicer aspects, at least you now know your pool isn't the be all end all - which is what you're taught from age 0.
I think the worst attribute of younger people in the 2020s, which makes them unable to be non-ironic or get inspired about anything, is their severe lack of ability to "romanticize". We could use more of it, even misguided is better than the lack. At least is starts the conversation going...
I appreciate the comments about TikTok as a virtual third space. I was more in the "brainrot" camp but I can see it.
Having just come back from visiting family in China, I can't help but laugh in absurdity at the strong pro-China sentiment. It's quite bad over there (esp. economically and politically), way worse than the US on average imo.
I think it's exactly like you said: a big driver for this is sticking it to The Man (amplified by the Left's pre-existing leaning of "America has so many problems"). And honestly, this pro-China sentiment wave is kind of proving the point of the potential of TikTok to influence the US negatively
Nah, I think we are all *well* aware. Let us alone to enjoy our exile in peace, and thank you. 🙏🏼
P.S. the word demon comes from the Greek daemon, which literally means spirit. contradiction resolved. yw.
?
??
Your first line! To the second point, as any good occultist knows, daimon/daemon != demon, sadly
"The word "demon" has a fascinating etymological journey. It originates from the Ancient Greek word **"daimōn" (δαίμων)**, which had a range of meanings, often denoting a spirit or divine power. In its original context, a daimōn could be either benevolent or malevolent, often acting as an intermediary between gods and humans or influencing human destiny." OpenAI GPT is clear on this point, lol . P.S. I'm not an occultists, just a philosopher
What about the first line? Care to elaborate? It's a barb, joshing, jest fren.
What sort of philosophy are you most interested in? Just took a look at your profile. (Nice to e-meet you and welcome to my humble blog)
<handshake> nice to meet you too, nice stack! I'm into feminist philosophy, existentialism, phenomenology, critical theory
We're all playing on little red book, playing good hosts and guests. Give it a couple weeks.
As always, love your writing. Very engaging.
Your line on political instability though, is relatively untrue when it comes to my home country of Romania. I'm living in the US, so I heard of the happenings though the internet grapevine.
Here is the gist of it (thanks, Google):
"Report ties Romanian liberals to TikTok campaign that fueled pro-Russia candidate"
https://www.politico.eu/article/investigation-ties-romanian-liberals-tiktok-campaign-pro-russia-candidate-calin-georgescu/
Could it happen in the US? Is it already happening? Sending my condolences for your loss of TikTok, xoxo.
I think it's plausible
Thank you, btw
What a fascinating article, this was the most cogent, intelligent commentary I've seen on this recent Tiktok ban, which I must admit I hadn't given much thought to. I don't think about or operate with tiktok, and have been confused by the Rednote popularity that suddenly surged.
Usually I'm too preocuppied with writing my fantasy serials for my substack to take much stock of the digital landscape but this sounds like it's been a nuke going off and like it's changed everything.
What advice would you give a writer utterly inept at how to predict the 'tide' and trying to stay ahead? All this happened so fast and suddenly it really did take me by unawares as I didn't think that lawmakers were serious.
Thank you!
It's tough. I think about it all the time, and still struggle with it. I think the role of social media is changing and quickly. My topline bet is to get embedded in your local community as much as feasible. More coming.
Good advice, currently trying to do that with the Fantasy genre online, so far it’s been a real uphill battle. Still hard at work with it X).
I don't know much about genre writing but I wonder if the answer is Return 2 Conventions.
Maybe, I live very far away from cities in the rural countryside so that conventions cost quite a mint to get to.
The world is just too big. I wish it was much smaller.
Sometimes I wish the same then at other times I remember it was created per the size it was always meant to be. It is for me to make the sacrifices and compromises to get where I need to.
Appreciate your kind words and advice madame and wishing you the best.
Culture is shaped by available and supposedly upcoming Technology. We moderns kid ourselves and think that we're above being influenced or manipulated by that, but we're not. Just look at how swiftly media has changed since the 1960s and how much the moral and ethical dimensions of anything in our lives has been deconstructed on a parallel track. That's not entirely by design, but that's been no accident either. Tech and progress are the new gods that have atomized and rearranged human culture and freed us from Nature's limits and depending upon each other. Have faith in them and they will fill the emptiness you feel! Not those burdensome and demanding provincial personal relationships, civic duties, gender roles and responsibilities, sacrifices, etc., that provided structure and enabled the survival of the species for thousands of years. Nah. Those are oppressive and obsolete now, and it's really different this time. All tech is good tech, so scroll Baby, scroll!
A harsh but not unfair description of TikTok here:
"On Wednesday, in a vote of 352-65, the House of Representatives passed important legislation to counter the hostile espionage efforts of a genocidal slave state against America and our allies in other free societies.
"I’m referring to the bill which may result in the banning of the stupid TikTok video addiction app if its parent company (which is functionally controlled by the Chinese Communist state) does not sell it to a company based in a free society."
https://www.godofthedesert.org/p/why-both-the-left-and-the-right-dont
I definitely feel a sympathy with my little drone camera that follows me!
It seems like important context to note that Trump signed the original executive order to ban TikTok: https://www.npr.org/2020/08/06/900019185/trump-signs-executive-order-that-will-effectively-ban-use-of-tiktok-in-the-u-s
how deeply annoyed are you? haha.
I wrote this at 1 am :(
late night more lucid. this was great and especially endearing; hope you expound further on your rejection of brainrot, but digital animism is here to stay. it compensates for the ever widening valley in understanding technology at a technical level for regular people. a neosuperstition. the more of everyday life ceded to the digital maw, the more these types of panics will arise I suspect. Tech Left is perfect for this as it’s foundation because of your observation that their mostly made up of progressive consumers, who were brought up in these enclosures and crèches without never really understanding it’s nuts and bolts. good stuff
RIP Bozo
>:(
I didn't understand the first comment, but I *loved* the reply.