Who’s the adversary? China? China is not my adversary even if the United States government thinks so. I believe many Americans would agree with that.
To me it seems China made a superior app that the American youth wanted to use and the American social media apparatus was jealous so lobbied to have it banned.
> China is not my adversary even if the United States government thinks so. I believe many Americans would agree with that.
I (a US citizen) do think of the Chinese government as an adversary. I believe many Americans would agree with me. (See, I can make the same assertion without evidence.)
> To me it seems China made a superior app that the American youth wanted to use and the American social media apparatus was jealous so lobbied to have it banned.
Sure, that's certainly part of it. It's economic protectionism. Which, honestly, when it's protectionism against a nation with a fairly closed market, where US companies and capital have much less access (and access comes with strict restrictions and censorship requirements) than Chinese companies (and their government), I'm having a hard time getting all up in arms about it.
What lies about Israel-Hamas? Pro-Palestinian support isn’t a Chinese psyop, people can see the videos coming from Gaza plainly and make up their own opinion.
I never bought the idea that the American people are super gun ho about Israel. My family are all conservative Midwest folks and they don’t see why we give them so much money when Americans at home suffer.
i'm not on tiktok and have never seen a tiktok about this issue but i care about it. same with a lot of my friends who are not on tiktok. same with hn god paul graham.
I'm so tired of arguments like this. They seem ill-informed at best, actively bad-faith at worst.
The US government has faults. A lot of them. And I (a US citizen) can't claim to be perfectly objective and unbiased. But I don't think you're going to be able to convince me that I should prefer Chinese propaganda and election interference over US propaganda. Or that US propaganda is as effective and all-encompassing within US borders as Chinese propaganda is within Chinese borders.
I can tell you something about Chinese propaganda:
1. How it works
a) Chinese propaganda within borders, is mostly about: "We serve the people, and we're doing it good", "We are on the road to greatness", with content cencorship and State medias, it's not quite efficient, since everyone are aware about it
for example, if you question the CPC's leadership, you'll be censored
This part is handled by Publicity Department and Cyberspace Administration.
b) Chinese propaganda in the US, is by 'sponsored' influencers and some official accounts, you can identify them easily.
and, these influencers are not sponsored with cashes directly, it's like if you have influence, and you show kindness to China, certain people may come to you, to award you with some titles, to invite you to attend some meetings and write articles in newspaper whichi nobody reads
This part is handled mostly by 'united front work department', MOFA, and Publicity Department, you can see how chaos it is by its organization
2. What it does
a) see 1.a
b) Chinese propaganda abroad is mostly defensive, it has a guideline, "Tell the Chinese story well", it's quite descriptively, for example, there're some topics with most efforts: 'Taiwan', 'Xinjiang', 'South China Sea', 'China threats', 'commodity dumping', and, 'election interference'
The US/West set the agenda, CPC dispute it
One topic is the exception, '89/64', there's some disciplines about it so that they never mention it, so if you saw someone defend CPC about this, it's 100% not an official behavior
c) It never describes the US as an enemy, both at home and abroad, and it never exaggerates threats from the US, on the contrary, it downplays these threats. - which may come as a surprise to some people.
For everyone who think CPC is good at propagandizing, or CPC has some super power of propaganda, you overestimate it, it's just positive about propaganda
I don't know how the US propaganda works, I think that's the most impressive part
99% Chinese know CPC blocks Google is about censorship, but many Americans will say the Tiktok ban is different, it's about national security and children protection, it's justice of the procedure, it's part of democracy, blah blah
> Or that US propaganda is as effective and all-encompassing within US borders as Chinese propaganda is within Chinese borders.
Totally right! Now let me log off to catch the nightly 6 hour programming block of CIA/FBI/military dramas. It helps me forget about all those scary Chinese drones flying around. Oh and did you see the trailer for the latest Alex Garland movie about our brave soldiers in Iraq? True heroes!
I'm baffled at folks wanting to overlook that a Chinese-controlled brainworm is even more dangerous than a US-operated brainworm.
Yes, we should steer clear of all brainworms, but we should be exterminating the brainworms run by adversaries ASAP.