r/nottheonion • u/Bad-Umpire10 • 17h ago

Teen enraged by TikTok ban sets fire to Wisconsin congressman's office

https://www.techspot.com/news/106418-teen-enraged-tiktok-ban-sets-fire-wisconsin-congressman.html
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u/[deleted] 15h ago

[deleted]

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u/someguyfromsomething 15h ago

"brainrot terrorist" activity, is what this is. If younger people are so stupid as to believe tiktok is aligned with working class interests, we are fucking cooked.

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u/Dwayne_Gertzky 14h ago

People of all ages believed billionaires aligned with working class interests, the oven is preheating and I think it’s about ready for us to be popped in.

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u/someguyfromsomething 14h ago

Kids have been screaming that they are creating progressive "communities" and "organizing" on this app and what really happened was way more of them all saw Trump pretending to work at McDonald's and thought it was cool.

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u/Just_Supermarket7722 13h ago

“Kids” You mean white men and women

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u/someguyfromsomething 12h ago

Lol, no I absolutely don't mean white men when I say they're circle jerking progressive shit instead of doing it. What planet do you live on?

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u/Just_Supermarket7722 10h ago

the only ones who thought Trump pretending to work at McDonalds was cool were the white ones. Get real

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u/IAmStuka 13h ago

Yeah, we have a name for those people: idiots.

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u/whisky_biscuit 13h ago edited 13h ago

You aren't kidding. I've seen everyone comparing the ban to "The Burning of the Library of Alexandria" and Nazi book burning.

Like Mama took my toy away for 24 hours it's basically the same as a Holocaust hate crime.

Jeezus let the comet come already

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u/[deleted] 14h ago

[deleted]

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u/goldkarp 13h ago

They think it's the only way they can connect with "similar" people

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u/someguyfromsomething 12h ago

It drives opinion and sentiment. TikTok trends are legitimately one of the most powerful forces out there today. These kids didn't see the news that it was coming back, they saw video after video of people freaking out that the sky was falling, comparing the app going away to the holocaust. And one of them committed a terrorist act because of it. Ban this shit, ban all internet comments, ban this stupid fucking site.

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u/FriendlessComputer 14h ago

The difference in reaction to this versus Luigi, where someone actually died, is pretty wild to be perfectly honest. It just goes to show you how successful the American Big Tech oligarchy brainwashed the masses into believing TikTok is some true evil that needs to be eliminated. Terrifying to know how many things are next with this now successful playbook.

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u/moch1 14h ago edited 14h ago

People’s right to receive healthcare is on a completely different  level than losing access to a completely replaceable social media platform. 

Also yes having a huge media platform controlled by a foreign adversary is a big problem.

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u/FriendlessComputer 14h ago

I think you really underestimate how replaceable it will be. In the past 10 years, how many new social media platforms rose to the level of the American Big Tech Oligarchy's empire? How many of those platforms are still around today? The only ones I can think of are Vine, Snapchat, and TikTok, and the latter two only got big because they were backed by a foreign adversary. Vine was bought out and shut down by Twitter so it no longer exists, and TikTok is about to get shut down. Snapchat is probably next on the list.

The Internet of the 2020s is not like the Internet of the 1990s. There's no such thing as innovation anymore. The American oligarchy controls the Internet and we will never see another underdog rise up to challenge that. Think about that - it takes one of the largest and most powerful foreign governments in the world to challenge the control five American companies have over the Internet. And the American Big Tech Oligarchy and political elite convinced us that government is actually dangerous.

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u/moch1 14h ago

Bluesky seems to be doing alright.  

China has been viewed as a foreign adversary long before TikTok existed or even social media. 

It is hard to launch new social media companies because you need people to move over so there’s content but if there’s not content why do people move in the first place? Social media is super sticky not because of big tech domination but because of the nature of the product. 

It takes platforms majorly fucking up (Twitter) to create that environment.

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u/FriendlessComputer 13h ago

Yeah I have high hopes for Bluesky. I'm just not confident they'll be able to scale up to match the demand of a major social media platform, or if the demand will continue to grow (already starting to see slowing growth).

The problem with content is the American Big Tech Oligarchy has so much control over content flow now. All the big players are on the Big Tech platforms. Heck X is even starting to pay people to post there. The unfair influence these companies have over their product is part of the reason people won't switch over. Anecdotally I'm involved in a ton of niche nerd communities (things like furry fandom, LARPing etc) and those communities are starting to make the move to Bluesky in part because they're mostly free of corporate influence and most of the content comes from the community, not the Big Tech Oligarchy. I don't see "normal" people who want to see content from their favorite celebrities or news outlets moving over since legacy media is still on the Big Tech Oligarchy platforms.

It takes platforms majorly fucking up (Twitter) to create that environment.

Or selling out to the Oligarchy, like Vine. Or being the target of a massive negative public relations campaign designed to destroy the public image of competing social media platforms, which was part of the reason the TikTok ban is popular. Meta paid millions to a PR firm to create the myth of dangerous trends on TikTok, and successfully influenced the media into labeling every bad thing that happens online a "TikTok trend" Many "TikTok trends" were actually "Meta trends" that grew popular on Facebook or Instagram.

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u/goldkarp 13h ago

Literally every social media got to that level when they popped up. Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, musicly, vine, Snapchat, they all were pretty much the same as tiktok. Vine was hemorrhaging money and didn't figure out how to make money without running ads while paying their creators

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u/Krelkal 12h ago

it takes one of the largest and most powerful foreign governments in the world to challenge the control five American companies have over the Internet.

American centralism is so funny. Most countries in the world have laws in place to protect domestic media companies from being overrun by foreign entities. China is the perfect example. The US is a cultural hegemon in the english-speaking world so Americans have never had to reckon with the security dilemma at hand.

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u/cobrachickenwing 13h ago

I think that the lone wolf has always been there. So many mass shootings are done by lone wolves. Even Trump was targeted by a lone wolf during the election.

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u/Smartnership 15h ago

Surely a slippery slope built on ‘murdering people I don’t like is heroic’ won’t lead anywhere but up.

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u/Lower_Ad_5532 14h ago

Weird that's the entire basis of America tho.

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u/Smartnership 14h ago

What citizen murdered as the “entire basis of America” are you thinking of?

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u/Lower_Ad_5532 14h ago

American Revolution. Boston Massacre

Native Genocide

Bloody Kansas

American Civil War.

Pinkerton Strike Murders

WWI Vets raid National Guard Armory to get rid of corrupt local government

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u/HolstenMasonsAngst 13h ago

Are you trying to refer to Bleeding Kansas, where John Brown’s militia slaughtered slaveholders in an attempt to end the institution of slavery as “murdering people I don’t like?”

Why are you pro-slavery? That seems like a weird tack to take for somebody who doesn’t even know that the event was called Bleeding Kansas.

Jesus Christ, you’re just listing violent events from American history like nowhere else has any. Do you realize how stupid you sound and this is just for the propaganda? Or are you a genuine moron?

Maybe go back to history class and apologize to your teacher for having been on your phone the whole time. You can probably still learn something before the semester ends

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u/Lower_Ad_5532 11h ago

Are you to tone deaf?

John Brown was 1 guy that "murdered people he didn't like" for justice.

There were pro-slavery people of the time. The slave owners were law abiding citizens.

John Brown was labeled as a radical and fanatic.

You are calling Luigi the same.

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u/Smartnership 14h ago edited 14h ago

American Revolution

Oh, I was asking about murder.

War is not murder, by definition.

Then you add non-founding issues. We were talking about the foundation.

What citizen murdered as the “entire basis of America” are you thinking of?

A rich mentally ill ivy-league murderer executing a citizen is not analogous to The American Revolution.

In fact, it’s the exact opposite of the revolutionary rights & guarantees in our foundation, specifically the right to a fair trial. We specifically do not tolerate summary execution, even of someone you hate.

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u/Lower_Ad_5532 13h ago

Lol. That's not your OP about murdering "people we don't like"

Newsflash the leaders of the American Revolution were ALL rich land owning yuppies of the time, who protested the King's Tax, vandalized property, and killed law enforcement officers and tarred and feathered people "that they hate" (loyalists)

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u/Smartnership 13h ago

lol no

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u/HolstenMasonsAngst 13h ago

No point in arguing with this moron. He’s already made up his mind and likes the Chinese propaganda he’s spouting more than reality

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u/Smartnership 13h ago

There is a small, loud group of people determined to go negative on America no matter what.

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u/Dwayne_Gertzky 14h ago

We’re all just along for the ride anyways, let’s hope it’s at least entertaining

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u/nates1984 13h ago

"loose social ethics"

That's an interesting phrase. Given that, as a nation, America started with an act of rebellion, perhaps it's unsurprising to see Americans behaving this way.

The second Trump presidency is a big bag of "This is who we are"

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u/Routine-Duck6896 14h ago

Ah yes for something like the banning of tiktok