Russia and China have been pretty successful at making these fools look like what they are - gullible suckers.

I think the truth is TikTok/ByteDance have all the leverage. A ban of the app is political suicide for whatever administration implements it.

If there's one thing I've taken away from Trump's successes, it's that there's no such thing as "political suicide".

A massive tax hike on imported goods, making loads of things more expensive? Political suicide! Constant flip-flopping and backtracking on deals? Political suicide! Doing mocking impersonations of disabled people? Political suicide! Accepting donations from neo-nazi groups? Political suicide! Cheating on your pregnant wife with a porn star? Political suicide! Repeatedly visiting a billionaire pedophile's private island? Political suicide!

Except it turns out actually none of that is political suicide.

this is exactly right. he could ban all social media and 1/2 the country would be “yes, visionary looking out for us and our children” :)

1/2 the country would be right. Do you not think if social media was disappeared society would be in a better place?

I am not the op, but I do. He would not be banning it for social reasons - he would be banning it as a racketeering operation, and the 1/2 would support it because of that.

I think this is a lot different than a lot of wedge issues that tend to affect people mostly in theory. Wedge issues are often chosen by the political elite because there isn’t a risk of the dog catching the car effect becoming a major political liability.

E.g., overturning roe v wade made a bunch of republican evangelical republican voters grey happy while restricting the lives of a relatively small amount of people. And I know this statement sounds crazy but hear me out and do the math: You have to be a woman (~50% probability), get an abortion (~25% of women in their lifetime) and reside in a state that restricts abortion (about 20% of the population). Multiply those together and you end up with a 2.5% probability that overturning roe v wade has a tangible impact on your life.

You can apply this same concept to a lot of today’s hot button topics.

In contrast, 1/3 of all adults use TikTok. About 60% of people under 30 use it.

Like I said in my other comments, this is comparable to a government shutting down the NFL. It would be a major optics disaster to implement a TikTok ban.

bigger optics disaster than being a rapist of young girls?!

Do you not comprehend what I’m saying? Can you try to read back to me what the substance of my argument is?

I’m not debating whether the guy is morally reprehensible.

People can ignore that because that doesn’t affect them. Chris Brown is still selling out stadiums because he didn’t personally assault his fans.

What does affect people are everyday things like whether their favorite app got banned or whether eggs are affordable.

All of those things affect the everyperson far less than losing TikTok.

Losing TikTok would be like if the government shut down the NFL. This isn’t hyperbole.

I never claimed all those other irrelevant things you brought up were political suicide. In that sense they are unrelated topics. Dare I say you’re making a strawman argument.

Really? It seems that even banning Roe vs Wade did not get young people out en masse to vote, and this would be the last straw?

Unironically, yes.

Again, focus on thinking about direct and noticeable impact to the lives of the masses, who are largely entirely disconnected or very casually attached to the political discourse. As you pointed out by implication, activists are a small portion of the overall population.

Roe v. Wade is an issue that has theoretical impact to most women from a statistical standpoint. Yes, the destruction of those rights is infuriating, but only if you’re actively paying attention to politics and/or actively trying to get an abortion. And even then, if you live in a large collection of high population blue states, the ruling being reversed didn’t actually change anything for you. Californians, New Yorkers, and Illinoisans didn’t lose any abortion rights.

Most women will never get an abortion. It’s an important political issue but also one that doesn’t impact most people.

59% of adults under the age of 30 use TikTok. 1/3 of all adults use it. Losing that app is a wildly noticeable negative to people’s lives.

The unwashed masses of idiots would see this as “Trump banned TikTok” and wouldn’t know or care that the law comes from congress or any of the other political details.

My theory is the Trump Mafia doesn't care if people think they are idiots.

This admin is so transparently corrupt, and they're making out like bandits.

Trump and his family have made billions of dollars on the crypto rug pull. Everyone knew it was a shitcoin from the start.

Trump has pardoned violent criminals and felony fraudsters for business deals and "donations".

His family's net worth has estimated to have risen billions this year alone.

Elon Musk essentially bought his way into the control of the government and tried to buy off votes.

Kristi Noem funneled at least one sole source contract worth $220 million dollars to a firm closely tied to her and her previous political campaigns.

Ron DeSantis spent $250 million dollars of no-bid contracts for essentially a tent interment camp, many of questionable value and to politically tied companies

They don't care if you don't like them and I don't think they care if they accomplish what they ran on. They have done a bang up job enriching themselves and their donor class, however.

It should worry us that they're not worried about what happens when they're no longer in power and the naked corruption gets looked at. They're not worried because their plan is to stay in power...

Losing voter confidence in droves? Not a problem if you're confident about establishing the next 1000 year reich.

bingo. said something similar before - you don't go on white house renovations if you plan on leaving. & these folks are not the type to plan on leaving.

in 2021 they already showed their colors. now i'm sure they've mastered the game of staying.

Hey, it did become bigger news. Good. It's the first time I see this on HN. An old 2 days thread being "bumped" by changing the timestamp?