Betty already posted about the “hail Trump” message showing on TikTok. AOC was on Instagram last night talking about this. Instagram is such a walled garden (this link might work if you follow her and if you have an Insta account), that I transcribed it:
OK, I want to talk a little bit about this TikTok ban, which I voted against by the way, since this is coming up soon. Last year, when they brought this ban up for a vote, number 1, they said it’s a national security issue, it’s a national security issue. I said, “OK, that’s serious, let’s see the case, let’s see the intelligence.” I can tell you that what was presented to all of the members voting on this thing was not very compelling. There was no real information that was given that was a smoking gun, that was anything specific, that was very convincing. And, frankly, it was not convincing to many other members as well.
In fact, very high-ranking members on the House Foreign Affairs Committee came to me after the briefing, and they were very shocked and pretty surprised at the lack of substantive information in the briefing. They were genuinely expecting there to be some real or compelling intelligence shared that would substantiate the argument. And there just..wasn’t, and they were surprised at the lack of information presented […]
This bill, which was very large and substantive in terms of its impact, came to the Energy and Commerce Committee, it was marked up, it was brought to the floor in a matter of a few weeks, which is very, very fast. The degree to which corporations surveil the American people without genuine consent and genuine opt out should be illegal, point blank, period. So many of us naturally said the answer isn’t playing endless whack-a-mole with apps, the answer is that we should have real privacy legislation in the United States, and we should help people own their information and have greater agency over their information so they’re not being spied on all the time whether it’s a domestic company or a foreign company. We need privacy laws in the US, which of course big tech is going to fight against, and their lobbyists are going to fight against. So they just targeted an app rather than targeting the problem.
And then, lastly, when this thing was passed, all these legislators who supported it were [saying] “Oh it’s not a ban, it’s just a forced sale”, which, to be fair, forced sales happen. Grindr was a forced sale. […]. First of all, they provided very little time for that to happen, for an app that big. Who’s going to buy TikTok, hello, it’s very large. But besides that, after leaving no time for a forced sale, now, here we are. I would say that the lack of forethought and the rushed nature of this bill is evidenced by both the Biden and Trump administrations are now looking to see if there’s any way to reverse or stall it. If they’re looking at that now, why didn’t they look at it then?
This is an issue that people actually pay attention to. My Instagram feed, which is not for following politicians (I only follow AOC and Claudia Sheinbaum on it), is full of creators bemoaning the loss of TikTok. They think it’s dead, period. So whatever brogliarch, greased-palm deal that Trump comes up with to save the platform is going to be very popular with people who just want their platform back.
As for who is going to get TikTok and why, I don’t know, but with the hurt feelings of many brogliarchs, as detailed and explained by Krugman this morning, will probably cause whichever buyer to turn TikTok into the next Xitter, another rightwing hellhole.
(Edit: Dorothy Winsor says that TikTok is back up. Here’s the AP story on it. )
Dorothy A. Winsor
Tiktok is back up. They say Trump’s promise was enough. Barf.
ETA: Also, I thought ByteDance’s objection was the loss of proprietary technology. I don’t know enough to know how you get around that.
Matt McIrvin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The only thing surprising about that is that it was even faster than I thought.
Anyway, leave it to AOC to actually play this well.
Kay
It’s just so ludicrous for the US to bemoan the propaganda power of social media sites while Musk and Zuckerberg are turning their sites over to GOP campaigns and throttling liberal content. The Washington Post is like Trump Media. The NYTimes is eagerly promoting invading Denmark.
Do they care AT ALL about credibility? No one said “you know, a Nazi billionaire owns X and uses it to lie about all elected Democrats and our national media is bunch of pro MAGA sloppy, garbage. Maybe our battle against the China site is laughable and will just create contempt for us?”
Baud
The law provided over a year for the sale, but didn’t take into account the litigation process.
Kay
There were huge Peoples Power protests in DC and Chicago yesterday. Opposition to the far Right. Tens of thousands of people. Was it shown anywhere but on TikTok with shaky, marcher-produced amateur phone video? Because that was all over TikTok. Did X and Meta throttle it?
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: That’s the thing, people here are calling for banning social media because it’s full of propaganda while the mainstream media are busy beclowning themselves. We need somebody doing real journalism–it apparently can’t be those people. ProPublica, some local public outlets. The best source of local news where I live is actually an independent public radio station that runs a news website.
Baud
I’m glad we’re making an exception for the ban on obeying in advance for TikTok.
YY_Sima Qian
@Kay: I mean, 4Chan is still up.
Baud
There’s a Trump truth social post where he says he wants TikTok to be 50% owned by Americans. So there’s that.
ETA
Here
https://bsky.app/profile/scottjshapiro.bsky.social/post/3lg45htcsyk2e
Kay
@YY_Sima Qian:
Lol. Clownish. Of course 4 chan is still up! They’re all on the same side.
Maybe I follow the wrong people on Bluesky but the college-educated liberal Bluesky seems to have missed the huge anti Trump protests yesterday. I saw it only on TikTok. It’s actually heartening and might cheer up Democrats if Democrats would stop banning it.
Professor Bigfoot
@Kay: Oh, there were huge Anti-Trump protests yesterday? I really hadn’t heard anything about it.
I have only one question about them–
WERE THEY WEARING PINK PUSSY HATS?
Baud
So why would TikTok cave to Trump now? Is Trump really going to enforce the ban six months from now if TikTok doesn’t sell? Wouldn’t that let Biden off the hook and put the ban all on Trump? Or are people so addicted to hating Dems that Biden would still be blamed?
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: ByteDance are as shameless as anyone else. Kay’s talking about the content.
And that actually does vary from platform to platform. A while back Katherine Hayhoe made a series of posts on Mastodon talking about the reception she gets on different social media platforms (and why she didn’t post on Mastodon so much)… and among many other things, she mentioned that she basically gets almost no reception at all on Facebook because Meta’s algorithm is softbanning her posts, basically not propagating them because they’re “controversial”, as if she were a political troll.
Now, on Mastodon, there is no algorithm (in the debased social-media sense of the term) and you’re just playing to follows and people reading the unfiltered feed, so it’s not so much of an issue. But on Facebook it’s everything.
TBone
If he can issuue an actionable Executive Order while he’s still only a PRIVATE CITIZEN you’re goddamned right WE HAVE A 28th AMENDMENT as proclaimed by King Joseph!
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Kay: FWIW, I saw a couple of crowd pics on Bluesky. Don’t remember which accounts. You’re right that it didn’t get big coverage.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
I don’t use TikTok so I can’t comment on the content. But the company is doing what we chastise other people for doing.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Need you ask?
YY_Sima Qian
@Kay: The Dem establishment’s political calculus on banning TikTok has always been myopic & idiotic to me. It is the preferred platform of the Gen Zers, the majority of whom are instinctually repelled by the reactionaries. It is the one social media platform where progressive/Left messaging can gather momentum. TikTokers effectively mobilized against Trump in ’20!
What was the upside of banning TikTok versus pursuing broad based data privacy regulations? SV & Big Tech went for Trump anyway to have a freer hand on AI & crypto, or are busy accommodating themselves w/ the new powers that be, which is entirely predictable.
Baud
@TBone:
The executive order will come tomorrow.
Starfish (she/her)
A lot of what is going on right now feels like the Iran Hostage crisis. Iranians felt like they were being used as a pawn to help a Republican administration. Note that the hostages were released on the day Reagan took office.
The TikTok and the cease fire in Gaza have similar vibes. Some folks are trying to give early wins to a Republican.
Kay
@Professor Bigfoot:
I hope you’re not making fun of women. I think you don’t hate us and aren’t so I’ll answer. Yes, in fact, some of the organizers were from the Womens March and some of the women marchers wore their hats. It was cold as shit yesterday. They’re tougher than Donald Trump and his weenie manly men.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Baud:
The law has a 90 day extension clause, not 6 months.
Letting the ban expire would not put it all on Trump because Biden signed the bipartisan bill and left the decision about the extension in Trump’s hands. Today was the day that TikTok had to shut down according to the law, and it did (performatively).
Trump will sell TikTok and look like a hero is my prediction on this one.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@@mistermix.bsky.social:
Did Totebagger Radio cover any of the protests? I use them as a yardstick for how one corporate media outlet views the “importance” of such events and whether or not to report on them.
WaterGirl
@Starfish (she/her): Yes! Both of these are flashing in neon lights.
The ship has been turned over to the pirates.
Another Scott
@Starfish (she/her): +1
Donnie wanted the Ukraine war to end on his terms the same time, also too.
It’s all performative. All to make Dear Leader feel good, no matter the policy implications, no matter what it does to the country or her people or anything else.
He’s such a needy broken man.
Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
Professor Bigfoot
@Mr. Bemused Senior: There was no need to ask about the demographics either, was there?
Baud
@@mistermix.bsky.social:
90 days means three months into Trump. Why would people still think about Biden, unless we decided to not hold Trump solely accountable. One thing we’ve learned is that people have short memories. Now it’s possible people have longer memories when it comes to negative attitudes towards Dems, but if so, we have deeper problems than the TikTok issue.
TBone
@Baud: but TikTok’s RELIANCE on it, and resulting ACTION, took place today, just like I’m relying on King Joseph’s Proclamation THAT I HAVE EQUALITY.
Kay
@YY_Sima Qian
They should just move on. Obviously it was some kind of panicked response to something or other, some herd stupidity, but it’s go time now and they need to get busy. Be like Republicans. Just pretend it never happened. Normies don’t obsess on politics like we do. All the TikTok posts I see are about how “the government” shut it down. They’ll move on. We should too.
It’s time to set up a schedule and focus on each one of Donald Trump’s broken promises, Party-wide. Farmers tell me bird flu is spreading like wildfire in Ohio. They’re freaked. I think they said they have already killed a million birds in this state trying to stop the spread (which sounds big but there are a lot of birds). He’s got some serious Presidenting to do. Democrats should be right there with him asking why everything isn’t fixed yet.
Professor Bigfoot
@Kay: Yep, I’m laughing my ass off at these WHITE women who couldn’t show the fuck up last November but who think they can do something NOW.
No, I don’t hate women… but white women are not deserving of any kind of respect as a demographic right now and if you don’t like that, you gotta go talk to other white women.
trollhattan
Whither Tik Tok is a thing about which I have not one care nor opinion. I stopped being an influencer after my kid hit middle school.
My employer blocks Bluesky so in-text links to it are blank on the network, putting them in the same category as ebay. Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Insta all display because guess what, work has accounts on them all and that would look bad if your employees can’t access your content.
I’m sure there’s a point, but I have misplaced that.
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
Why do you think the protestors are people who didn’t show up to vote?
@mistermix.bsky.social
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/19/nx-s1-5267074/donald-trump-inauguration-2025-analysis
It was part of the big “here comes Trump” piece ^^ so I guess so?
Also, Oregon Public Broadcasting covered the Portland march:
https://www.opb.org/article/2025/01/18/portland-peoples-march-against-trump/
Starfish (she/her)
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Here is the list of protests.
https://wefightback2025.org/action-listings
VFX Lurker
I had a young colleague ranting about the impending loss of side income from TikTok this weekend. Not even 48 hours later… TikTok reappears. However, I still spent too much time this weekend reading about TikTok.
I see this as a preview of the next four years. Just gobs of time wasted on what will or will not happen, what will or will not break.
I’m going to have to figure out what deserves my attention, and what does not.
Baud
My experience with social media is limited, but I don’t know what it means for things to be covered by social media. That doesn’t give me any information about actual exposure since I believe everyone’s social media experience is different.
catclub
She has played it well, but leaves out a lot.
The smoking gun you would like to have is:
“WE have evidence that TikTok gave the locations of (idiotic) US soldiers to the Chinese government.”
However, if we actually have the means to determine that, we (the intelligence! community) would be extremely unwilling to tell anyone that we have that capability. So the intel community is in a bind with presenting evidence.
I think if we actually had that capability, it would not be releasable to the Intelligence Committee unless they got their security clearances up a LOT higher.
Raflw
Don’t have a ton to say about this, but I’ve heard thrown out there that the app in question has 175M US users.
But I’m sure that includes a lot of people like me who set up an account to celebrate my niece’s bday in early Covid (we did a pretty funny video, IMO), and then once the views dropped off a few days later, I’ve never been back.
I have seen a number around 100M active monthly users I the country. Not s small number! But even monthly covers a lot of waterfront. Said niece, and maybe moreso her mom, are daily users.
SIL who is definitely a Democrat was sounding a bit ‘out there’s a week or so ago that “one of the only truly independent sources for news” was being shuttered. My partner, a former newspaper guy, was chagrined since both he and I believe in editors and fact-checking.
Suzanne
@YY_Sima Qian:
Agreed.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: Because most of them are white and frankly, I don’t trust white people to either do the right thing or to tell the truth about it, because they oppose Democrats as the party of Black people, again, as a demographic.
“Not all of them, OBVIOUSLY, but so goddamn, motherfucking MANY of them that I am only rational to assume it of any one of them I meet.”
These “protests” are performative bullshit on the part of the demographic that couldn’t get of its collective arse to save it’s own goddamn rights.
YY_Sima Qian
@Baud: ByteDance is not caving to Trump. It flexed its influence in the US to make clear to DC politicians how pissed off many Americans would be if ByteDance‘s portfolio of products are suddenly taken off line, then it strokes Trump’s ego to increase the chance of a favorable deal down the line.
In the meantime, ByteDance now allowing international users to sign up to Douyin, the hitherto PRC only counterpart to TikTok, raises the prospect that it might combine Douyin & TikTok ex-US into the same platform & enable the same kind of global engagement currently happening on RedNote.
Indeed, I suspect ByteDance sees the new RedNote as a greater threat than a US ban. International traffic diverting from TikTok to a Chinese competitor, enhanced by the novel & so far largely wholesome nature of Chinese-foreign engagement, was definitely not on its bingo card. The development threatens not only TikTok‘s position around the world, but also Douyin‘s position w/in the PRC market.
Worst comes to worst, ByteDance can still shut down TikTok US if no deal can be reached & focused on the global market ex-US.
Another Scott
@VFX Lurker: I find that Fritschner is good for helping me keep my head on straight about what’s going on in the House. He’s not always right about the future, nobody is, but he tells what’s happening and the roadblocks and potholes along the way.
He always takes the weekend off. ;-)
I haven’t found anyone similar on the Senate side yet.
FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Harrison Wesley
@Kay: Lots of women are tougher than Swino the Diapered. He keeps dicking with Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum will wind up being our first woman President.
Professor Bigfoot
@Raflw: My account only existed to watch my grandson’s car videos and my youngest daughter’s cooking videos.
But I just never liked the platform.
Of course, I AM a dinosaur who prefers to read over watching videos, so…
Baud
@YY_Sima Qian:
We’ll see. One could frame anything as not caving to Trump, but exerting influence over Trump. The notice TikTok put out ready like a cave, rather than a challenge.
As I said above, I think TikTok is in a good position because Trump doesn’t want the responsibility of shutting it down after his term has begun.
catclub
My prediction is TikTok is not selling. They have billions of
customersusers not in the US.Matt McIrvin
@Baud: People kept slagging on Jimmy Carter for DECADES before the “noble humanitarian post-president” vibe started to dominate.
dc
@Professor Bigfoot: A big chunk of white women voted for Harris, and the ones out there freezing to protest the Asshole elect most certainly did.
Kay
@Professor Bigfoot:
That’s ridiculous. You have contempt for the marchers who all voted your way because of other white women who didn’t? It’s the most counterproductive thing I have read on this site and that’s saying something.
How long are you going to lick your wounds? We got knocked down. Get up. Other Democrats and liberals are not your enemy.
What’s your plan? You’re going to regain power without white women because we all suck? Have you looked at any numbers? The white woman 45% is HUGE. Read the total number rather than the percentage. It’s a coalition, which really just means “we add it up”. Add it up. You’ll never win another statewide or national election again without the existing white women Dem voters. We can’t lose any part of it.
Juju
Perhaps it’s the mood I’m in, but I don’t care about Tik Tok at all. The only thing I’ve seen on TikTok that interested me was a man who could fold a fitted sheet and make it look like a flat sheet. When I fold sheets it looks like 100 monkeys were put in a room with their type writers and my sheets and they did the best they could. Again, it’s probably just me and my mood.
YY_Sima Qian
@catclub: While you have repeatedly been making this hypothetical, actual active duty US military personnel are positing from inside the cockpit of USAF aircraft, on the deck of USN aircraft carriers, w/in US Army bases, on RedNote! Maybe the perceptions of threat vectors are misplaced.
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
Still plenty of decent white folks out there, even if not a majority, and Trump protestors aren’t random people picked out of a population.
I’m trying to make an effort to not be negative toward people who are opposing Trump, even if I don’t think their doing it my preferred way, as long as they don’t cross the line to counterproductive or harmful.
TheflipPsyd
@Professor Bigfoot: How about white men? Don’t they deserve even more derision? I agree white women who are pick-mes and voted for any Republican deserve derision. But white women don’t have the power that white tech bros do? Could you maybe occasionally express some derision towards white men? I get it, you don’t like white women. I don’t really blame you. However, the women who post on balloon juice and attended those protests probably aren’t the women who voted for Trump.
I have not responded to any of the disgusts and derision posted previously because I recognized everyone’s understandable anger with white women. I’ll take my allies where I can find them. Because after today, things may get really dark for our country.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@@mistermix.bsky.social:
I’m guessing the general tone of such coverage will be like this from your linked piece to Oregon Public Broadcasting:
Can’t really argue with the facts in that because obviously turnout is nothing close. But the cynic in me about media semantics assumes the Totebagger crowd is working this in for the usual “see, it’s not really that bad” reasons. Or something.
8 years ago tomorrow, my wife was in the middle of the day-before rioting in DC, just a warm up to the next day’s million people on the Mall. Nothing like that this year but one could argue that 8 years ago, we all rallied together for that…and here we are.
Kay
@dc:
We all suck. They want the tens of millions who make up the 45% to go away. Hey maybe Dems can pick up some white men by shitting on white women. Add to their 35%, which for some reason we never, ever discuss. The pussy hats are CRINGE. It’s much more serious to sit on your ass and complain on the internet than to don those CRINGE hats and spend 9 hours in 20 degree cold like DUMB women do.
catclub
and teach the remaining 6 gen-Zers who don’t know yet, how to use a VPN.
Another Scott
@Juju:
Obligatory TheDoghouseDiaries #4491.
HTH!!
Best wishes,
Scott.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
I get that. But that was designed to compare Carter with Reagan’s morning in America. This is a single issue that Trump has now taken ownership of.
I get that people always want to blame Dems first, because it’s safer and more socially acceptable. But if TikTok goes away three months from now, it would be malpractice not to tie it to Trump.
Bupalos
“This is an issue that people actually pay attention to.“
This is probably true and puts me in my darkest place.
There is a national security threat here and we’re seeing it play out. A dumb-and-dumber “platform” easily overwhelms our hollowed out political and civic space. I doubt Trump gets as much political capital from this as everyone is fretting. The real threat is just the manifest reality that something this stupid, controlled by oligarchs and overlords programming algorithms into our brains – already has more strength than our government.
Kay
@TheflipPsyd:
He knows women are trained to make everyone happy even if it means disrespecting and demeaning themselves and their own work, like the work that was done to organize tens of thousands of people in two cities, so he knows we’ll bow and scrape and apologize. White men won’t do any of that, so it’s safer to attack white women.
WaterGirl
@Professor Bigfoot:
Do you not understand that the WHITE women who showed up for this march are almost certainly not part of the cohort of WHITE women who didn’t show up to vote Dem in November?
They are surely part of the cohort of WHITE women who did vote Democratic in November, and I’ll bet my house that the WHITE women who showed up for this march were a lot of the same WHITE women who also worked their assess of for the election.
Blame all WHITE women for the election results if you like, because WHITE women who didn’t vote Democratic are part of the problem.
But it sure seems odd that you would be laughing at the WHITE women who showed up to protest, as they are almost certainly WHITE women who voted Dem and most likely worked their asses off for their candidate.
dc
@catclub:
VPNs did not work to get around the block. I tried and use a good VPN that works for getting around geographic blocks. Did not work.
Kay
Let me know when ANY man organizes ANYTHING for Democrats for free. You’ll die waiting for that. We’ve been doing the scut work of the Party forever, and all we get in return is men who are upset we didn’t vote hard enough or protest correctly or wear the wrong hats. Do it yourselves then. Win without us. Good fucking luck with that.
catclub
No doubt.
But one has to choose which threat vector to address.
Can you solve the generalized stupidity of ( a non-zero number of) US military members problem?
Can you ban a tool that US military members will use stupidly?
Which is harder?
WaterGirl
@trollhattan:
love that!
Professor Bigfoot
@Kay: Baby, y’all white folks do what you want.
I’m gonna focus on taking care of me and mine.
I got told last November that *my life don’t matter,* so… good luck.
Juju
@Another Scott: Thanks.
John S.
@Kay:
Don’t forget us Jews! According to the professor, we’re exempt from scorn because we’re not white. Unless we don’t wear symbols of our Judaism, because then we present as white which makes us just as bad as white people. Or something.
It’s getting hard to keep up with all the people who suck around here.
Kay
Democratic electeds should thank the female organizers of the marches. They didn’t do jack shit and all the benefits of this work accrue to them, just like in ’16. Especially MALE Democrats.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: Oh, they’re welcome to do whatever they want to do… but again, the time to DO SOMETHING!! was last November, and the majority of that demographic did what they did.
AFTER all the calls, and the “white women for Harris” and “white men for Harris” and all the rest; after leading us to believe *white people* were gonna show up, THEY DID THE SAME GODDAMN THING AGAIN.
YY_Sima Qian
@Baud: On the matter of selling TikTok US, ByteDance cannot operate w/o Beijing’s permission. ByteDance can only cave to Trump if Beijing lets it cave. The algorithm is under PRC export control, & this is now matter of national pride to people in the PRC, where ByteDance derives 80+% of its revenue.
I could see Beijing, Trump, ByteDance & some group of US oligarchs colluding to produce a face saving farce of a deal, selling TikTok US to the US oligarchs, w/ license to use the algorithm but w/o access to the source codes, & strict limits on expanding beyond the US. The new “owners” have the freedom of tweaking the nobs to their hearts’ content, to serve their purposes of influencing the US population to their desired ends.
John S.
@Professor Bigfoot:
Calling a woman baby?? Wow, what an asshole you are.
Professor Bigfoot
@TheflipPsyd: Considering everything that Trump does and says is to benefit straight white Christian men, AT LEAST they’re being RATIONAL.
EVIL, but rational.
Now, white women, who are losing their rights left and right…
Professor Bigfoot
@Kay: To get white people to vote for Dems, Dems have to give up their defense of the civil and human rights of marginalized people.
Particularly Black people.
That’s it, that’s the entire game, and it’s a goddamn shame y’all are unwilling to face up to this.
YY_Sima Qian
@catclub: TikTok had already been banned from the devices of anyone working for the US government & the US military, & their contractors. But I guess RedNote isn’t.
Kay
@Professor Bigfoot:
I mean, if men aren’t going to lead (an obviously they aren’t – their feelings are hurt) would you at least stop jeering at us while we do all the work?
catclub
@dc:
Did that include this extra step?
Can a VPN or the web get around a TikTok ban? A user …
The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com › 2025/01/19 › tiktok…
4 hours ago — Some claim to have found success with hack-y workarounds, like using a VPN and a web browser to create a TikTok account based in another country …
another suggestion was “delete app,
set up VPN. relocate, download app with new user name.”
Professor Bigfoot
@Kay: WHITE women.
See, y’all can’t even engage with the incredible WHITENESS that supports Trump or opposes Dems.
It ain’t “women,” ’cause Black women ain’t having that shit.
It’s WHITE WOMEN, and I double dog dare you to actually engage with that.
TheflipPsyd
I would like some pie. Can someone refresh my memory how that is done? I’ve never done it before.
Thanks
Professor Bigfoot
@WaterGirl: It ain’t my fault nor my demographic’s fault that WHITE PEOPLE vote the way they do, and that we will be among the first to be hurt by it.
Whiteness protects and defends itself.
Professor Bigfoot
@John S.: Don’t fucking be ridiculous.
IN fact, please tell me exactly what was mistaken or incorrect about what I said about Jews *presenting* as white but knowing deep down that the privileges of whiteness don’t apply to them.
Please.
Bupalos
@Professor Bigfoot:
I think this kind of hyper identity politics discourse is really counter productive. There are a lot of ways to slice and dice racial, ethnic, gender and generational political semantics. Try this one on: The majority of people who oppose Trump are white. And the trend is that the anti-Trump army is getting lighter and wealthier while the pro-trump army gets darker and more poor.
offered as a reflection on how practically toxic this identity-driven discourse is to effective politics. It dissolves group solidarity in the name of individual identity.
Professor Bigfoot
@John S.: OH, excuse me, ser, i do apologize for not meeting the norms assigned.
catclub
@YY_Sima Qian:
It has been banned on military owned devices and devices which connect to the DOD networks.
>>Is TikTok banned for the military?
AI Overview
Yes, the US military has banned TikTok on government-issued devices. The ban was implemented in response to security concerns raised by the Department of Defense.
Explanation
In December 2019, the Pentagon recommended that all military personnel delete TikTok from their phones.
The US Army and Navy banned TikTok on government devices in December 2019.
The Pentagon issued a rule in June 2023 to ban TikTok on all DOD-connected devices, including for contractors.
The ban applies to devices owned by the government, the contractor, or the contractor’s employees.
The ban was implemented due to security concerns, including:
Potential national security concerns
The possibility that TikTok was being used to influence or monitor users
Security vulnerabilities that make it easier for hackers to access user accounts and personal data
However, there is no policy prohibiting the use of TikTok in a personal capacity.
Generative AI is experimental. Learn more
Pentagon issues rule to ban TikTok on all DOD-connected devices, including for contractors | DefenseScoop
Jun 2, 2023
DefenseScoop
Restrictions on TikTok in the United States – Wikipedia
Federal restrictions. … In December 2019, the United States Army and Navy banned TikTok on government devices after the Departme…
Wikipedia
Why Does the U.S. Army Ban Its Soldiers from Using TikTok?
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States said that the app could pose national security concerns for American citi…
Patroli Siber
How some U.S. service members built a following on TikTok – NPR
May 9, 2024 — VARGAS: Things that are controversial or unpopular will also get kind of big, but the stuff that kind of stays steady i…
NPR
Timeline: How TikTok grew from a fun app for teens into a potential …
2 hours ago — December 2019. The Pentagon recommends that all U.S. military personnel delete TikTok from all phones, personal and gov…
abc7NY
US Army bans Chinese video sharing app TikTok over ‘potential …
Earlier this month, the military instructed servicemen not to keep the app on government-issued phones in response to a Defense De…
timesofisrael.com
>>
Note all the ‘government issued phones’ phrases.
But has it been banned on any private phone of any military member? It does not look that way to me ona quick search.
Melancholy Jaques
@Kay:
I fear that credibility no longer matters in the sense of reliable source for truth. The mass audience does not seem to be interested in truth; they want comfort & reassurance.
Professor Bigfoot
@Kay: OH, I wish you all well, I do.
But I watched Black women work their motherfucking asses off last year, and here we are.
Again, best of luck.
Raflw
@Kay: I’m sure Brooke Rollins, CEO of the America First think tank will be right on that bird flu problem when she’s Secretary of USDA.
That her main claim to fake in terms of agriculture is a degree from Texas Agriculture & Mechanical University (ok, it’s really just called Texas A&M), and her kids have shown animals in 4H. Fully qualified!!
John S.
@Professor Bigfoot:
Why would I waste my time? You seem convinced that you know more about being Jewish than I do.
Kay
@Professor Bigfoot:
Again, you can pretend “45%” is some killer argument that shuts down all further thought but it isn’t. 45% of 70 million is bigger than 100% of 15 million. The percentage is one thing, the total number is another. In elections the total is what matters. I don’t particuarly want to be in a coalition with you, frankly, I think you have issues with women, but here we are, stuck together in the non fascist coalition. I can’t do it without you and you can’t do it without me. Mutual respect is probably the best approach.
Professor Bigfoot
@Bupalos: You know, this country has literally spent the last 249 years practicing identity politics, specifically for the benefit of white people in general and white men in specific.
But now it’s a terrible thing, isn’t it?
catclub
@YY_Sima Qian: It looks to me that the ban is on government issued phones or devices that connect to the DOD network.
Personal phones? Not clear.
Professor Bigfoot
@John S.: No, actually, I LISTEN to Jewish people who tell me about their experiences here.
You haven’t said a damn thing worth listening to.
John S.
@Professor Bigfoot:
Yeah, it’s pretty well accepted that calling a woman “baby” is disgusting. But you keep on marching to the beat of whatever tune that drummer in your head is banging out.
Citizen Alan
@TheflipPsyd:
It is at least rational for white men to heavily skew Republican, because the GOP is the party of white supremacy and patriarchy. White Republican women vote for a system that treats them as inferior to white men because they still get to feel superior to every other demographic group. That in a way, seems almost more contemptible than blaming white men for whom voting democrat means surrendering, most of our unearned privilege.
I say that as a white male who thinks that, for the most part, my demographic group is a lost cause.
Juju
@Professor Bigfoot: I’ve read a few articles about how Dem black male voters either didn’t vote or shifted to voting Republicans. Why aren’t you mad at them as well? Also Hispanic men who couldn’t bring themselves to vote for a woman because she’s a woman? I don’t get the white woman not voting Dem either, but there’s a whole lot of blame to go around, not just white women. The ones that piss me off are the third party voters.
Kay
@Raflw:
I know the egg prices meme is overdone but wait until they see the egg prices! And chicken. And turkey. And that’s BEFORE they deport all the ag workers On. Day. One.
I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a chicken production facility but the only person who speaks English is the owner and the foreman. It’s absolutely the worst work I can imagine.
Professor Bigfoot
@John S.: Black folks and Southerners call *everyone* “baby” or “honey,” but you keep on with your arrogant entitlement.
John S.
@Professor Bigfoot:
If you can get other Jews to put up with your bullshit long enough to actually listen to what they have to say, more power to you.
But it’s quite obvious that your knowledge of Judaism is based on the one Jewish friend you imagine that you have to give yourself some street cred.
Professor Bigfoot
@Juju: Because they were only a percentage point or two higher than they were before; and that was on the order of fewer than 1 in 5 Black men.
I have castigated them as well, driven by the misogyny that remains a problem in our community but they NOTHING like the 2 out of 3 white men or the every other white woman.
John S.
@Professor Bigfoot:
Sure, dude. Whatever you say. You clearly have no problem with women whatsoever based on this thread.
Professor Bigfoot
@John S.: You still haven’t told me exactly what was wrong with what I said.
You don’t like it, and that’s fine, but really *what did I say that was WRONG or incorrect?
Professor Bigfoot
deleted
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Kay:
Ever been to a hog confinement operation? Similar. Again, staffed by non-English speakers. Horrible work. If the shit lagoon overflows, it’s an environmental disaster.
Miss Bianca
@Professor Bigfoot: I’m usually sympathetic to your railing against white people in general and white women in particular, because for the most part we deserve it, but goddammit – enough. You’re starting to sound like some ragebot dog owner rubbing his puppy’s nose in shit shrieking, “SEE? SEE what a MESS you made?!” – and it’s about as effective in getting the result you claim to want.
Muppet News Flash: The white women in this here space aren’t voting for Republicans, and we aren’t advocating that the Democrats abandon Black people in order to win white people votes, and some of us *are* doing the fucking work to try to get our fellow Honky-Americans to wake the fuck up and stop voting for white supremacy, so Jesus Christ, dude – just a thought, but how about you tell your inner White Lady Misogynist to cram it for a little while and stop fucking insulting us.
Fair Economist
@Kay: So Ohio is having big bird flu trouble too? Georgia has already shut down all poultry activities due to bird flu. I’m not sure what that will do though, given that wild birds can spread it. I’m thinking we’d better get used to expensive eggs and chicken for the next decade or two, until they can breed resistant birds.
Juju
@Professor Bigfoot: That percentage point or two didn’t help.
Fair Economist
@Kay:
The mantra for fighting fascism. You can’t win if you don’t work with people you don’t like.
Professor Bigfoot
@Miss Bianca: I know this.
And I’m not talking about y’all.
But you know every other one of you is onboard with white male Christian supremacy; and that it’s WHITE people.
I would be a lot less adamant if more of us would stop talking about “people abandoning Biden” and “people who stayed home” and “people who did whatever rather than vote for Harris and the Dems” and start pointing at the actual demographic that DID go that way.
No one has any problem talking about Black folks as a demographic, nor Latinos, nor Asian folk nor Jews, but “white people are always just ‘people,” and that does not help us in any way.
Bupalos
@Professor Bigfoot: it’s never not been a terrible thing. Yes.
Professor Bigfoot
@Juju: No, it didn’t.
But is it anywhere i mean ANYWHERE near where white women were?
No, it’s not.
Professor Bigfoot
@Bupalos: Thus I think of it simply as recognizing that identity politics are actually the norm in this country, and that there is no problem with it as long as its for white people.
“People” in this country means “white people,” and all I want is to highlight this fact, and never let “the Slave Power” of white supremacy go without being recognized and acknowledged.
Betty Cracker
@Fair Economist: Truth. Ask any woman in the party who has to put up with sexist bullshit from members of her coalition. Which is every goddamn one of us.
frosty
@TheflipPsyd: Click on the pie just before the comments. Type in the nym you want to pie and hit enter (or something, instructions are there). Pied!
I’m ready to do the same. So many comment threads go off the rails because of one or two commenters.
TheflipPsyd
@Miss Bianca: Thank you. Well said and greatly appreciated.
TheflipPsyd
@Citizen Alan: Wow. Just wow. Thanks for mansplaining that to me.
I truly have appreciated both your and ProfessorBigfoot’s comments over the years. But if you don’t see how toxic the attitude to blame all white women for asshole white women, this country truly is damned.
Professor Bigfoot
@Fair Economist: But you have to be able to TRUST them.
TheflipPsyd
@frosty: Thank you.
Betty Cracker
@Professor Bigfoot: You’re flat wrong there. I don’t trust the MANY sexist assholes in my coalition as far as I could throw them. Why would I? The best I can hope for is that our interests align enough to keep worse people out of power and MAYBE make a little progress along the way on issues I care about.
Baud
TikTok officially thanking Trump. Seems like the same thing other bigwigs in media and social media are doing.
https://bsky.app/profile/phillewis.bsky.social/post/3lg4k6ulsos2t
ETA: I don’t care who people boycott or not. I mostly visit here. blue sky and reddit, and to my knowledge none of them have officially been kind to Trump, so I feel unconflicted.
Kay
Just a reminder – the much-maligned and cringe pussy hat-led coalition was central to winning in 2018 and 2020.
I understand men are furious that they don’t win every single time, forever– God, they SUCK – but my suggestion would be to for men to come up with something other than whining on the internet and thought experiments about how women can do unpaid work better. You do it. For once.
Juju
@Professor Bigfoot: That’s true. The blame is not on the same level, but it is there. I am one of those white women who did everything I was able to do to get Harris/Walz elected. I honestly don’t know how to deal with those white women or white men, for that matter, but realistically we have a better chance persuading the men of color who didn’t vote Dem than the white women who voted Rep. history and human nature has shown that people are often reluctant to give up whatever power they perceive they have.
Professor Bigfoot
@Betty Cracker: That’s what I mean– you have to trust them to *carry through* on their part.
It’s been clearly demonstrated that there are a lot of people who will NOT.
No, hell no, you’re absolutely right not to trust us sexist bastards (I include myself because it’s a daily job of work to overcome the prejudices wired in by American society), but can you trust someone to actually follow through on the things on which you DO agree.
Like all the people who voted in referenda for Dem-like policies, but voted hard against Dems.
Professor Bigfoot
@Juju: This is why I’m such an obnoxious bastard about referring to “people” as white people, because we have NO chance of changing things if we’re unwilling to face up to them squarely.\
Black women damn near killed themselves for this past election; so I get frustrated when folks talk about “women,” and not “white women.”
WaterGirl
@TheflipPsyd: Look for this image – just after the post itself, and just before the first comment.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Great all girl band name.
Bupalos
@Professor Bigfoot: That “identity politics” can be, is, and has been formed from majority identities as well as minority identities is true and something that often goes unnoticed. But it really doesn’t go unnoticed in spaces like this, to say the least. And your fire-and-brimstone act, lecturing your own coalitional partners with this “let me clue you in to the white devil” stuff is ludicrous. It can only alienate and weaken.
The end state you will achieve if your gospel of righteous identity payback spreads is just further erosion of the civic solidarity we need to make a better country. You alienate your friends and embolden and harden enemies.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Betty Cracker:
Replace “sexist assholes” with any number of other labels that apply to other issues and you’ve simply described how many of us feel when looking around at others nominally in the “coalition”.
It’s why we push back because when we don’t, the issues that we care about are either pushed to the side or outright worked against by those same people we don’t trust one iota in our ‘coalition’. Yeah, it’s circular firing squad-like, oh well.
Juju
@Professor Bigfoot: Tell me what we should do about them? I understand your criticism and the anger, but you seem to have as much of a solution as I do. Unless you have something constructive to say, what you are doing here is just being an assholle, or in your words a bastard.
Professor Bigfoot
@Bupalos: Then y’all should quit hiding behind “people” and “men” and “women” and “working class” when every single time you’re actually referring to white people, men, women, and working class.
Really, that’s what I’m on about— to recognize and acknowledge that white is also a demographic, that “white” is not synonymous with “normal, ordinary, regular, real, and what all other demographics should aspire to be.”
Professor Bigfoot
@Juju: I’m Black. I spent my entire career being discounted and ignored and passed over for less qualified and less competent white men.
I don’t have an answer.
My point is that only white people can come up with a solution to white supremacy, and you can’t do that if you’re unwilling to admit who the adversary really is.
Juju
@Professor Bigfoot: I can say the same thing about my career. So many white men and women are horrible. What makes you think I don’t see white men and women as an adversary in your regard? It’s just an assumption on your part. My own personal experience with job and career is that it has usually been mediocre white men who have been the monkey wrench. If that has been my experience, I’m sure your experience in that regard is multiple times worse.
sab
@Professor Bigfoot: I am a retired white woman accountant. My uncle was an accountant and he used to complain that the pay went when they let women in. He was sort of right but I was glad to have a job I mostly loved.
I know a lot of black people who are really good at numbers but they are still absent from the public accounting profession (even though a lot of them studied accounting in school.) They are in government jobs and to a lesser extent corporate and bank jobs.
So please keep speaking out to and against us white people.
Kay
@Professor Bigfoot:
You can take care of you and yours, fine with me. I understand that Black people are (rightfully) exhausted and tired of carrying this country. But if you come here and shit on women who are doing something then expect me to hit you back. I was never successfully socialized as a people-pleasing woman, despite my age and societal norms :)
VFX Lurker
Thank you for this recommendation. I just added him to my Bluesky list for politics.
MomSense
@Professor Bigfoot:
Anti Jewish hate crimes rose by 63% from 2023 to 2024. Just stop. You are angry and lashing out but we are not the ones who deserve your ire.
Matt
LOL Schumer et al were so terrified that something was offering an alternative to pro-genocide propaganda that they handed a win and a social network to the wingnuts.
Bravo, truly the kind of high-quality statesmanship I’ve come to expect from “moderate” Democrats.
The Thin Black Duke
Late to the thread, but I see folks ganging up on the Professor for being honest instead of minding our business when white people ask our opinion about racial politics. I’m not debating anyone anymore. White American will figure it out, or they won’t. This bullshit ain’t on us.
different-church-lady
All social media will inherently become a right-wing hellhole eventually. It’s only a question of whether it will happen due to gravitational forces or be accelerated by specific rich sociopaths.
different-church-lady
Wait, are we seriously trying to blame this defeat on one specific group again?
Ella in New Mexico
@Professor Bigfoot:
White woman here.
First of all, the ones who showed up to protest voted for Kamala, no doubt about it. And just because less than a majority of us voted for Trump, don’t dismiss the millions and millions of us who oppose him.
And don’t forget the millions and millions of white MEN who also abhor this monster and are in just as much agony as the rest of us are he somehow managed to get back in power (I still think we will find someday he cheated with the help of some pretty powerful actors).
Throwing all of us in the same “demographic” when we’re close to the majority is just a shitty, whiney insult from someone who wants to hurt the people who are actually on their side.
This is why mere “demographics” is no way to understand why people vote like they do. Enough black, Asian, Hispanic and other people of color voted for him to blow their historic demographic up as well. What we need to do is figure out why people are continuously fooled into voting against their own interests. And we have to do that together.
Princess
@Professor Bigfoot: Sweetheart, more white women voted for Harris than any other demographic voted for her. This is true even if a majority of white women voted Trump. I know it kills you but you can’t do without us. It’s the Clinton/Harris women voters who were are out there in the cold marching. Did you march yesterday? I didn’t think so. And while you’re complaining about white women, here’s another statistic for you: if Black men in Ohio had voted at the rate Black women did, Sherrod Brown would still be senator.
Ella in New Mexico
@Kay:
Well said and yeah, PB and their kind can kindly fuck off with this line of shit. Let’s get to work.
Ella in New Mexico
@Princess:
The US white voter turnout sucks, but turnout for Blacks and other ethnicities is even lower. We can’t do this alone, folks.
Princess
The people I know IRL who turned up and did the work after 2016 — organizing, banging on legislators, traveling to get people elected etc etc —- were women, white women and Black women. The people in Balloon Juice who step up and do the work on a consistent basis – who don’t think activism = hot takes online — are women. Water Girl, Kay, Nelle, Mousebumples, the postcard organizers, the Ukraine quilt makers, satby and her pet rescues, and more I’m surely forgetting. I think the ones I named are all white women. Your demography is not a sports team. You get credit for your own vote and anyone else you drag out. Not for anyone else.
Princess
@Ella in New Mexico: Black women vote at the highest rate of anyone, like 70%. But Black male voter turnout is among the lowest.
Ella in New Mexico
@Princess: True which is why PB should actually STFU and do something about their OWN demographic, not make the BJ White Women a rage target
Sally
@YY_Sima Qian: JFC!!
My son uses a burner phone, no apps, no watch, no nothin’.
Sally
@Professor Bigfoot: No you don’t. I’m sure no one trusted Stalin. In France at the moment, left and right combined to defeat their fascists. At least for the moment. They hate each other.
YY_Sima Qian
@Sally: I assume you are alluding to your son being in the US military? Yeah, even if prior regulations had not banned TikTok from the personal devices of US military personnel, how can they bring their personal devices into the cockpits of aircraft, onto decks of ships, while on operations?!
WaterGirl
@The Thin Black Duke:
Sincere question. Do you think that’s what I was doing in my comment #61?
Sally
@YY_Sima Qian: It boggles my mind.
Ella in New Mexico
@The Thin Black Duke: no offense but lashing out at people on your team hatefully was only NOT asked for, it was sexist in thAT it was directed specifically at white women—more of whom voted for Harris than any other demographic—and ignored the failures on the part of ALL men—including black and men of color—who either supported Trump or failed to get of their asses and vote at all.
No one says we don’t want opinions or reasonable political observations but punching friends ain’t the way to fix this mess. It IS exactly what to other side WANTS us to do, however.
glory b
@Juju: 2 percent more black men voted Republican this time than last time he won.
As it turned out, the huuuuge increase was just media hype.
glory b
@Princess: Maybe watching media stories showing black men getting dragged out of their houses in their underwear for voting had something to do with it?
Professor Bigfoot
@glory b: It’s really always Black folks fault, the effect of white supremacy on the lives and choices of white people.
Not even gonna argue with these people when they refuse to see the one thing I want them to recognize- that when they talk about “people” and “voters” they’re talking about white people and white voters but whiteness hides behind being the “normal, ordinary, true American way of living.”
To recognize and act on the fact that *white people are a demographic, too, not just what everyone else should aspire to be.