you can also tag people on Lemmy, or at least I can. look for the About User menu then “Add Tag” or “Tag user” from their profile

i think tik tok might be in a position where they must sell in order to continue serving content to American users

https://apnews.com/article/trump-tiktok-china-bytedance-social-media-tariffs-665e46fd5bb555e97c4d7301e07230df

The order was announced as White House officials believed they were nearing a deal for the app’s operations to be spun off into a new company based in the U.S. and owned and operated by a majority of American investors,

the extension only happened because after the TikTok CEO, Shou Chew, threw a big party for right wing influencers during Trump’s record breaking $200M bribe acceptance party inauguration, Trump mysteriously halted the order (despite being signed into law) to ban the app.

from the article:

Top TikTok executives reportedly rubbed shoulders with American tech leaders and handed out business cards at an elite pre-inauguration donor event on Sunday featuring members of the Trump administration, as the app’s future in the U.S. remains uncertain.

Tiktok executives including CEO Shou Chew and vice president Michael Beckerman were reportedly on hand at the event, which President Donald and First Lady Melania Trump hosted at the National Building Museum in Washington. They joined a reported guestlist including Vice President JD Vance, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and conservative megadonor Miriam Adelson.

geeze, it’s almost like the tech oligarchs told Trump to pause the ban until they could negotiate a way to profit more from acquisition of TikTok (or a newly created US based subsidiary that Bezos is trying to invest in) than by outright banning users access to it, cold turkey.

I hear that, and respect it.

but the efficacy and true democratic representational nature of American elections has been, is, and will continue to be incredibly fucked up.

From Jim Crow, women’s suffrage, civil rights, electoral college distortions, superdelegates, gerrymandering, first past the post, Citizens United, dark money, super PACs, disenfranchising felons, purging voter rolls, intimidating poll workers and voters, corporate monopoly over journalism/media/news, celebrity worship, manufacturing of consent, ID laws, Bush v Gore election theft to the fact that election day isn’t a holiday and most people work…

are US elections even free and fair? have they ever been?

I can understand people not prioritizing it or even bothering with it at all… when was the last time the govt truly did anything to help the plurality of voters? the New Deal?

first time hearing about this, any more details you can provide or link to a news release? is this Ubiik?

saving this for later, thanks

political memes often are news though. they aren’t like, mutually exclusive.

yep. we all definitely need breaks. i take long breaks every few months or in the winter when seasonal depression kicks in.

but this is a critical junction for global history. class warfare has escalated and accelerated, and the vast vast majority of us are being actively oppressed through the dismantling of economic and social welfare programs.

my family stands to lose too much for me to be burying my head in the sand right now.

some aren’t ready or able or willing to do the work of preparing a response. others have no choice but to pay attention because their family’s future literally depend on knowing whether today is the day they “come for you” and all this (bwamp bwamp) news actually reaches your doorstep.

so while people are arguing anime fandoms and who wins The Big Game, I’ll be trying to understand my enemy, encourage my allies, and decide what an appropriate response looks like (in real life) using the latest information i have available.

OP is onto something.

maybe people are getting sad out there. maybe news is coming at us fast… because change (unprecedented bad bad change) is happening faster than ever before?

it’s a sign of the times. people blaming news junkies or whining about blocking comms don’t get it. we’re no longer living in a time when we can afford to ignore what’s happening around us.

ps, I’m not arguing against memes. in fact go check !conservative@lemmy.world it’s been turned into a satire comm under new mods and it’s wonderful!

i don’t wonder that. let the normies have their Destiny 2 and PublicFreakout and fantasy sports communities elsewhere. seeing comment section after section on Reddit filled to the brim with “I’m so funny!” unserious one liners was obnoxious. people talking about GoThrones fandom and RC cars while inequality skyrockets or the rich dismantle every federal govt program that benefit 99% of the population is not a good thing to yearn for. the founders-effect dominance from a handful of narrow ideologically centrists is not something we need more of.

meh. you’re not a psycho.

compassion is a muscle. if you’ve never spent much time, dedication, or effort working on empathizing with other people you won’t be good at it (or even think about it).

we just so happen to live in society where those skills are not as rewarded compared to being self centered, independent, and ruthless. conditions maketh the man. hang out with someone who’s got a lot of compassion and concern for the feelings of others and you’ll quickly realize what you thought was your personality is actually a learned maladaptive response to living in a cruel and apathetic world.

Colby Jack… tell me you’re indecisive without telling me you’re indecisive.