When COVID first went viral in China, the authorities and the locals began going after Africans and blaming them for the virus.
Americans bemoan the nation’s racism when they’re living in what is probably the least racist nation in the world. And while I’m not going to suggest that the People’s Republic of China is the most racist nation in the world (that’s a tough competition with no clear winners but a legion of runner-ups) it’s definitely up there.
But faced with a possible ban, TikTok is taking out the nuclear weapon of American political discourse.
TikTok’s chief operating officer blasted the House’s hearing on the platform Thursday, saying that it came from a place of xenophobia.
“We’re committed to providing a safe, secure platform, that fosters an inclusive place for our amazing, diverse communities to call home. It’s a shame today’s conversation felt rooted in xenophobia,” Vanessa Pappas, TikTok’s COO, wrote on Twitter. “Thank you to our employees who work tirelessly to protect our platform & community.”
Especially the ones in China caught accessing American data after TikTok reps had previously lied and told Congress that couldn’t happen.
Vanessa, formally “V(anessa) Pappas (She/Her, They/Them)”, is formally the COO of TikTok, in reality is there to be a distraction from who actually runs TikTok. American execs are a front for the Chinese execs who actually run it.
ByteDance, the Chinese company behind TikTok, has decided to go all in on identity politics. So Vanessa will happily regale you with stories of being a pansexual and how it reflects TikTok’s commitment to inclusivity.
In real life, TikTok, as we know it, isn’t allowed in China. Its Chinese version is carefully curated and isn’t going to allow any of the culture war stuff it’s attacking us with into its country. There’s a good reason for that.
While Vanessa lectures us on xenophobia, maybe she can ask her bosses why their own country doesn’t allow the garbage it’s pushing on us.
While TikTok has become the most popular app in the rest of the world, a domestic version called Douyin is available to Chinese consumers. The apps are nearly identical — but with one critical difference: users under 14 are required to use Douyin in healthy moderation on “teenage mode.”
Young, impressionable users are limited to 40 minutes a day between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. to ensure they get adequate sleep. Endless zombie-like scrolling is interrupted by mandatory 5-second delays. They’re also only shown specially-selected “inspiring” content.
“The algorithm is vastly different, promoting science, educational and historical content in China while making our citizens watch stupid dance videos with the main goal of making us imbeciles,” Nicolas Chaillan, former Air Force and Space Force Chief Software Officer told the Post.
If you notice this, you’re a xenophobe.
The lawsuit alleges that “TikTok’s dangerous algorithm intentionally and repeatedly pushed the deadly ‘Blackout Challenge’ into both Lalani and Arriani’s TikTok ‘For You Page’” That means, according to the lawsuit, that TikTok had “specifically curated and determined that these Blackout Challenge videos – videos featuring users who purposefully strangulate themselves until losing consciousness – are appropriate and fitting for small children”.
Arriani, the 9-year-old girl, was found “hanging by her dog’s leash which she had affixed to the door to her room. She had been in this condition for at least a half-hour in front of her 5-year-old brother.” Lalani, the 8-year-old girl, was found “hanging from her bed with a rope around her neck still warm to the touch. Lalani had laid out her bathing suit in anticipation of going swimming.”
The two girls are one of seven children to have died as a result of the “blackout challenge”.
Five of the children, including 12-year-olds in Colorado and Oklahoma, and a 10-year-old in Pennsylvania, are Americans.
The biggest xenophobes in the world are using their puppets to call us xenophobes because we object to them going after our children.
Algorithmic Analyst says
Xenophon’s Anabasis was one of my favorite books. I gave it to someone as a present, but he didn’t like it, because he wasn’t familiar with the place names.
Anabasis covers the march of the Greek Army stranded in Turkey all the way through the hostile country to get back to Greece.
Jeff Bargholz says
I read a good novel about that odyssey .Steven Pressfield. Good book. He wrote one about the Iliad, Too.
They were very entertaining. He’s quite a good writer.
I think you would like them.
It was fun to read a novelist’s take on history.
Xenophon says
The 1979 movie “The Warriors” is based on Xenophon’s Anabasis.
“The film is based on Sol Yurick’s 1965 novel The Warriors, which was, in turn, based on Xenophon’s Anabasis.” – Wikipedia
Jeff Bargholz says
I saw that movie at a theater when it came out. I liked it. “Warriors. Come out to playay” A good flick.
The characters had to go through a lot of shit to get home. I should have realized it was based on Xenophon’s history but I was just a kid. I missed the connection even though I read all the classics when I was a boy.
Jeff Bargholz says
Not the Iliad. That would be stupid.
It was the battle of Thermopylae. He did a very good rendition of Leonidas.
Algorithmic Analyst says
Thanks Jeff. On a tangent, one of my pet ideas: there are some periods of history partly covered by excellent evidence but partly mostly with scant evidence. Some author could write a book for the general reader which is rigorous where there is enough evidence, then fill in the blank periods with the most probable scenarios. There is already something like that in military history, since battles often have scanty evidence for important parts, called the most probably military scenario, what a trained staff officer would have done in the circumstances, or something like that. There is an official name for such an approach, slips my mind at the moment.
To make it easier and more enjoyable for the general reader to follow the story while not going off the rails into wild speculation.
One of my favorites was how Prof. Michael Arthur Lewis covered the fight between the English Fleet and the Spanish Armada off the Isle of Wight. There was good evidence for 2 of the English formations but practically nothing for Drake’s unit and the other unit, which slipped away to the south then caught a good wind back up, with decisive and fascinating effect.
Jeff Bargholz says
Yes, you never know if the history you read is factual, especially ancient history. First account histories written by people who where there are the most reliable, like the Discovery and Conquest of New Spain, by Bernal Diaz del Castillo.
Have you ever read The Epic of Gilgamesh? It’s surprisingly good, especially considering it’s the oldest written story on Earth. If I remember correctly, it was deciphered from cuneiform tablets.
Algorithmic Analyst says
Yeah, I read them both. I found “Gilgamesh” at the UC Berkeley Bookstore decades ago. I used to rummage through the textbooks for history classes and such to see if there was anything interesting there.
Steven Brizel says
Tik Tom should be banned because of its harvesting of information from Americans and its terrible influence on its users
Mickorn says
This is an issue where the right and left should align. Agreed that Tik Tok and its close ties to the Chinese government are a danger to US security, and that American children should not be putting their private data in the site.
Agreed that China is a deeply racist country, and that criticism of American racism is self-serving and hypocritical.
This is far from saying that there’s no racism in America, and it’s far from endorsing your generally exclusionary and hate-promoting rhetoric.
Mo de Profit says
Nobody has stated there is no racism in America and there is NEVER any hate-promoting rhetoric here unless leftist elites comment.
Una Salus says
Hate to be exclusionary but It isn’t far from a statement of equivalence and what Left are you talking about? The Left that exists in your mind where you live?
“SKDK’s managing director, Anita Dunn, is Biden’s senior advisor and unofficial campaign manager who took control and steered him through the Democrat primaries.”
Jeff Bargholz says
Yes, anti white racism is endemic in America.
Darkies get a free pass.
Kasandra says
Could this Pappas person have possibly pushed more woke buzzwords into one Tweet?
Spurwing Plover says
Someone needs to check out the history of the Democrat Party not found in the leftists written History books