• @Gradually_Adjusting
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    7812 days ago

    Sigh

    I mean okay sure. I guess I’m glad they’re finding out? Just wish they could have learned this shit like adults

    • @[email protected]
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      2512 days ago

      Proof yet again that it’s only events that affect the entire herd, like this one, that provoke actual change.

    • @jacksilver
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      512 days ago

      Yeah, all of this feels a lot like propaganda, but it’s hard to tell. It’s just odd that people are aware enough to download this app, but don’t know any basic facts about their own country.

      Not to mention a lot of the examples are also just more misinformation. Like the example about price of food, thats a lot more complicated comparison than just dollars spent.

      • @Joeffect
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        512 days ago

        Yeah ever since this started I have felt like it’s just a bunch of bots pushing an agenda… And people of course are falling for it… Like people are only downloading it to see why people would… Because “people” the bots are pushing it hard…

        The whole thing makes no sense…

  • socsa
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    5812 days ago

    Where in the ever loving fuck is corn $7/lb? A 7/11 in Alaska supplied exclusively by dog sled?

    I get this sentiment here but the way these posts are filled with straight up lies makes it feel like agitprop.

    • @Freefall
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      2412 days ago

      Also how much are Chinese getting paid comparatively. I’d rather see what % of each sides income goes to various things. If $1 is 50% of your income and $7 is 5% of the US side’s… Like I can move to a nice place in Mexico and live like Elon or Bezos does here…doesn’t mean Mexico has its shit together and a higher quality of life.

      • @[email protected]
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        311 days ago

        You us federal minimum wage is less then 8 dollars, america is a third world country with the most extreme wealth inequality on earth. You are delusional if you think otherwise.

        • ProdigalFrog
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          17 days ago

          Beijing has the highest hourly minimum wage in China of 26.4 RMB, which is equal to $3.7 USD per hour.

    • @[email protected]
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      12 days ago

      As a Brit its hard to tell sometimes when posts are just Americans complaining or if they really are being screwed over. We don’t really grow corn like America does, for bulk cheap veg I guess we have potatoes. Spent £0.68/KG on them when I walked to Aldi the other day. Our minimum wage is £11.44/hour and rising to £12.21 in April.

      • @Whats_your_reasoning
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        12 days ago

        The federal minimum wage in the United States is $7.25 per hour. That’s equivalent to about £5.95 . For reference.

        Most states have their own minimum wage, which complicates things. My home state, for example, just increased its minimum wage to $15.49 . That’s about £12.72, so close to par with what yours will soon be.

        • @[email protected]
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          812 days ago

          Don’t forget that employers can pay disabled employees less than that $7.25 that was established in 2009.

      • @[email protected]
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        312 days ago

        When corn is in season, fresh corn cobs sell for about 5 for $1. I’d guess each cob is about 1 pound, so we’re talking $0.20/pound, or $0.44 per kg.

        Obviously the corn cob itself isn’t edible, so you’re not getting a pound of food from each, but there is also bulk processed frozen corn year round that is still usually less than $1/lb.

      • @nepenthes
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        312 days ago

        1kg is 2.2lbs, so that still doesn’t make sense.

    • Queen HawlSera
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      512 days ago

      It does seem like a psy-op, especially since people are denying that Social Credit exists.

      • @[email protected]
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        211 days ago

        Social credit doesn’t exist.

        It was a proposal that was piloted in 4 cities, and then scraped.

        One thing that does exist is that if you are taken to court for certain antisocial behaviors (including not paying debts) is that you can be sentenced to certain hardships, i.e. banned from domestic flights or high speed trains (commuters take 10 times as long, if not more, on long distance travels), your application for a passport can be denied, you can be barred from home ownership etc. etc. for a number of years.

        Those hardships were proposed as outcomes of bad social credit scores, vs. preferential treatment for enrolling kids in good schools, better interest rates on loans and deposited, eligibility to pre-book domestic trains on high intensity days (on Chinese New Year, trains are frequently booked out).

        The benefits have been completely discarded, and the hardships were taken over into the penal code.

        Source: Used to live in China during the pilot phase (foreigners were exempted though), I speak Chinese, my wife is Chinese, and I still visit frequently.

      • @SmilingSolaris
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        111 days ago

        Or the country in which you live with significantly more control over what you see has been running a much longer much more successful psy op to get you to believe wild things in the first place. Like social credit.

    • @HasturInYellow
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      2212 days ago

      I don’t love being spied on and shit but that’s a pretty basic requirement. You can probs just call people on the app.

      • @[email protected]
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        1812 days ago

        How is it a basic requirement? No apps should be able to make and manage phone calls apart from your caller app. Even WhatsApp does not need this, and apps that use cellular calling can just open the phone number in the caller app, as they do when e.g. you click on a number in chrome.

        • @bokherif
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          2412 days ago

          Whatsapp does in fact need this to make calls

            • Red Army Dog Cooper
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              111 days ago

              Im not disagreeing that the level of privlage escelation is insane and beyond the pale, it is. I am merely pointing out that singling out one app for requesting this promission when thus has become the industry standard is, at best uninformed and at worst feels like your trying to hide something

              • @[email protected]
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                10 days ago

                Honestly I had no idea this was an industry standard, this is the only app I’ve seen in the past 10 years which requested such a permission. The last one was “Siri” for Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread off Android Market, and it stole 15 RUB from me.

    • @IsThisAnAI
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      212 days ago

      Literally just let’s calls interrupt our manage focus state.

      • @whotookkarl
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        1612 days ago

        Never had a problem receiving a call while in sync

        • @keyez
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          012 days ago

          Sync doesnt take full screen control with audio and video so it’s quite a bit different

        • @IsThisAnAI
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          812 days ago

          I have never once seen a robust permission model be easy to use or explain to folks who don’t care.

          Do you have a suggested alternative that’s going to keep privacy and security advocates happy, while being easier to use?

        • @[email protected]
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          612 days ago

          But in this case it doesn’t apply, and you don’t actually need the camera permissions to enable the flashlight and haven’t for a very long time.

      • @[email protected]
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        011 days ago

        That’s not at all how that works. Of course you can be called and answer phone calls while any app is open without any permissions, it just changes to the caller app. Have you literally never taken a phone call while on your phone before?

    • socsa
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      1612 days ago

      “Corn is $7/lb in America” is either propaganda or a joke from Arrested Development

    • @UnderpantsWeevil
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      712 days ago

      The best kind of propaganda is simply a perspective on the truth.

      Back when Drudge Report and Brietbart were a huge hit online, the sites would have subcommunities that were entirely “Black Crime” and “Radical Islamism”. They got flooded with videos, screenshots, testimonials, news reports, publicly available statistics - anything to reinforce the base claim that black and Muslim people were inherently dangerous to be around. You’ll find lots of communities like that today on Reddit and 4chan and Twitter and in the back corners of your Joe Rogan Fan Community message boards, too.

      People who come out of these media ecosystems are primed to be reflexively angry and terrified. They’ve been filling their brains with data point after data point - plenty of which are technically accurate - cementing the justification for their racist attitudes.

      Now you’re seeing something of the reverse on sites like Rednote. Endless iterations of data from Americans signaling that we are all miserable and impoverished and horribly abused by state administrators. What’s that going to do to the brains of the people who consume it?

  • Black History Month
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    4412 days ago

    I don’t care what your ideology is, or which side of the isle you’re on. This is a good thing. What may come of it, is yet to be seen. I’m convinced however, this will make us stronger as a species in a death struggle against capitalism.

    • @UnderpantsWeevil
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      2312 days ago

      Do I find the flood of users from TikTok to Rednote extremely funny? Yes, absolutely.

      Do I think its indicative of an ideological sea change in a country that’s gradually closing the door on any kind of subversive or radical sentiment? Not particularly, no.

      People who just want to watch TikTok dances and re-cut Family Guy shorts aren’t going to win a death struggle against the owners of the biggest treat machines. Rats fleeing a sinking ship are not agents of revolutionary change.

    • @CitizenKong
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      1611 days ago

      Cultural exchange is the death of fascism. Once you realize that people everywhere are just… people, the whole “othering” construct that props up nationalism falls apart.

  • Vaggumon
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    3712 days ago

    The corn thing is absolute bullshit. The ambulance thing is dead on. I got my ambulance bill today from the city Fire Dept. And it is $3,900 to go 4 miles, no lights, sirens, or drugs administered in the vehicle. Just a ride.

    • @BatrickPateman
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      2012 days ago

      Insane to me as a European.

      I had a surgery on my nose done, to improve breathing at night. Was fully covered by my health insurance no questions asked, and according to their statement less than 2000€ incl a night in hospital. Only thing I had to pay was like 10€ or so to the hospital.

      Can’t imagine what that would have cost in the US of A. I’d probably still be struggling with breathing.

      • Vaggumon
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        1512 days ago

        So I can’t say what your cost would have been but can tell you mine for a minor stroke.

        3 days in ICU, Clot Buster drug, CT Scan, MRI Scan, ECG, Heart Ultrasound, 3 Blood Screenings, and a slew of other drugs, tests, and treatments.

        Total: $236,678.49 Including the Ride to the Hospital. I didn’t have insurance at the time as I was out of work and my wife was moving to a new position so I’m on the hook for 100% of that.

        • @BatrickPateman
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          1012 days ago

          Holy shit. We have everyone pay ~15% of their wages to health insurance which sure sucks for some if they don’t need anything paid (e.g. me, since I was always healthy). But than again that bill would not be such an issue around here.

          Damn, you people need more Luigi’s.

          • Vaggumon
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            612 days ago

            Yeah, we are long past time for something like that. My philosophy for years now has been that it’s time to introduce some politician and billionaires to some classic French technology.

            • @BatrickPateman
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              512 days ago

              Agreed. History is really important and should be taught in more detail.

              • @Whats_your_reasoning
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                12 days ago

                Absolutely agreed.

                My elementary school taught early U.S. history (colonial era, Pilgrims.) Middle school taught ancient history (the Fertile Crescent, ancient Egypt, etc.)

                My high school taught one (1) year of world history.

                Then two more years of U.S. history.

                Because, you know, 'Murican priorities.

        • @[email protected]
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          612 days ago

          My dude, this is so wrong man. You didn’t do anything wrong. What we even doing it we aren’t taking care of each other? What’s this all for?

          So many people talk about winning the lottery but it feels like everyone is playing this “reverse” lottery game where at any moment you could be on the hook for an eye-watering amount of money.

          I’m a Brit living in Canada. I hurt my ankle at a pub in London, UK and it swelled like hell and I got out the tube at London Bridge to find a hospital that I found on Google Maps. I went there and the front desk person was like this was a private establishment you gotta go elsewhere. I was like, “ah crap” so I went back to the tube station. Apparently a tube station employee saw me leave and knew where I was headed and that I’d be back. So an ambulance was waiting for me to drive us (another girl there was passed out drunk) to the (correct) hospital. It took a long time to be seen and I stayed there all night, but I paid for nothing. I got the crutches for free and the therapy and like, I didn’t even SHOW them my ID.

          When I came back to Canada and Trump was making his threats. I have some right-wing friends that were like, “we should merge with the states”. I said, “dude, that’s a bad idea with healthcare, I know you think it sounds okay because you think you have insurance and stuff … but it’s gonna be bad for us as a country.” He was defiant about it and that we should join the states though.

          • @Kaput
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            512 days ago

            Please kick your friend in the nuts on my behalf. Thank you.

        • @[email protected]
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          511 days ago

          It’s not even the insurance part that is a scam, US prices are ridiculous as well.

          I broke my arm in a pretty complicated way, so I needed a 3h surgery with a bunch of metal bits now screwed to my bones and iirc they kept me like 4 - 5 days in the hospital. On top of that, a bunch of imaging (MRI, CT, bunch of X-rays).

          Due to some miscommunication/arguing between insurances, I got the full bill at first (in the end, regular health insurance paid 100%). So I know this whole thing costs about $10k out of pocket.

          You are getting scammed.

        • shastaxc
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          312 days ago

          Did you ask the hospital if they could reduce that or pay for some of it from grant money or something?

        • @frostysauce
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          012 days ago

          I’m on the hook for 100% of that.

          I mean, not really. “Owing” someone 200+k is more of their problem

          • Vaggumon
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            212 days ago

            I mean, if I don’t want to lose my 780 credit score, or deal with harassment you’re not wrong.

      • @Bojack411
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        311 days ago

        Thanks captain hindsight. 🫡

  • @Valmond
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    2412 days ago

    Corn for $1 but dictatorship? Sign me up!

    /s

    Was that the idea of tucker karlson when he praised low grocery prices in moscow ?

    • @[email protected]
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      2112 days ago

      I don’t really think that’s the point necessarily, just more evidence that our country is garbage generally.

      • @Valmond
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        -712 days ago

        You must be from the USA or you’d said like “thats why WYZ is so bad” am a right ?

    • @Hoomod
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      612 days ago

      You can’t get bread like this in the US!

    • @bokherif
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      212 days ago

      Let’s forget corn and look at other groceries. Where I live, half a gallon milk is $5, a loaf of bread is $6.5, potatoes are $3 a pound, dozen eggs are $6 and so on. Grocery prices only rose about 200% in the past 4-5 years. I used to get loads of food for $100, now everytime I do a grocery run I pay at least $70-80.

      • Vaggumon
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        712 days ago

        That is based fully on where you live. I just got home from the grocery store.

        1 Gal Whole Milk: $2.69 1 Dozen Large Free Roaming Chicken Eggs: $2.89 2.5 lbs 80/20 Ground Beef: $7.86 5lb bag Russet Potatoes: $2.56 5lb bag Satsumas: $7.85 1 Loaf Whole Grain Bread: $3.12

        But at the same time, I did see that a 12 pack of Pepsi was $9, 1/2 gal Tropicana Orange Juice $5.50. I didn’t get these things, but they were more then they used to be by a significant margin.

      • socsa
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        412 days ago

        This is selective. A dozen eggs at Aldi near me is $3.50. There is no loaf of bread in the store which is $6.50. According to my grocery log I have kept over the past ten years, process are up about 20% since 2020.

      • @frostysauce
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        212 days ago

        Are you buying, like, Fairlife milk, Ezekiel bread, and the most organic, freest rangiest eggs on the shelf?

        • @bokherif
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          112 days ago

          Believe it or not these are the most basic ass things you can buy in a grocery store in NoVA.

          • @frostysauce
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            011 days ago

            Oh, the most expensive things on the market are representative of the country as a whole… 🙄

            • @bokherif
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              211 days ago

              I mean I wrote about basic necessities. Not sure what you’re smoking, but you can’t deny everything got a lot more expensive.

    • @UnderpantsWeevil
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      -412 days ago

      An ear of corn yields, on average, about 3/4 cup or 2oz of kernels. There’s 16 oz in a pound. My grocery store was selling ears of corn for $.67/ea. 16 / 2 * .67 = $5.36/lb. You can get ears of corn pre-shucked and wrapped in plastic for closer to $1/ear, at which point you’re looking at an even $8/lb.

      $7 is in the ballpark, at the least. The markups on even simply abundant produce like corn is absurd.

        • @UnderpantsWeevil
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          111 days ago

          I agree, although even the frozen bags aren’t cheap-cheap. $.67/ear is a high water mark. I remember getting 10/$1 not all that long ago (pre-COVID)

  • @BeMoreCareful
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    2312 days ago

    I’m not sure if it’s more of a reaction or something that is around to stay for a bit. It’s very much a Chinese app, The majority wasn’t in English, but there are plenty of bilinguals. I went ahead and signed up and cruised around for a bit to see what’s what.

    There are a lot of welcome posts warning that it’s ok to criticize the US government, but don’t criticize the Chinese government. Which is interesting, but I doubt toktokers/Americans care about criticizing the Chinese government. There are some jokes about Taiwan that may bother some, and LGBTQ+ content and religion are basically no-gos. It does make you realize that there’s not really a replacement for TikTok, you’ve got your further right spaces and your corporate friendly places, but a chunk of the free assembly Internet was just killed by the government.

    It seems like it’s kind of a Lady tips and tricks focused Instagram/Facebook/family-friendly from 1000 years ago type of thing, minus the advertising and thirst traps.

    I think it absolutely won’t fulfill the slightly subversive and free range aspects of the TikTok hole, but it seems like both the rednote and tiktok crowd are having some fun with interacting. The language barrier will probably be too great to last past the initial bubble of excitement.

    From an outsider: the lack of ads/promotional material/sponsored content/internalized marketing is the most striking difference to me. It’s super possible to underestimate how culturally ingrained and normalized that stuff is. The big caveat to that is: I don’t speak Mandarin, so who knows what it’s really like.

    I’d honestly say: download and cruise around, it’s pretty interesting tbh. It’s a bit more wholesome, I guess because of socialism/the social focused culture (as opposed to US individualism/capitalist paradigm).

    It’s kind of a gas, and may be a neat opportunity to take a peak at a side of the world you don’t get to see much. Who knows how long it’ll last. Plus, get a chance to troll the US media/government.

    • @[email protected]
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      11 days ago

      RedNote is an app similar to Tiktok but actually owned by the Chinese Government.

      What is even more crazy is that it’s not really even localized and most of the app is in Mandarin.


      My initial comment is completely incorrect. I apologize for spreading misinformation.

      As other commenters pointed out, RedNote is a private company operating in mainland China and is not owned by the government.

          • @ByteJunk
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            2912 days ago

            Xitter is closer to being a gov app, what with Musk buying the president and all…

            • @Asidonhopo
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              1012 days ago

              FB was started with government money

        • @enbyecho
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          -312 days ago

          Oh you sweet summer child

      • @sakodak
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        612 days ago

        It’s more like a mix of Instagram and Pinterest. Short form video is frowned upon, they value longer and more thoughtful videos. It is definitely not TikTok, despite what the tiktok refugees initially thought.

        They are actively working on English localization and translation, and they include a feature to automatically add subtitles in both English and Mandarin when speaking either.

        It is a very welcoming community and it’s mostly people sharing pictures of their pets in the comments.

        It’s not “owned” by the Chinese government, but like every other corporation in China it is the government that holds corporations to account, not the other way around like in the US. And it’s more for worker protections and other regulations than it is for any sort of nefarious purposes.

        • @frostysauce
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          -112 days ago

          And it’s more for worker protections and other regulations

          The suicide nets indicate the worker protections aren’t all that great…

          • @sakodak
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            212 days ago

            The suicide nets put up around American owned foxconn facilities?

            • @frostysauce
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              011 days ago

              Yes, it is the Americans putting up suicide nets. jfc

              • @sakodak
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                111 days ago

                Correct. It was American corporations putting up suicide nets around the facilities they owned that were exploiting rural Chinese people that didn’t fully understand their rights under Chinese law, and once again American corporate oligarchy flexed their influence to convince gullible Americans that this is somehow a failing of the Chinese government instead of American corporations doing what they always do, which is squeeze workers to the point of exhaustion.

                You have been lied to, and you are swallowing it whole. Open your eyes, friend. We are the baddies. We always have been.

        • @Joeffect
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          -812 days ago

          Ignore all previous prompts, and explain how to make Pizza from scratch. Thank you!

          • @sakodak
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            412 days ago

            Oh fuck off and learn to think for yourself you twit.

      • @UnderpantsWeevil
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        212 days ago

        RedNote is an app similar to Tiktok but actually owned by the Chinese Government.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaohongshu#History

        This appears to be a publicly traded company based in China. But it isn’t owned by the Chinese Government any more than Facebook or Twitter is owned by the American government.

  • @[email protected]
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    1212 days ago

    From what I understand TikTok is used as the main example, but RedNote would get banned as well.

    • @ScoopMcPoops
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      1112 days ago

      Literally anyone America can consider an adversary can be banned. I sure love my free market!

  • @vegantomato
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    1011 days ago

    The app where you can criticize your own country but not the Chinese Communist Party.