• Ulrich
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    28 days ago

    I feel like this is an incredibly obvious yes. They were down for 12 hours. They put Trump’s name as their savior in the error message… Then the CEO shows up to his inauguration. Trump freely admits that it is because he believes TikTok helped him win the election:

    “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won youth by 34 points,” Trump said in December. “And there are those that say TikTok had something to do with that.”

    So. Yeah. Of fucking course it was. Fuck national security and all that nonsense, ME ME ME!

  • db0
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    9529 days ago

    I will argue that so was the Israel cease-fire “strong-man” act. In fact my conspiracy theory is that Israel explicitly delayed the cease-fire so that Trump could look strong by finishing it, then whined a bit in the newspapers to sell it. This is not even the first time they GOP has done this, as per the Iran hostages affair.

      • @[email protected]
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        29 days ago

        Which was itself a sequel to Nixon trying to stall peace negotiations during the Vietnam War.

    • @[email protected]
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      2129 days ago

      Yeah and it’s not far-fetched considering how openly Netanyahu endorsed Trump. With Trump in office Netanyahu can do whatever he wants, waging a costly in terms of PR war will be no longer necessary.

      • db0
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        428 days ago

        because Trump and Bibi said they didn’t talk about delaying it

        Oh well, if the two known liars said so…

    • @[email protected]
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      829 days ago

      Headline from fox news: “Oliver North: Israel will have to put people on the ground and it will be bloody”

      Reality is truly stranger than fiction. If any writer continued to use a character like him for so long in such obvious ways without suffering any consequences, readers’ suspension of disbelief would be shattered.

      He was there for Iran-Contra. He is still here for Israel-Hamas. The exact same playbook. Place political gain over national interest. Put lives needlessly in danger and extend suffering for an easy win.

    • @MothmanDelorian
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      129 days ago

      I believe it was because under Trump Israel would get better terms as Miriam Adelson paid for that.

  • @Docus
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    7229 days ago

    The only thing that can make Trump look good is his obituary

  • 2ugly2live
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    6729 days ago

    Lmao, yes.

    He “brought it back” before he was even in office. And since no one looks up anything, I’m sure it did it’s job.

    • @CosmoNova
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      328 days ago

      How do people not see through this theatre? It wasn’t even subtle. Oh right, the brainrot…

  • @small44
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    6229 days ago

    The original idea came from him. To me it just makes trump a hypocrite

    • @[email protected]
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      1329 days ago

      How so? It was politically convenient to go after TikTok when he did it, and it’s politically convenient to reverse course now. That’s a pretty consistent gameplan from Trump, attack something when it’s popular, reverse when reversing is popular.

      • @[email protected]
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        2929 days ago

        Hypocrisy: The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.

        Holding a position when politically convenient and reversing your stance on that position due to political convenience is hypocrisy. It may be typical and expected, but it’s still hypocrisy.

        • @[email protected]
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          729 days ago

          But Trump has no values or beliefs, the only thing he’s consistent about it putting his name in headlines. So reversing is absolutely consistent with his values.

          • @[email protected]
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            1229 days ago

            Hypocrisy: The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess

            Having no values or beliefs and being self-consistent with ulterior personal values does not change the definition of the word.

            If one professes beliefs, feelings, or values that one does not possess, one is a hypocrite.

            • @[email protected]
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              -129 days ago

              Can you really call it “professing” if nobody actually believes you and you know nobody will believe you?

              • @[email protected]
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                28 days ago

                Yes.

                Profess: 1) To affirm openly; declare or claim. 2) To make a pretense of; pretend.

                If one makes a pretense of holding beliefs, feelings, or values that one does not hold, one is a hypocrite.

                Whether anyone else understands the pretenses of the hypocrite or not does not change the definitions of the words.

          • @Windex007
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            329 days ago

            So what you’re saying is he professes to have beliefs which he doesn’t actually have?

              • @Windex007
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                428 days ago

                That’s irrelevant. When he says “I believe X”, he is professing that he believes something. Just because we know he’s lying doesn’t mean he isn’t saying it.

                That kinda logic scares the hell out of me, btw. People are just so numb to it that it’s like their brains are short circuiting.

                • @[email protected]
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                  028 days ago

                  That’s kind of like random people confessing to killing Brian Thompson. Is it really a confession if everyone knows you’re lying? Likewise, is it really a protestation if neither the speaker nor listener believes it?

          • @[email protected]
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            29 days ago

            It used to be that politicians suffered in the polls when they flip flopped, but the only one Trump would suffer is if he went against his base.

            Like when he floated that maybe the covid vaccine was ok.

            • @[email protected]
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              429 days ago

              Honestly, his base tends to follow him, so as long as it’s not a core belief, he could flip on a number of things without incident.

              It’s disgusting and I really don’t understand why his base tolerates it.

              • Evkob (they/them)
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                228 days ago

                I really don’t understand why his base tolerates it.

                Because the relationship between him and his “base” isn’t one between citizens and politician, it’s a literally a cult following their leader.

      • @small44
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        529 days ago

        When he came with the ban idea he used the same argument of national security that is the hypocritical part. Like you say the real reason is just political convenient

        • @[email protected]
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          129 days ago

          He also claimed national security when he messed with tariffs. At this point, it’s just an excuse to do something to grab headlines.

      • @Freefall
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        228 days ago

        It is more in line with a puppet, that has zero understanding of anything, being told what to say as it is convenient.

    • aname
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      528 days ago

      If we were talking about a sane person, I don’t see why a person cannot change his mind.

      Trump is just playing the fools.

      • @Duamerthrax
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        228 days ago

        Trump doesn’t have a mind to change. I doubt he even remembers he ever proposed a ban and this is just some advisor telling him that doing the opposite of Biden will get him likes.

    • @[email protected]
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      328 days ago

      Trump’s basically a fractal hypocrisy, which is, as I understand it, why and how the grift keeps grifting.

  • @Letme
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    4628 days ago

    Sort of, yes. It is a counterintelligence/disinformation app, and for that reason it makes MAGA look good. MAGA now controls all 3 of the top disinformation apps: Twitter, Facebook , and Tiktok. This is the war on truth; facts and honesty lost.

  • @[email protected]
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    3028 days ago

    Trump started the whole thing because he was unpopular on Tiktok. Republicans jumped on board because young people were politically organizing on the platform and they don’t like that.

    But up to that point, there was no really effort, even as much as they tried to claim “national security”.

    Then when the real information about Palestine was being spread there the democrats jumped on board because they are the same as republicans when if comes to foreign policy.

    That’s what started the actual push that gained momentum. They had no actual evidence about the stuff they claimed. Also, if the claim applied to Tiktok, it applies to all the other social media. But they don’t actually care about privacy. They only care about a platform that they couldn’t control and wasn’t catering to them.

    If they cared about privacy, they would have pushed general privacy legislation and/or regulation and oversight on all social media.

    The reversal was Biden realizing he does not have a good legacy and with Trump, there was a lot more content this time around that was pro-trump (and also tiktok gave him a million dollars). So now he gets to claim he “saved tiktolk” when he was the start of the whole thing.

  • @[email protected]
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    2828 days ago

    All CEOs understood how to behave with such an arrogant person: flatter him and he will bow to your every wims.

    • @[email protected]
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      228 days ago

      Bow even harder and you get pardoned for every crime you did…

      Who came up with this pardon shit anyway?!

  • @Jimmycakes
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    1729 days ago

    Obviously. They see the game. They played the game.

  • @Clinicallydepressedpoochie
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    28 days ago

    No, this is just what it looks like when evil encoaches. Having no true ethical or moral obligations it decides everything on a case by case basis and if it can’t be controlled then it is destroyed.

  • @NeoNachtwaechter
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    929 days ago

    It will go on like that for several years now. One shit show, and then the next one, and then the next three ones…