TikTok Is A Weapon (Literally)

Cobalt

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It's sad too because you can't really avoid it. I'm probably in the background of a few tiktoks just because I go out to public spaces not because I participate in social media in any capacity.
 
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Jared

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Everyone already know about how TikTok compromises your information for the Chinese government. So what, right? Google and Facebook already do the same thing for the US government. What difference does it make? A lot, considering that your data being stolen is the least of what TikTok's true intention is.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and every form of social media that came out of Silicon Valley are digital poisons that infect the psyche by overdosing it on dopamine. This is hardly even contested anymore, being a common mainstream talking point now. But here's the thing, as bad as they are, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc, target everyone equally. I am in no way trying to defend these apps, but I want to stress one detail that makes TikTok even more nefarious. And that's the fact that despite being a Chinese app, it's BANNED in China.

Imagine if all the Silicon Valley social media platforms were banned in the US, but exclusively promoted abroad. Imagine all the press that would get. And yet while not being actively concealed, people seem to care very little about the fact that an app that is essentially cyber opium is banned from it's country of origin. That's not to say that there isn't an equivalent of TikTok that is available in China, it's called Douyin. China is run by an Authoritarian regime, and maintaining a hypnotized, unthinking population is important to maintain control. But where as Douyin is there to spy on and sedate the domestic population, TikTok exists to destroy the minds of non-Chinese users. At least that's the conclusion I've come to.

From the moment you open the app you are instantly barraged with moving images, with your first instinct to either keep watching or to scroll unto the next video. While there is a search button, TikTok does everything in its power to entertain you without requiring its users to even put the mental effort to search out content for themselves. In other words, from the first couple seconds of use, TikTok conditions its users to passively accept what's being given to them, or to scroll on to what's next in the line up (also preselected for you by its algorithm). But the idea of going out and searching for your own content runs contrary to how TikTok runs in its most natural state. By sedating the the user to get accustomed to having all their content selected for them, I don't think it's a huge leap to say that this is a Communist weapon to get people abroad used to the idea of your choices/options being all pre-selected for you. Only it's bundled in this flashy, addictive packaging. It's difficult not to see the parallels between this and the Opium Wars, only now reversed.

The real thesis of my point, is that I'm convinced that TikTok is a tool that is intentionally trying to destroy the minds of younger generations abroad. And specifically by channeling western degeneracy prevalent in Liberal democracies, it is accelerating their collapses. Channeling Neo-Liberalism and its destruction of traditional values as a weapon against itself, all while conditioning/hypnotizing the western users of the app to stop thinking for themselves and to voluntarily destroy their own attention spans. And the real genius of this, is that while China is using a softer version of this weapon on it's own population, it's shielding them from the nihilism spread from social degeneracy in the west. In a reality where 5G is a common thing, China understands the importance of not just extending its sphere of influence militarily and economically, but digitally as well.
Best way to not get hooked on the drug is simply not to take it, ive always avoided most social media thankfully , other than this and discord.
 
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Neonriser

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Look, if I were the prime minister of my own country, I would ban the app. Because we all get it, social media had decreased our attention spans for over a decade, and TikTok is there to make things a lot worse. The stupid things you see there are no different than the stupid things people do on social media sites to get clout, as it has been for a decade. At least more people now are realizing that TIkTok is dangerous not just in a mental health sense, but also a political sense as well. No wonder why many people on Youtube bash it.
 
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MrFiredragon613

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Everyone already know about how TikTok compromises your information for the Chinese government. So what, right? Google and Facebook already do the same thing for the US government. What difference does it make? A lot, considering that your data being stolen is the least of what TikTok's true intention is.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and every form of social media that came out of Silicon Valley are digital poisons that infect the psyche by overdosing it on dopamine. This is hardly even contested anymore, being a common mainstream talking point now. But here's the thing, as bad as they are, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc, target everyone equally. I am in no way trying to defend these apps, but I want to stress one detail that makes TikTok even more nefarious. And that's the fact that despite being a Chinese app, it's BANNED in China.

Imagine if all the Silicon Valley social media platforms were banned in the US, but exclusively promoted abroad. Imagine all the press that would get. And yet while not being actively concealed, people seem to care very little about the fact that an app that is essentially cyber opium is banned from it's country of origin. That's not to say that there isn't an equivalent of TikTok that is available in China, it's called Douyin. China is run by an Authoritarian regime, and maintaining a hypnotized, unthinking population is important to maintain control. But where as Douyin is there to spy on and sedate the domestic population, TikTok exists to destroy the minds of non-Chinese users. At least that's the conclusion I've come to.

From the moment you open the app you are instantly barraged with moving images, with your first instinct to either keep watching or to scroll unto the next video. While there is a search button, TikTok does everything in its power to entertain you without requiring its users to even put the mental effort to search out content for themselves. In other words, from the first couple seconds of use, TikTok conditions its users to passively accept what's being given to them, or to scroll on to what's next in the line up (also preselected for you by its algorithm). But the idea of going out and searching for your own content runs contrary to how TikTok runs in its most natural state. By sedating the the user to get accustomed to having all their content selected for them, I don't think it's a huge leap to say that this is a Communist weapon to get people abroad used to the idea of your choices/options being all pre-selected for you. Only it's bundled in this flashy, addictive packaging. It's difficult not to see the parallels between this and the Opium Wars, only now reversed.

The real thesis of my point, is that I'm convinced that TikTok is a tool that is intentionally trying to destroy the minds of younger generations abroad. And specifically by channeling western degeneracy prevalent in Liberal democracies, it is accelerating their collapses. Channeling Neo-Liberalism and its destruction of traditional values as a weapon against itself, all while conditioning/hypnotizing the western users of the app to stop thinking for themselves and to voluntarily destroy their own attention spans. And the real genius of this, is that while China is using a softer version of this weapon on it's own population, it's shielding them from the nihilism spread from social degeneracy in the west. In a reality where 5G is a common thing, China understands the importance of not just extending its sphere of influence militarily and economically, but digitally as well.
I hate tik tok. I've always though it was cringe. It isn't banned in China though. It just goes through another layer of censoring, and it goes by another name. They censor anything, and whether they created the platform or not, just the idea that anyone can put anything on there freaks out the Chinese government. Because god for bid... a picture of whinnie the pooh could come up.
 
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Max Chill

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Everyone already know about how TikTok compromises your information for the Chinese government. So what, right? Google and Facebook already do the same thing for the US government. What difference does it make? A lot, considering that your data being stolen is the least of what TikTok's true intention is.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and every form of social media that came out of Silicon Valley are digital poisons that infect the psyche by overdosing it on dopamine. This is hardly even contested anymore, being a common mainstream talking point now. But here's the thing, as bad as they are, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc, target everyone equally. I am in no way trying to defend these apps, but I want to stress one detail that makes TikTok even more nefarious. And that's the fact that despite being a Chinese app, it's BANNED in China.

Imagine if all the Silicon Valley social media platforms were banned in the US, but exclusively promoted abroad. Imagine all the press that would get. And yet while not being actively concealed, people seem to care very little about the fact that an app that is essentially cyber opium is banned from it's country of origin. That's not to say that there isn't an equivalent of TikTok that is available in China, it's called Douyin. China is run by an Authoritarian regime, and maintaining a hypnotized, unthinking population is important to maintain control. But where as Douyin is there to spy on and sedate the domestic population, TikTok exists to destroy the minds of non-Chinese users. At least that's the conclusion I've come to.

From the moment you open the app you are instantly barraged with moving images, with your first instinct to either keep watching or to scroll unto the next video. While there is a search button, TikTok does everything in its power to entertain you without requiring its users to even put the mental effort to search out content for themselves. In other words, from the first couple seconds of use, TikTok conditions its users to passively accept what's being given to them, or to scroll on to what's next in the line up (also preselected for you by its algorithm). But the idea of going out and searching for your own content runs contrary to how TikTok runs in its most natural state. By sedating the the user to get accustomed to having all their content selected for them, I don't think it's a huge leap to say that this is a Communist weapon to get people abroad used to the idea of your choices/options being all pre-selected for you. Only it's bundled in this flashy, addictive packaging. It's difficult not to see the parallels between this and the Opium Wars, only now reversed.

The real thesis of my point, is that I'm convinced that TikTok is a tool that is intentionally trying to destroy the minds of younger generations abroad. And specifically by channeling western degeneracy prevalent in Liberal democracies, it is accelerating their collapses. Channeling Neo-Liberalism and its destruction of traditional values as a weapon against itself, all while conditioning/hypnotizing the western users of the app to stop thinking for themselves and to voluntarily destroy their own attention spans. And the real genius of this, is that while China is using a softer version of this weapon on it's own population, it's shielding them from the nihilism spread from social degeneracy in the west. In a reality where 5G is a common thing, China understands the importance of not just extending its sphere of influence militarily and economically, but digitally as well.
>And that's the fact that despite being a Chinese app, it's BANNED in China.
>The real thesis of my point, is that I'm convinced that TikTok is a tool that is intentionally trying to destroy the minds of younger generations abroad.

Case on point :gigachad:. As for why it's "banned" in China is merely due to China already having their eyes locked 24/7 on their citizens; when you have your hands full monitoring local entities, you hire people/develop a bot to monitor and/or harvest what's beyond your local capacity and have separate data banks for external data to avoid data bloat in local databanks. China merely planted the seed, the West was already subverted but WAS warned 40 years ago by Yuri Bezmenov to almost no avail; the West did what China anticipated, propagate the subverted values and degeneracy that developed over the years. China is practically doing Soviet subversion but their timing was just SO optimal cause the internet became more publicly accessible years after the fall of the Soviet Union, and that was China's biggest investment to date when they set their propaganda and subversion LPVOs towards the internet and app development at the earliest moment. Dare I say, China getting into the internet surveillance boat is their 2013 Bitcoin moment.

The second I discovered from the whitepaper that investigated the sussy IPs that were revealed to be linked to other shady CCP affiliated tech companies, it's like I bagged a well thought reverse investment. I almost considered downloading it to see the craze months before the whitepaper but I was simply too lazy; talk about laziness saving you. Tiktok is basically a data harvester that compels your IP on a free tour to all Beijing databases.

In a world where governments are up and about harvesting data, we come close to a point where we're left to decide which government we prefer giving our data.

I certainly would never give it to a bunch of commies systematically harvesting body organs as a hobby. Attached herein is the whitepaper by Penetrum a couple years ago:
 

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-SteampunkTraveler-

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If I wanted to be stuck in a series of loops that deteriorate my brain I'd just do meth. Then it's The Shadow People spying on me instead of China or the USA.
me in a nutshell...but no meth...
 
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-SteampunkTraveler-

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Best way to not get hooked on the drug is simply not to take it, ive always avoided most social media thankfully , other than this and discord.
agreed tbh, I only use this website, YT , discord and redd-it (if you think Youtube is social media then maybe)
 
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-SteampunkTraveler-

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It's sad too because you can't really avoid it. I'm probably in the background of a few tiktoks just because I go out to public spaces not because I participate in social media in any capacity.
true, I was in one once by mistake ...I dont have the courage to ask the person to delete it
 
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Jared

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agreed tbh, I only use this website, YT , discord and redd-it (if you think Youtube is social media then maybe)
Youtube isn't TECHnically a social media but it serves the same basic purpose , which is to take small patterns of data and compile them to human readable patterns ex: patterns of cursor speed, average cursor direction , time on a page ,reaction speed can be compiled into readable data that can be used to determine if you have a mental illness. Like for example people who have quick reaction speeds and watch videos that are short in viewtime can be compiled into data for the ADHD which in turn can be used for advertising and advertising videos.
 
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eefman

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agreed tbh, I only use this website, YT , discord and redd-it (if you think Youtube is social media then maybe)
Youtube isn't a social media, but they're trying their damn hardest to act like one. It started as a simple video sharing site, but with all the changes over the years and up to this point (letting an algorithm dictate what users see, the trending tab, the community posts stuff, shorts, removing dislikes, etc), it really does seem like another goddamn modern social media platform.
Despite all of this, you can still make YT work for you rather than working for it. By using ad blockers/modified YT clients like YT Vanced, staying away from the trending tab, and watching videos for a purpose rather than mindlessly scrolling, you will be able to use it as the unique and insightful video sharing site it was meant to be.


(Also with modded clients like YT Vanced you can get music completely ad and cost free anywhere you have cell connection, so thats pretty cool.)
 
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MantisOrientalis

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I'm going to go as far as to say most users of the internet value their online privacy- its just that intrusive apps are much harder to avoid if you dont wanna work to uphold said privacy. not everyone wants to install a linux distro/etc (which sucks), and they believe they are better off just coping with the data collection monopoly than try anything out of their comfort zone. ive also seen apathy used a lot in the sense of "oh they already have all my data and info why even try lol" even though data is not a finite amount but a continuous stream that you could slowly dissipate. convenience is one of silicon valley's many lethal weapons to keep users in, locked, and hooked. ( a biiiitttt off topic but i think this is interesting and worth bringing up also i love talking about it lol )
 
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-SteampunkTraveler-

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Youtube isn't TECHnically a social media but it serves the same basic purpose , which is to take small patterns of data and compile them to human readable patterns ex: patterns of cursor speed, average cursor direction , time on a page ,reaction speed can be compiled into readable data that can be used to determine if you have a mental illness. Like for example people who have quick reaction speeds and watch videos that are short in viewtime can be compiled into data for the ADHD which in turn can be used for advertising and advertising videos.
yeah probably true but included it for that reason
 
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I don't buy the overly anti-Chinese rhetoric. To me the insane boom of TikTok is endemic of a longer worldwide process of giant tech companies spiraling out of control with little to no regulation over the past 20 or so years. Like others have mentioned, TikTok is only the latest and most effective tool of galvanising and monetising people's attention. This is in combination with aggressive marketing on a global scale. I was watching the AFCON final yesterday and there were advertisements for TikTok all game, same with EURO 2022 last year. I'm sure TikTok's expansion has to with increasing China's soft power in the world in part, but I think it's going too far to say that it's a psychological weapon. At least, not more so than other big social media platforms.

TikTok might be on the cutting-edge right now, but who knows for how long. I'm sure their competitors aren't sitting still either. Just because a Chinese company is currently on top doesn't mean it'll stay that way. or maybe it will. It seems like some people are spreading anti-Chinese sentiments using this issue because there's plenty to be sceptical about. However, I feel like the core of the problem lies in the lack of regulation of these powerful services and the inability to educate the next generation on how to use these platforms responsibly and with a good degree of self control. Until that time every tech company including ByteDance will continue creating more and more effective ways to make us addicted to their apps, no matter what country they're developed in.
 
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SpinozaStan

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Tik Tok is the mental equivalent of McDonalds Nuggets. Chopped up slop stuck back together and half-digested by the time you eat it. I mean this literally. The mechanical separation of the bits makes you digest it differently. The same is true of tik toks. When you watch tik-tok you watch half-digested processed infornography. The 'thinking' has been half done by the time you get it, and the brain mushifies when not challenged to think. We have outsourced our bodily functions, not individually nor voluntarily, but as a species driven by hedonistic desires which intensify entropic processes.
 

Regal

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Take this with a grain of salt: I read somewhere that Tiktok and Douyin have separate algorithms. Tiktok's algorithm prioritizes degeneracy and political outrage. Douyin's algorithm prioritizes Chinese morality, talent, and propaganda.

So the thought is that Tiktok is a slow burn weapon to bring down the west from the inside. Make its children weak and divided by popularizing the worst of humanity over the course of generations. To what end? Who knows.
 

Aeria Gloris

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It's sad too because you can't really avoid it. I'm probably in the background of a few tiktoks just because I go out to public spaces not because I participate in social media in any capacity.
This in itself sounds very disturbing. Just going out for a walk minding your own business can endanger your privacy since most people have become walking cameras.
 
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I'm not as schizophrenic as some people on this site - I honestly just think its right time and place for China, and the natural progression of social media. China was always on the rise as a new global superpower. Algorithms decide what we see on all platforms these days, and the disease event hasn't helped with social media addiction, including those of children. Most people are wanting to escape the shitty everyday reality they live in. They want to grift online and be Internet famous by doing very little creative work (videos longer than 3 minutes are too much effort). TikTok is just the perfect app for the current zeitgeist. To claim TikTok only targets Western audiences whilst acknowledging Douyin in the same post is a little backwards. Just because social media is unregulated in the Western world doesn't mean its China's fault we're so addicted to it, they're at worst taking advantage of our current technology culture.
circle conspiracy

shit world > shit app > shit world (with middle-steps)
 
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