I got curious about the actual “law” involved in banning Tiktok. The Supremes decision starts with some facts that SHOULD make a normal person see why the ban is stupid and wildly counterproductive.
= = = = = START QUOTE:
TikTok is a social media platform that allows users to create, publish, view, share, and interact with short videos overlaid with audio and text. Since its launch in 2017, the platform has accumulated over 170 million users in the United States and more than one billion worldwide. Those users are prolific content creators and viewers. In 2023, U. S. TikTok users uploaded more than 5.5 billion videos, which were in turn viewed more than 13 trillion times around the world.
= = = = = END QUOTE.
In other words, Tiktok is a potent propaganda tool FOR ORDINARY AMERICANS along with ordinary people elsewhere. Like many other social platforms, it enables non-powerful people to show off their talents and opinions and skills, which will have an influence on people around the world.
In previous eras there were only a few ways for non-powerful people to spread their opinions. You could write a letter to the editor of a newspaper and hope the paper decided to publish it; or you could join an international club for hobbyists like Esperanto or stamp collecting. Both were extremely narrow and restrictive channels. The clubs required insider knowledge to even know about the existence of the international channel.
Before the Deepstate coup of 1946, US governments would have been happy to see a widespread channel for both ordinary and powerful Americans to talk with the rest of the world. We had CONFIDENCE in our system and values, so we weren’t afraid of communication in BOTH directions.
= = = = =
I’ve made this point before in the context of shortwave. Right now I’m especially passionate about it while writing and illustrating courseware on brain functions.
MRI studies have looked at brain activation for different types of words (Tool, Human, Animal, Communication), and for relationships between words (User vs Tool, Human vs Attribute). Most of the categories turn on entirely different areas of the brain. Human and Animal are completely separate.
Human and Communication are nearly identical.
When we refer to a person, or a type of person like hunter or farmer or GenZer, we activate the same parts of the brain as words like talking or gossiping or writing.
Communicating is being human. Being human is communicating. Synonyms.
When we ban an important means of communication, used and enjoyed by half of our population, we are banning the essence of humanity.
= = = = =
Later thought. Tiktok is another example of China’s unique win-win mercantilism. In poor countries China cultivates local businesses and helps them grow, so they can provide China with food and resources. In rich countries China cultivates a different type of local business (mostly sales) so China can take a percentage of the sales. It’s old-fashioned capitalism, and arguably ‘rentierism’, but the side effects are OPPOSITE to modern Western rentiers. Our rentiers like Larry Fink’s Blackrock and Mitt Romney’s Bain make a commission from RUINING local businesses, while China’s version makes a commission from GROWING local businesses.
Polistra's Mill 