AnthonyB's recent activity

  1. Comment on TikTok makes app unavailable for US users ahead of ban in ~tech

    AnthonyB
    Link Parent
    Sorry, I'm getting to this late because I've been offline for a while. It's not that I'm not interested in an exchange, it's just that I don't think there is much else either of us can say without...

    Sorry, I'm getting to this late because I've been offline for a while.

    It's not that I'm not interested in an exchange, it's just that I don't think there is much else either of us can say without us just talking past each other. I think we've both made our positions clear and that we simply disagree with each other. Going back and forth over with each other doesn't add anything of value.

    It seems like you're focused on the arguments made in front of the supreme court, while I'm focused on the motivations behind the bill that led to the case and what it potentially means for us going forward. As I tried to make clear in my examples, the legal arguments presented to the court are not always reflective of the motivations behind them, like in the Citizens United or Dobbs cases. Same thing goes for arguments made in Congress, which is why I used the climate denier example.

  2. Comment on US President Donald Trump suggests Palestinians leave Gaza and ‘we just clean out’ territory in ~society

    AnthonyB
    Link Parent
    Ok, so just so we're clear. You're not mad at the Biden administration for sending billions of dollars of unconditional military aid to a far-right government that is accused of war crimes and...

    Ok, so just so we're clear. You're not mad at the Biden administration for sending billions of dollars of unconditional military aid to a far-right government that is accused of war crimes and genocide. You're not mad at the Harris campaign, that not only refused to distance itself from the deeply unpopular policy, but also sent the most avid Israeli supporters in the Democratic coalition to districts with high uncommitted voters. You're mad at the people who stuck to their principles and refused to vote for someone who is actively supporting a genocide.

    The idea that people in Gaza would somehow be better off under a continuation of Biden policies after everything we've seen over the past 15 months is insane.

    8 votes
  3. Comment on TikTok makes app unavailable for US users ahead of ban in ~tech

    AnthonyB
    Link Parent
    But why are you so hung up on this? We're not arguing this in a court of law. We can look beyond the official arguments to analyze the motivations and consequences of our laws. Not doing so...

    most people in this thread are either arguing against justifications not actually officially articulated by the legislative or judicial forums that have debated this

    But why are you so hung up on this? We're not arguing this in a court of law. We can look beyond the official arguments to analyze the motivations and consequences of our laws. Not doing so creates such a narrow framework that you end up missing the forrest for the trees. Should we restrict our conversations about Citizens United to freedom of speech? Should we argue the technicalities of whether or not it's constitutional to get an abortion when talking about the intent and outcome of the Dobbs decision? If a Republican congressman says climate change isn't real on the house floor, should we reiterate the scientific consensus for the 50 millionth time, or can we highlight the number of times that fossil fuel companies made contributions to his campaign?

    Unless of course you're saying that because you think the national security concerns are valid, and really important, and that you wholeheartedly agree with the decision. If that's the case, then, you know, we're at an impasse. Which is fine.

    I just think it's important that people debate the actual position put forward by the government, not heresay or offhand comments from one or two individuals.

    I'm not sure if there are other comments you're referring to, but when it comes to the flow of information being a key motivation for the ban, I think there's more out there than hearsay and offhand comments. Proponents of the bill have been making that case publicly for months. The article that I linked to in my first comment is a pretty good jumping off point with plenty of examples.

    Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., a co-sponsor of the TikTok ban legislation, argued that the platform was manipulating young Americans against Israel. “I don’t think there’s any question that there has been a coordinated effort off these college campuses, and that you have outside paid agitators and activists ... It also highlights exactly why we included the TikTok bill in the foreign supplemental aid package because you’re seeing how these kids are being manipulated by certain groups or entities or countries to foment hate on their behalf and really create a hostile environment here in the U.S.”

    1 vote
  4. Comment on Elon Musk makes 'Nazi-style salute' at US President Donald Trump's inauguration parade in ~society

    AnthonyB
    Link Parent
    The full video. Seems pretty cut and dry.

    It also bothers me how the clips very clearly are cutting, purposefully, the part that might give some context to this. It's still absolutely wrong to do, should still absolutely be a scandal, but if people think this is the smoking gun it is, play the part where he says "my heart goes out to you", don't cut it out.

    The full video. Seems pretty cut and dry.

    13 votes
  5. Comment on Elon Musk makes 'Nazi-style salute' at US President Donald Trump's inauguration parade in ~society

    AnthonyB
    Link Parent
    I don't know, were talking about the guy who bought Twitter and turned it into a cesspit of white supremacists. A guy who has retweeted Neo Nazis and antisemitic conspiracies. If it looks like a...

    I don't know, were talking about the guy who bought Twitter and turned it into a cesspit of white supremacists. A guy who has retweeted Neo Nazis and antisemitic conspiracies. If it looks like a duck, etc. etc.

    At best, this is a dog whistle bullhorn.

    30 votes
  6. Comment on TikTok makes app unavailable for US users ahead of ban in ~tech

    AnthonyB
    Link Parent
    Well, it seems like we're at an impasse, but I just want to clarify my position for anyone else reading this. I don't think we should take it at face value when people say this is a national...

    Well, it seems like we're at an impasse, but I just want to clarify my position for anyone else reading this.

    1. I don't think we should take it at face value when people say this is a national security issue. It's a justification that has long been used to cover ulterior motives, like spying on or subverting activists like MLK, or the invasion of Iraq. Even if that is the case, there are consequences that could have negative effects.

    2. We are staring down the barrel of an oligarchy run by an authoritarian strongman. I think that by handing over one of the biggest information platforms/userbases to the few who already control so much of the information we consume, we create an environment that is more dangerous to national security than anything the Chinese might do.

    2 votes
  7. Comment on TikTok makes app unavailable for US users ahead of ban in ~tech

    AnthonyB
    Link Parent
    I should clarify, I'm not saying that it's immune from those things, just that it appears to have more of the "less bad" or even "not bad" stuff, whereas the others don't and have a similar...

    Just because something didn't exist when bad things happened doesn't mean that it's immune from repeating those same mistakes. We can see just how effective Tiktok was in spreading COVID conspiracies and violent, manosphere misogyny.

    I should clarify, I'm not saying that it's immune from those things, just that it appears to have more of the "less bad" or even "not bad" stuff, whereas the others don't and have a similar history of spreading misinformation and hate to gullible audiences.

    All these places are cesspools and imo should be treated as domestic threats to society and regulated as such, but you know, mUh FrEeDoM uH SpEeCh: we have the mechanisms, just zero will to do this for US companies.

    Agreed, which is why I find myself advocating for what I see as the <gulp> lesser of two evils. Even if short-form content and social media were to disappear tomorrow, we still have plenty of other sources of misinformation and a population that lacks the tools to recognize it. It's a systemic issue that can't be fixed without massive changes to education and social policy.

    the strength and effectiveness of the algorithm concerns me.

    Yeah, that's why I think a forced sale to an American company/group/individual has the potential to be the worst case scenario.

    I find it hilarious that Tiktok users on the left are decrying what will likely be a temporary suspension of the app (which is once again accessible as of this comment) aren't more suspicious of the fact that this whole thing reeks of Bytedance teeing itself up to be 'saved by Trump' and as such ingratiating themselves with that giant piece of shit. Like if you're going to shit on Musk and Zuck for gurgling those geriatric balls and avoid their platforms, shouldn't you also be doing that for Bytedance once it goes live again on Monday?

    Can't really speak to the left-wing tiktok users, but I get you there. I also think it's a sad but kinda funny move from the Biden administration to dish out one final layup for Trump. But if nothing else, it'll be interesting to see the right-wing media machine do gymnastics trying to applaud that move.

    1 vote
  8. Comment on TikTok makes app unavailable for US users ahead of ban in ~tech

    AnthonyB
    Link Parent
    Blackmailing future officials who are currently in their teens? Okay...one might argue that falls under the "wild hypotheticals" category, but that makes sense I guess. Although, doesn't that make...

    Blackmailing future officials who are currently in their teens? Okay...one might argue that falls under the "wild hypotheticals" category, but that makes sense I guess. Although, doesn't that make Apple, Google, Meta, and Snapchat even more dangerous in that regard? Is there a center for dick pic studies that can give us an idea of where the most salacious stuff is sent out and received? I guess a ban could technically lower the potential for future Kompromat, but there are still plenty of ways to skin a cat in that regard. Not to mention, there's still the endless stream of breaches and brokers that can turn over data anyway if we're concerned about the ordinary citizens who make up the other 99.9% of users. I just have a really hard time buying this idea that it was the data, not the influence, that was the motive behind the ban. Kinda like how I don't think the motivation for Dobbs had anything to do with the constitution. But that's hard to prove from my living room.

    Given that this is the country that sets up secret foreign police stations to police those of Chinese ethnicity like in NYC, in addition to numerous other abuses abroad, it feels like there is a difference between data being collected by Meta vs TikTok.

    Well, I've got some bad news for you. Not only do we have our own massive spying apparatus, there is also a long, storied history of the United States spying on and suppressing journalists and dissidents, both in this country and abroad. Famous examples include, but are not limited to: <SNL announcer voice> Black Lives Matter, climate activists, labor leaders, anti-war protesters, Muhammad Ali, and a guy who has his own holiday tomorrow.

    To borrow a phrase from our president on his final day in office, let's compare it to the alternative, not the almighty. Of course, the alternative in this situation is funneling the 130 million users to Meta, Twitter, and YouTube, or the more desired result, forcing a sale to an American group which will almost certainly have the same motivations and issues as the others in terms of data privacy and content moderation. Moreover, they will be subjected to the pressures of a Trump administration that is openly hostile to its political adversaries. As I alluded to in my first comment, we've seen what cozying up to Trump looks like in terms of content moderation (Meta) and algorithm tweaking (Twitter).

    So when I think of the most important problems that are facing the United States today - stuff like healthcare, income inequality, money in politics, infrastructure, our response to climate change, and the rise of fascistic little freaks, China is not the one responsible, nor is it the main thing standing in the way. Guys like Musk, Zuckerberg, and Trump play a massive role in those problems and they're the ones who are going to inherit the users and data, and they will have their finger on the scale when it comes to the algorithm. To me, that is so much more frightening.

    8 votes
  9. Comment on TikTok makes app unavailable for US users ahead of ban in ~tech

    AnthonyB
    Link Parent
    I've never been a tiktok user, so maybe I'm wrong, but my understanding is that tiktok was much more effective than Reels and YouTube Shorts when it comes to bringing content that aligns with a...
    • Exemplary

    I've never been a tiktok user, so maybe I'm wrong, but my understanding is that tiktok was much more effective than Reels and YouTube Shorts when it comes to bringing content that aligns with a person's interests. I'm a 35 year old boomer that has used the other two and I can speak from my own experience that, in addition to a healthy dose of slop, they bring me a bunch of right-wing/right-wing adjacent nonsense that doesn't align with any of the accounts I actively follow. I've also seen it mentioned many times that Tiktok appears to have played a fairly significant role in the pro-Palestine/anti-genocide movement. I've had many brain rot sessions via Reels and Shorts, but I've never come across anything like that, unless someone I knew shared it in their story. Writing that actually made me curious if it was just a me problem, so I looked it up and found several reddit posts about people having the same experience, along with this article and a Human Rights Watch report accusing Meta of systemic censorship of Palestine content. I dunno, food for thought.

    Anyway, I guess we'll see if that stuff or other non-right political stuff makes its way to Instagram over the coming weeks. I feel pretty confident it won't be on Shorts anytime soon and I'd bet my life that it wont migrate to Twitter or Facebook. It just seems to me that, despite its faults, Tiktok at least had some sort of counterweight to the racism, misogyny, and misinformation, whereas the equally shitty but less optimized brethren don't. Maybe that's why so many people tried to jump ship to Red Note.

    And while I think it's perfectly understandable why people would feel uneasy about the CCP's potential influence over Tiktok or any other popular social media app, I can't help but feel like it's still preferable (or at the very least no worse) than being stuck with the existing American-owned alternatives, especially after what we've seen from Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg over the past few months. What could they do that we haven't already seen? We've already seen outside actors instigate and exacerbate political divisions and unrest on American platforms. Misinformation from domestic and foreign sources has been and will continue to be a huge deal on American platforms. The Donald, Q, the alt-right, pizzagate, the 3 percenters, etc., all came up before TikTok was a thing. I doubt tiktok would be worse in terms of censoring or tracking American protest movements. The only thing I've heard people talk about are wild hypotheticals that are based around a direct conflict, or examples like yours which boil down to boosting content that says China isn't a nightmare dystopia. And if that's the case, then who cares? Pretty much every politician not named Tim Walz and just about every major media outlet have been priming us to hate and fear China anyway.

    25 votes
  10. Comment on OK Go - A Stone Only Rolls Downhill (2025) in ~music

    AnthonyB
    Link Parent
    It's been 23 years since their Madden 03 classic Get Over It. Probably doesn't mean as much but jfc the time is slipping away faster than my hair.

    It's been 23 years since their Madden 03 classic Get Over It. Probably doesn't mean as much but jfc the time is slipping away faster than my hair.

    3 votes
  11. Comment on Arcy Drive - Louie (Acoustic) (2024) in ~music

    AnthonyB
    Link
    Out of curiosity, did you come across this through YouTube shorts/TikTok/Reels? I kept seeing their clips whenever I'd get trapped watching short form content, especially on YouTube.

    Out of curiosity, did you come across this through YouTube shorts/TikTok/Reels? I kept seeing their clips whenever I'd get trapped watching short form content, especially on YouTube.

  12. Comment on What are your favourite TV shows of all time? in ~tv

    AnthonyB
    Link
    Drama: The Wire Better Call Saul Succession Breaking Bad True Detective (Season 1) Fargo (Seasons 1 & 2) The Sopranos Comedy: Peep Show Seinfeld Veep Community The Office The Larry Sanders Show...

    Drama:

    The Wire
    Better Call Saul
    Succession
    Breaking Bad
    True Detective (Season 1)
    Fargo (Seasons 1 & 2)
    The Sopranos

    Comedy:

    Peep Show
    Seinfeld
    Veep
    Community
    The Office
    The Larry Sanders Show
    Arrested Development

    Current Shows:

    Severance
    Silo
    White Lotus
    The Last of Us
    Fallout
    The Boys

    Random Hill I'll Die On:

    2014 was the best television year of all time.

    7 votes
  13. Comment on Los Angeles area wildfires: over 5K acres burned and over 30K people forced to evacuate so far in ~enviro

    AnthonyB
    Link Parent
    And it wasn't long ago we had a hurricane warning and massive flood/mudslide warnings.

    And it wasn't long ago we had a hurricane warning and massive flood/mudslide warnings.

    2 votes
  14. Comment on Do our dogs have something to tell the world? (gifted link) in ~life.pets

    AnthonyB
    Link

    “Outside” was one of the recommended first words in the informal pedagogy of dog-button learning, created by a speech-language pathologist named Christina Hunger. In 2018, when Hunger was raising her Blue-Heeler Catahoula puppy Stella, she noticed that Stella was progressing through the early stages of communication much as the young toddlers she worked with did. Hunger taught children to speak by tapping icons on a tablet. She wondered: Could Stella learn words through a similar method?

    To test this hypothesis, Hunger bought a set of recordable buttons that, when pressed, would play back her voice saying simple words — OUTSIDE, WATER, PLAY — and fastened them to a board on the floor. Every time she talked to Stella, she pressed the corresponding button. About a month later, Stella caught on, pressing OUTSIDE to use the bathroom in the yard, and PLAY to request playtime. After a few months, she pressed WATER when Christina was watering plants. Stella was narrating what she saw, Hunger thought. Hunger expanded Stella’s board, adding emotions like MAD and social words like BYE.

    When Stella started putting multiple words together, Hunger wasn’t too surprised. Dogs are about as smart as a 2½-year-old human, and Hunger knew that toddlers of that age typically compose sentences of two or three words. After a year, Stella was saying BED LATER and WANT OUTSIDE NOW. One day, the end of daylight saving time delayed Stella’s mealtime. She asked for food, and Hunger told her to wait. In protest, she stomped over to her buttons and pressed LOVE YOU NO.

    Hunger’s blog of Stella’s progress went viral, and other dog owners started experimenting with the buttons. Those accounts themselves went viral. A movement grew. The dogs who used the buttons had some things in common. First, their owners spent a lot of time with them, talking to them, looking at them, pressing buttons with them. Second, these owners were often women, with no children in the house. As for the dogs themselves, many had bossy personalities. They had things they needed you to know. A pit bull named Tilda pressed SOUND twice every time her owner joined a weekly game of Dungeons and Dragons. Should I wear headphones? the owner wondered. A golden retriever named Cache pressed WORRIED when his owner turned on the stove to cook dinner, because he wasn’t a fan of all the sizzling and popping.

    3 votes
  15. Comment on Poll results show the percentage supporting the position 'let them burn' regarding American institutions in ~society

    AnthonyB
    Link Parent
    Do you have some sort of Bat Signal setup for every time someone criticizes the Democrats for being insufficient? Or is this actually Dan Pfeiffer's burner account? Almost sounds believable when...

    Do you have some sort of Bat Signal setup for every time someone criticizes the Democrats for being insufficient? Or is this actually Dan Pfeiffer's burner account?

    The Democratic Party has been pushing for universal healthcare for at least 3 decades and paid parental leave since the mid-2010s. And it’s not even the progressive wing

    Almost sounds believable when you put it like that. But then again, I wasn't in a drunken stupor for the past 4 years and so I remember quite well how Joe Biden dangled the public option in the primaries only to completely abandon it during his presidency.

    You will definitely see Democrats as “not doing enough” if any time they try and fail due to Republican obstruction you wind up blaming the Democrats for the failure, but that’s not an actual useful way to ascribe agency in a political system. There is an incentive within activist circles and on social media to direct venom towards Democrats anytime something bad happens, as if they’re the only entity in American politics that has any agency.

    It's not the failing that bothers people. It's the way they fail. No one has failed more over the past 8 years than Bernie Sanders, yet most of us who bitch about the Democrats come out and ride for the guy whenever possible. Why? Is it because we love little old Jewish men? Is it because of the finger wagging and the way he says millionaaaiiis and billionaaaaiiis? Maybe. Or, maybe it's because he never wastes an opportunity to advocate for the changes that this country desperately needs, regardless of how popular or plausible they may be, or who his audience is. It's the messaging and public persuasion. That's where Democrats aren't doing enough. We never see anything like that from Democrat party leaders like Nancy Pelosi, Hakeem Jefferies, Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden, or Kamala Harris. We don't really see the Democrats exhausting all possible options (oops, the parliamentarian got in the way!) or using the power and influence of the bully pulpit to tell the story of what they're trying to do and who is standing in the way of it, be it Republicans or conservative Democrats. There is no persuasion, no advocacy, only backpedaling, excuses, and a lot of corporate donations.

    10 votes
  16. Comment on Why US health insurance reform is difficult in ~society

    AnthonyB
    Link Parent
    I had that exact passage copied when I came to the comments. I don't think its something that should scare legislators away from advocating for big changes. Sure, plenty of insured people are...

    I had that exact passage copied when I came to the comments. I don't think its something that should scare legislators away from advocating for big changes. Sure, plenty of insured people are happy with their insurance. Technically, I am happy with my insurance. I have plenty of local doctors and pharmacies in my network, and like a lot of people, I haven't had to deal with a denied claim yet. But, that doesn't mean I support the healthcare industry. In fact, most people dislike the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries.

    Here are some figures from that poll:

    Very/somewhat positive view of healthcare industry: 31% (51% negative)

    Very/somewhat positive view of pharmaceutical industry: 20% (61% negative)

    Most urgent health problem facing country [open ended]: Cost 23% / Access 14% / Obesity, drugs, cancer 23%

    Satisfied with cost of healthcare: 19%

    Which would you prefer: government-run or private run system? 46% government 49% private

    This is without any meaningful mainstream persuasion efforts over the past four years. Lean into it!

    I think it's a mistake to give any legitimacy to private insurance because it inherently undermines the position that a public option or government-based system is better and it puts you on defense when you try to make that case. Instead, they should be laser-focused on highlighting the many flaws and evils of the health insurance industry. Any time this nonsense about positive ratings is brought up, it should be met with something along the lines of, "Sure, until the provider drops them, denies a claim, or the person loses their job." Or shit, highlight some of the gross inefficiencies that Krugman laid out. Whatever it is, just stay on the attack!

    A public option should the floor of what is acceptable, not the starting point. Unfortunately, the likelihood of us hearing that type of messaging from anyone outside of the most progressive wing of the Democratic Party is very slim, thanks to the millions and millions of dollars the insurance and pharmaceutical companies spend in campaign contributions and lobbying efforts. Kind of weird how that wasn't mentioned at all when discussing the reasons for why health insurance is so difficult to reform.

    5 votes
  17. Comment on What's something new you started doing this year? in ~talk

    AnthonyB
    Link Parent
    Jesus. That's less than my deep cleaning and x-ray and I have the second most expensive dental insurance plan that my workplace offers. When I go in to replace a old crown and touch up a root...

    I needed multiple bouts of dental work over 6 months and fillings to sort my mouth out which cost me £300 in total.

    Jesus. That's less than my deep cleaning and x-ray and I have the second most expensive dental insurance plan that my workplace offers. When I go in to replace a old crown and touch up a root canal next month it'll cost me about $3k. I don't even know if they can pull my teeth for 300 bucks.

    If you or anyone else is ever looking to replace your electric toothbrush, I just picked up an Oral-B io and it was by far the best toothbrush I've ever used. It tells you if you're brushing too hard or too soft, and it leaves your teeth feeling freshly polished.

    5 votes
  18. Comment on Is there a way for Donald Trump to run for US presidency for a third time? in ~society

    AnthonyB
    Link Parent
    Don't forget, you'd also need 38 states to ratify the amendment.

    Don't forget, you'd also need 38 states to ratify the amendment.

    2 votes
  19. Comment on A manifesto against for-profit US health insurance companies — by Michael Moore in ~society

    AnthonyB
    Link Parent
    FWIW, the majority of users on tildes seemed to believe the same thing. He was also one of the few pundits to predict Trump's 2016 victory. But I don't really see what this has to do with anything...

    FWIW, the majority of users on tildes seemed to believe the same thing. He was also one of the few pundits to predict Trump's 2016 victory. But I don't really see what this has to do with anything in the this piece. I think this is a fair critique of the media's coverage of this story, and a good explanation for why so many people were unsympathetic to the murder.

    2 votes