Americans are joining the Chinese social media app en masse to protest an imminent TikTok ban.

  • American users have flocked to Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu in defiance of security warnings.
  • Chinese and American users have engaged in surprisingly friendly conversations about each other’s lives.
  • The influx of American users could burden Xiaohongshu’s censorship mechanism, experts say.
  • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    18
    ·
    edit-2
    1 day ago

    Just proving US government right tbh.

    So, US said: “TikTok is too powerful and has too much influence” and then people continue to be influenced. I kid you not, most trending rednote tiktoks right now are about price comparison between China and US with topics like: “veggies are like 2$ in China when they are 6$ in the US” with absolutely zero awareness of how economies work:

    • median hourly salary in the US: 27 USD
    • median hourly salary in China: 5 USD

    Chinese vegetables are more expensive.

    You could attribute this to people just being financially stupid but I think there’s definitely some truth from US government pov that China has a lot of propaganda power over US citizens and I say this as non-american myself as it’s quite apparent as a 3rd party observer.

    Personally I still think low level laws that protect privacy of all americans is the way to go but America will never sacrifice free market money like that.

  • LiveLM@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    20
    ·
    1 day ago

    Man, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts must be really shit if the TikTokers didn’t even consider them for a second lmao

  • Dupree878@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    40
    ·
    2 days ago

    I’m amazed at all the CCP dick sucking here. It’s like I stumbled into r/Sino

    操你中國政府

    • meep_launcher@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      1 day ago

      Yea, I made a post to my people to come to the fediverse. While we have capitalist and communist forums, ultimately the fediverse sits in the anarchist camp.

      I like it because I’m suspicious of tankies and hate musk fucks. A nice 3rd option.

  • SpikedPunchVictim@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    51
    ·
    2 days ago

    This might have an interesting side effect. Western voices and opinions being shared enmasse with Chinese youths on platforms they’re comfortable with. It will be interesting to see how the Chinese government responds to this

    • TrueStoryBob@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      33
      ·
      2 days ago

      I’m on the app and, honestly, I have been seeing the exact opposite. Loads of American users are seeing, for the first time, that folks in the PRC don’t have it so bad.

      • frezik@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        49
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        Consistent problem with fascists who want you to hate outsiders. When those barriers fall, it turns out that most of the “enemy” are just people who want to live their lives.

        This goes both directions.

        • CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          20
          ·
          2 days ago

          But the Chinese people were never the enemy. The only ones who push that narrative are people who want to sow division and hatred.

          It’s the CCP and US government that are at odds with one another. The issue with TikTok is the CCP has control and influence over content served to Western uses.

          • LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            14
            ·
            edit-2
            2 days ago

            This. There is a reason why China has been censoring the internet so much, and why Russia and to a lesser degree Türkiye started doing it as well. And why two of the three most powerful people in the US apart from Trump control like 2/3 of all social media.

    • SoftTeeth@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      23
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      Turns out we know we’re all being spyed on constantly and don’t really care what authoritarian shithole (US or China) is creeping on us

      We care more about the content of the app.

  • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    36
    ·
    2 days ago

    The hexies are so excited about this too. They’ve got a thread up (erroneously) hoping that Americans will now stop believing that Chinese people are bad, because they can’t face the truth that Americans (who aren’t magats) only think the Chinese government is an authoritarian shit show and have no problem with regular Chinese citizens.

    • bestagon@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      26
      ·
      2 days ago

      Xenophobia and racism exist in America outside of the trump ultras. Hell, outside of the republican party even

  • RangerJosie@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    2 days ago

    It’s really cool. The people are super nice and welcoming. The cities are incredible. Their cost of living is leaps and bounds better than ours. Life is affordable there.

    They just got it better. The cold war propaganda we’ve been spoonfed from birth was all lies.

    We are the bad place.

    • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 day ago

      Their cost of living is leaps and bounds better than ours.

      Crazy how effective this propaganda is. Median Chinese salary is 5 USD/hour. Now 5x every chinese price you see to get really cost and revisit your comment.

    • LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      27
      ·
      2 days ago

      Yeah, sure. Just because one team is bad doesn’t mean the other is good. There is a lot of poverty, exploitation and general shit happening “there”.

      • holo@lemmy.wtf
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        2 days ago

        They’ve eliminated extreme poverty and are on track to eliminate poverty. Given even the poorest citizens don’t worry about rent or medical bills or food costs, their poverty looks incredibly different to that in the US.

        • tleb@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 day ago

          Yeah they eliminated poverty the same way they defeated COVID… By just saying they did and people like yourself slurp it up without a second of critical thought.

          • holo@lemmy.wtf
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 day ago

            No, you people choose to be ignorant and believe the US government, instead of visiting China yourself or talking to someone in China or doing any research.

            Even the CIA, by the way, has stated China has eliminated extreme poverty in the world Factbook.

            I get it, a lot of rich white people paid for you to be the way you are; it’s still your fault to remain ignorant.

    • Akasazh@feddit.nl
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 day ago

      Friends of mine lived a year or so in China. It was very harsh and the people were not very welcoming. That’s not strange as people tend to be like that towards strangers immigrating. But it’s no utopia you can fit into easily.

  • passiveaggressivesonar@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    ·
    2 days ago

    I thought the difference in humor would take a while to bridge but it’s very familiar. Day in the life of an american type videos with road rage, burgers, shitcoins, podcasts and pancakes

  • john89@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    58
    ·
    2 days ago

    This is a fine example of how the american government doesn’t care about the interests of americans.

    The government only exists to serve the wealthiest among us. Some of those wealthy people are upset that Chinese aristocrats are getting all that money.

    This trade war only exists because rich americans want more money for themselves. It has nothing to do with national security and you’re a useful idiot if you think otherwise.

    • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      37
      ·
      2 days ago

      You don’t lift 800+ million people out of poverty by concentrating all of the profits among a small few. And China has increasingly been prosecuting their wealthy.

      Which is what they really don’t want us learning to do.

      • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        1 day ago

        you don’t lift 800+ million people out of poverty by concentrating all of the profits among a small few.

        This is false attribution.
        There’s no way to verify how other political system would have worked for China. Maybe it would have worked even better? Taiwan for one is richer, stronger and happier than China per capita so does that mean dictatoriship -> democracy is a better system? Do you see the flaw in this attribution logic now? So, unless you have a time machine…

        • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          21 hours ago

          Actually it’s very easy to know. By design, capitalism concentrates most of the reward among a small number of privileged few.

          And people with good sense judge a country by how well it’s working people are doing- not by how much more wealth a few people have been able to hoard.

      • TheFriar@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        Capitalists use the same exact argument for why outsourcing labor to the poorest countries is actually a good thing. For real, I’ve argued so many right wingers saying “searching for the cheapest labor actually helps the worlds economy because you’re lifting those poor people of _____ out of poverty! It doesn’t matter that it’s only pennies/day, because to them, that’s a lot of money!”

        Pretty goddamn gross behavior.

        • b000rg@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          2 days ago

          Outsourcing is extracting wealth from another nation. How can you possibly compare that to lifting ones own citizens out of poverty?

          • TheFriar@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            2 days ago

            I wasn’t making a 1:1 comparison. I was saying that “but look how many people have been lifted out of poverty!” argument is a capitalist argument, because it completely ignores the reality of the situation. Have people been lifted out of poverty by outsourcing? Of course. But that doesn’t negate the core problem.

            As the other person mentioned, outsourcing manufacturing TO china is largely responsible for the manufacturing boon there. And then rich Chinese capitalists (though they use the cover of not being called capitalists) became rich middlemen between “western” businesses and the cheap Chinese labor. So outsourcing has absolutely contributed to it. You and the American capitalists are looking at the same thing, one is crediting American executive innovation, the other is crediting the CCP.

      • gubblebumbum@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        You do it by exploiting the billions outside your borders from countries even more poor like mine where they sell their garbage low quality products that cant be repaired or recycled, from shitty earphones to bikes that start breaking down in a year, taking advantage of poor people who cant afford to buy anything of better quality. China isnt better than us when it comes to exploitation and inequality.

          • dirthawker0@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            edit-2
            17 hours ago

            Chinese manufacturers build according to budget. They are perfectly capable of making high quality products, and do. The problem is a lot of companies (looking at you, Walmart) demand their Chinese manufacturers build products for a pittance – the manufacturers won’t say no, but they’ll find a profit for themselves by using lower cost materials. (ETA: also less quality control and cheaper labor)

            Ask yourself – if you were a woodworker and someone offered you $250 to build a small stand out of wenge, you’ll probably do a good job of it. If someone offered you $30 to build the same stand, and you really needed that $30, you’d make it with pine and just paint or stain it to look like wenge. Chinese manufacturers are no different.

          • PlantDadManGuy@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            2 days ago

            I think the Chinese businessmen are exploiting slave laborers to produce cheap goods and export them to most of the world. Would you call that a mutually beneficial relationship?

          • gubblebumbum@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            edit-2
            2 days ago

            Hold up. You think the Chinese are the ones deciding to manufacture low quality products, and not the capitalists who are ordering them that way?

            Chinese brands owned by Chinese capitalists operating with consent from the chinese state.

            spreading their wealth to those in need

            Using planned obsolescence and taking advantage of poor consumer and environmental protection laws to sell garbage to people trapped in a cycle of poverty isn’t exploitation? Also China ‘invested’ billions here too and we didnt get any hospitals. We got china flooding our markets with its shitty goods and chinese ‘businessmen’ running scam centers.

            They value mutually beneficial relationships

            they do have a mutually beneficial relationship with our dictators.

            • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              edit-2
              2 days ago

              I love that capitalists attacking communists always end up accidentally attacking capitalism. Classic.

              • HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                9
                ·
                2 days ago

                China is a capitalist country with aspects of socialism. it’s not really communist anymore.

                No one here is shitting on communists, were shitting on you for a thinking the Chinese are any different than us.

              • gubblebumbum@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                5
                ·
                edit-2
                2 days ago

                China is a capitalist shithole but for some reason its biggest defenders are always self proclaimed western communists.

                edit: we also have a few militant communists groups that like to blow up chinese nationals working for their govt every now and then.

                • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  2 days ago

                  What exactly do you think “capitalist” means? Because it sounds like you think any participation in markets is capitalism.

              • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                2 days ago

                What do you think “capitalist” means? It sounds like you think it’s just market participation.

    • pressanykeynow@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      2 days ago

      It has everything to do with national security, they just don’t consider common people as part of their nation same as slaves weren’t.

      • inv3r5ion@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        2 days ago

        Yeah, national security for the rich, they don’t want us plebes getting any ideas about what real justice looks like.

        • SlamWich@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          1 day ago

          Surprised by how much is in English, but also surprised that China isn’t the hellscape that we’ve been fed through the media. It’s middle class people in both countries talking about real things in a completely new way.

          One thing that surprised her, everything in China isn’t just cheap crap. It’s american companies that cut corners by ordering crap and shilling it to us and then blaming China for it being cheap. China makes quality products, but the US will never see them, and so we live with the perception that everything from China is crap, but only what we don’t tariff to death makes it through. It’s cool to see her perceptions of the world change.

          I’m not some tankie, and I don’t give a shit about tik tok, but there’s a massive cultural exchange happening that’s too huge to filter off the rip, and I feel like folks are realizing there’s a lot more that unites us than divides us. Our billionaires don’t like their billionaires and so we beef? Nah, not my fight

  • essteeyou@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    70
    ·
    2 days ago

    Is it that surprising that your average person in another country is easy to get on with? I’ve been to a fair few different countries and the everyday people you interact with are lovely (except France).

    It’s the fucking politicians you’ve got to look out for, and not just the foreign ones.

        • rakeshmondal@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          2 days ago

          Are they really that unwelcoming? I’ve heard a bunch about this, fortunately never got to experience it first hand.

          • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            17
            ·
            2 days ago

            Here’s the thing - the french motto is Freedom, Equality, Fraternity

            They’re massively into the equality thing. Whether someone’s a waiter, a cleaner, a doctor or a judge, you must treat them with the same amount of respect

            The only types of people that I’ve ever seen saying that the french are rude are the types that think cleaners are beneath them, and that everyone speaks English if you say it loud enough

            • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              12
              ·
              2 days ago

              This is kinda of my experience. The type of people that I see getting mistreated are the “I am le touriste, entertain me!” kind.

              Americans especially tend to fall into this category a lot, they tend to be loud, brash and self centered, especially towards staff.

              Look here you pot of lard, you bought a 2€ croissant, not my fucking soul. You want something, ask nicely and I will gladly help you. Act like you own me, I’m gonna piss on your food.

            • VintageGenious@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              2 days ago

              This is one of the two factors for the bad reputation of France from US, the other one is the cultural shock that French people prefer genuine conversation and hate small talk, they’d find random american’s conversation superficial and faked.

              I am neighboring France and we have kinda similar culture, though people here tend to dislike some French people for their lack of patience or accountability and their pride, though it’s a stereotype, as always.

          • danciestlobster@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            2 days ago

            I have only ever had great experiences visiting france, but then again I avoided Paris for the most part

          • essteeyou@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 days ago

            I spent one day in Paris, let me give you the highlights…

            1. We arrived, left the train station, and were immediately accosted by like 5 people trying to sell us friendship bracelets, or little string bracelets
            2. We left the area and walked to a local Metro station to get across the city, we wanted to check something, so we went to the nearby information section, where the lady refused to speak any English, despite the signage indicating that English was spoken there
            3. We figured it out on our own and entered the station, which smelled exactly and completely of piss
            4. We got off the train and walked along the river for about 10 seconds before being accosted by a conman pretending we’d just dropped some jewelry. Apparently it’s a common con. We ignored him and moved on.
            5. We had an ok time for the rest of the day trip, until we got back to the original train station, where we sat in a café beside a family who decided to change their kid’s diaper at their table, and then threw the used one to the nearest bin like they were playing cornhole

            I’m not in a big rush to go back.

              • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                2 days ago

                “I went to Paris, interacted with basically nobody French, hated it and so now I hate the French”

                😂

              • essteeyou@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                2 days ago

                That’s not the only foreign city I’ve ever been to. Paris was the worst one I can think of, or at least top 3.

                I’d prefer to go back to any of these:

                • Cluj
                • Riga
                • Prague
                • Emden
                • Frankfurt
                • Brisbane
                • Singapore

                Paris goes on a list with Jakarta and that’s about it.

    • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      2 days ago

      It’s funny that I’ve never had bad experiences with the French and most of my visits to France were to Paris.

      Then again I do speak French and try and take advantage of being over there to exercise my language knowledge in it as much as I can.

      In my experience people almost everywhere (well, not in English-speaking countries, probably because English is the present day lingua franca so it’s kinda expected that you can speak it) generally appreciate you trying to speak their language even if you’re pretty bad at it and just trying to learn the local “good day”, " goodbye" and “thank you” will get you a lot of goodwill.

      • Fiona@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        2 days ago

        Except in the Netherlands, where your risk a response of “I’m not your Dutch teacher, we will speak English”. (Actually happened to a former colleague of mine.)

        • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          edit-2
          2 days ago

          I’ve lived in The Netherlands and they’re “complicated” if you’re used to, for example, English-style of politeness or even Mediterranean-style exuberance.

          They tend to be very direct, objective-oriented and seemingly cold/closed towards strangers (they open up more with friends and family), so for example if you’re in a work environment and one person’s trying to do things in broken Dutch is hindering the actual accomplishment of the work objectives (for example, in a work meeting), that will probably be pointed out to them, though I’ve never seen it done so rudelly.

          They also tend to be pretty proud of their English-language speaking abilities and when you’re just learning Dutch and try to speak to them in it, often switch to English when they spot (from the accent) that somebody comes from an English-speaking country (so for me, who am Portuguese, they didn’t tend to do it and I could just silently ignore it when they did because they couldn’t be sure I actually knew English, but I had friends and colleagues over there from Britain, US and Australia who constantly got that and for whom it was a lot harder to learn the local language), though I don’t think that applies in your example.

          It bet that happenned in a professional environment or some kind of professional situation.

          That said, that specific telling off would be considered rude even in Dutch terms: if a person’s attempts at using Dutch are hindering doing the work, one is supposed to tell them that as the reason to switch to English (say, “other people are waiting behind you in the queue” or “we don’t have time to do this meeting in Dutch”, though one will probably not get a “I’m sorry but” or “I’m afraid that” or other such decorations to soften the blow which you would get in most other countries. In that quote of yours the other person making it about themselves “I’m not your Dutch teacher” and just bossing the other person “we will”(!), would be considered rude even by Dutch standards IMHO.

          Personally (and note that I lived over 8 years in the Netherlands and do speak the language), had somebody told me off like that my reaction would probably be to not give a shit and carry on speaking Dutch since that person made it about themselves and I’m just as entitled to do it the way I see fit as they are to do it their way and I very much suspect (can’t be totally sure) this reaction comes from that part of me that are the elements of the Dutch mindset I’ve taken in from having lived there so long (certainly the whole “I’m just as entitled to my preferences as you to yours” feels very Dutch).

          During the period when I was starting to learn Dutch on various occasions the other person switched to English (probably because my Dutch was really bad or I was having trouble following them) and I just kept on speaking Dutch, and I think I was once or twice told off for trying to say something complex with my really broken Dutch whilst buying something and I was holding the queue, but they simply pointed out I was holding the queue.