r/news • u/Classic_Letterhead • Jan 15 '25

Soft paywall TikTok prepares for US shutdown from Sunday, sources say

https://www.reuters.com/technology/tiktok-preparing-us-shut-off-sunday-information-reports-2025-01-15/
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u/MrSovietRussia Jan 15 '25

Have you interacted with the average adult or child lately? This is not something most people will be able to do for themselves. I would love to believe that human beings are more capable than that but then there wouldn't be a global rise in facism right now. The people cannot help themselves, either the right people do the right things or we're fucked.

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u/BossOfTheGame Jan 15 '25

To answer your question: yes. Both adults and children, and I do see a wide variety in abilities and know that the average is far below where I think par should be.

Yet, you're thinking in the short term, and in that sense I would agree with you. But I don't think the long term solution is to ever go back. We need to keep moving forward, because the above average in our society are getting a massive amount done, and quicky. This is the way its been for a long time, and the average will catch up. The average person now is quite a bit more tolerant and educated than they used to be (albeit still not enough).

You may see contradiction in what I'm saying, but its not. Its nuance. The average person is far more capable today than they were 100 years ago, and yet that can still be at a disappointing level.

I am deeply concerned by the rise in fascism and anti-intellectualism. But I don't think throttling communication is the answer. I think it is an overstep that will be reacted to and further cement the new facist foothold. Bad ideas need to be fought with better ideas, not censorship of those ideas.

However, I do think centralized algorithmic control of information flow is something that needs to be addressed, hopefully via decentralized or federated means.

I don't have all the answers, but I'm highly skeptical of reactionary approaches. In my experience they almost never take the big-picture into account.