The Presidency of Not So Jacked Up Joe Biden: We Beat Medicare!

I’m just imaging Abe Lincoln in 1860 deciding to say

I’ve never been supportive of, you know, “human beings aren’t property”

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I think it’s not an unreasonable comparison, you aren’t going to get progress if you only try to elect the person expressing the perfect views you agree with completely on campaign trail (because they probably going to lose), gotta find the person who going to win and be better than alternative.

“There is a physical difference between the white and the black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together… while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any man am in favor having the superior position assigned to the white race.

“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.”

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Lincoln didn’t run an abolitionist campaign in the 1860 election, and in fact, the abolitionists were pissed he was selected by Republicans.

Granted, the details of this are pretty fuzzy to me as I’m recalling stuff I learned from over a decade ago, but I’m pretty sure this makes the exact opposite point you’re trying to make.

I looked up the 1860 election before posting it, Lincoln’s actual stance was “Slavery in the South is okie dokie but we shouldn’t let that shit spread to new States”

seems awfully similar in level of compromise to biden’s position on abortion tbh

https://x.com/yashar/status/1764752294573392330?s=46&t=ECIc-ET7JxxiLXr8SgrQ7Q

Lots of economic anxiety though

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Mark Cuban gets it

“If they were having his last wake, and it was him versus Trump, and he was being given last rites, I would still vote for Joe Biden,” Cuban said. He called his vote for Haley in Texas, one of 15 GOP states voting on Super Tuesday, a “protest vote against Trump.”

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Man things could change but my shook meter is at a 10/10 right now

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Literal axios coverage of this comment

https://x.com/alexthomp/status/1764772018606760336?s=46&t=N0_fcOKIYYmlCS2e4YShsQ

maybe I’ll get to meet cuban in the gulag

Looks like TikTok is going to get banned, or forced to be sold.

https://twitter.com/bresreports/status/1765222615637983290?t=e3F0zTaspveCKgkNR-IKuw&s=19

Let’s be really clear here: this is because of videos going VERY viral that are anti-capitalist, or just pro-safety net. There are very popular videos comparing life in the US to parts of Europe, and that’s VERY bad for the wealthy and the ruling class in America.

So they want to ban it or force a sale to someone who will block that kind of content. Meta buying it would make a lot of sense.

Also, TikTok says this is going to kill 5 million jobs. I don’t know about that, but call it 1 million. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that’s a few hundred thousand net Biden voters that are about to be out of a career. Not to mention the millions of Americans who spend hours a day in the app who are going to blame Biden.

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What a dark time in America. The deal the working class and middle class are getting is so shitty and will get so much shittier, they’re going to have to take away our free speech on social media to get away with it.

What makes TikTok great is the algorithm. Good content gets pushed out, regardless of the creator’s follower count. You don’t have to be famous or rich, it’s a marketplace of content - whether it’s funny, helpful, smart, you name it. The algorithm knows what users are looking for, and delivers it.

The lack of barriers to entry and gatekeepers means there is no message control blocking people making good points about how shitty late stage capitalism is. It means there’s nothing blocking people from pointing to riots in France and then pointing out how much better the deal there is for the working class, etc, etc.

And this stuff is resonating with Gen Z and Millennials, and that’s a threat to the wealthy. All this talk about data and China is bullshit. This is the wealthy and the ruling class controlling speech.

Last but not least, watch how fast these two hyper-polarized parties who can’t agree on shit come together to pass this bill. These fucking assholes can’t get aid for Ukraine passed, or a spending bill, or jack shit to help regular people, but they’re going to ban TikTok.

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I think you’re thinking too hard about this, they are saying it’s because they are afraid of China and I think that is super believable at face value. There is no lack of anti US or anti capitalist material available online

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Yeah, I agree with this. Also, 5 million jobs? Meta employs 67,000 people so call me skeptical that TikTok employs 5 million. I don’t think this is an effort to censor content, there is plenty of the same content on the other socials.

they’re almost certainly counting anyone who has ever gotten paid through their “content creation” system

I mean, don’t all those people also have YouTube channels?

No shortage of right wing propaganda on tik tok. All social media sucks.

Plus anybody selling stuff through TikTok, which is definitely a thing. I’ve actually purchased something via a TikTok video and it was extremely frictionless and I’m happy I did it.

I do not think this is going to actually put many people out of work.

There’s a difference between the material being available and being pushed to people who will like it in a format in which they will like it. TikTok gets it to people who don’t know they will like it, who wouldn’t go looking for it, and then they love it and get more of it.

And afraid of China? So far the only coherent national security risks I’ve heard of for TikTok are figuring out where military bases are if service members have TikTok on their phones, and spyware if members of government do. No proof either of this has/would happen, but they’re fixable without a nationwide ban.

Assuming your point is true but also assuming TikTok is doing the same thing for the far right, even on the surface isn’t this a tool to divide us from within that should concern our “betters.”