First part may be true, but I really don’t think you can directly blame China for that. The app itself is a tiny factor is the rise of the far right which has a lot more to do with the “in real life circumstances”.

I would also disagree that China gains much from a divided Europe. The argument could be made in theory, but it doesn’t align with what i’ve observed From Chinese foreign policy in practice.

The approach of amplifying divisions in other countries is more of a Russian tactic than anything. Russia stands to gain more from a divided Europe, and it would be in alignment with their foreign policy in practice. That said, I also think the Russian influence on these matters is a bit overstated at times, to the point where the actually issues aren’t being discussed. I notice it on the American side of things as well.

This is like when my mom (who is on a diet) complains that I don’t throw out the ice cream sandwiches in my freezer before she comes over to visit.

Can we have media that doesn’t suck and enough proles consume it willingly?

Definitely. The things that “suck” in media are profit engines that can only exist in parallel with the things that proles benefit by consuming. If you have a channel that’s “Oops, all ads!” your user base shrivels up into a tiny nugget of Home Shopping Channel die-hards. But if you have a channel that’s purely public services, it relies on public sponsorship (either directly through membership or indirectly through state aid). It can’t operate at a large profit or justify outside private investment to rapidly expand.

There’s always a balancing act between content that benefits the audience and content that benefits the broadcaster.

Beyond that, earlier generations convinced themselves that you don’t have to think critically or feel bad about stepping on others as long as it’s what your in-group is doing.

That’s not true. That’s never been true. This isn’t an issue of generational divide. This is an issue of local communities partitioned by their access to modes of communication and the regional influence of the neighborhood’s industrial powerhouse.

One of the most reliable indicators of a voting district’s partisan affiliation is the presence of Oil & Natural Gas industrial activity. Like, if you want to talk about why the Gulf Coast states, Ohio, and central Pennsylvania are bleeding red, it centers heavily on their enormous concentration of O&G facilities and staff. Energy sector workers are uniformly predisposed to the party that supports expanding O&G exploration, exploitation, refinement, and export.

These people aren’t above “thinking critically”. They just see where their bread is buttered (red state plutocracy generally benefits from Oil-Friendly Republican administrations) and vote accordingly. It’s the grim math of “Do I want a five/six figure bonus at the end of the year?” which party organizers and their business allies in the state make abundantly clear during election season.

Your problem isn’t that people don’t think critically, its that they do and the conclusions they reach aren’t favorable to your partisan allies.

Replies are for the community not just the person you’re responding to. Otherwise there would just be DMs to OP.

UnderpantsWeevil made a good point, you don’t have to take that as them wanting to debate you. You don’t even need to block them. Just stop responding, it’s not complicated.

Then you don’t have to spend the effort being negative and we end up with communities that become a positive corner of the internet.

Do you always announce your blocks?

“Attention everyone, i am replying to fyrilsol!”

“Attention everyone, I am clicking the reply button!”