Republican megadonors are dismayed that Gov. Ron DeSantis has banned kindergarten typing teachers from sharing cartoons about sex with their students. He’ll have to be some kind of fundamentalist nutcase.
But a candidate who would absolutely ban a social networking app because he considers it bad for children?She is our daughter!
Nikki Haley has vowed to shut down TikTok, after pointing the war out to the world.
In case you’re not one of the 150 million Americans on TikTok, it’s a China-based video-sharing app that teens primarily use to post short videos of themselves lip-syncing, pranking, dancing, and creating optical illusions. Also cute animal videos. Also e-book perspectives. #BookTok has several billion prospects a year.
Haley’s panic over an app is just the latest in a long line of hysterias that seem to greet any and all new technologies, especially those popular with teens. (“Hysteria” comes from the Greek word “hystere” meaning womb. )
In the 1930s, Scarsdale’s mothers claimed that radio was “too stimulating, frightening, and emotionally overwhelming” for children. Sidonie Matsner Gruenberg, a well-known expert on parent education, warned in the Washington Post that, unlike other entertainment, radio “cannot be blocked. “
Twenty years later, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, whose work was cited by the Supreme Court to overturn school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education, said: “I think Hitler was a beginner compared to the comics industry. ” His 1954 book, “Seduction of the Innocents,” argued that comics led to juvenile delinquency.
In the 1980s, PTA mothers across the country panicked about video games. One mother quoted in the New York Times said that video games “are addictive, you can get addicted to Atari. “Another claimed that arcades “encourage gambling and antisocial activities and competitive behavior. “(Countless studies have found no link between violent video games and violent behavior. )
The same goes for writing, railroads, the telegraph, and the telephone—all of which were once serious threats to humanity.
Haley says ‘we need to ban TikTok’ because it’s an app that works and has access to your contacts, your monetary information, your camera, your recorder, everything. “
Yes, Google, Meta, Instagram, LinkedIn too, etc.
The Chinese Communist Party wants to reveal the clandestine address of an app owned by a Chinese parent company that collects user data to obtain personal data on Americans. The concept is absurd.
Like everyone else, China can get the same knowledge-gathering data that slowly moves social media sites (with or without their cooperation). And if Nigerians can hack our monetary data, I guess the Chinese can too.
(In fact, by bombarding Chi-Coms with endless videos of teenage women making faces, TikTokers may be one of our greatest national security assets. )
But at least Haley has smart models for shutting down TikTok. She says India and Nepal have already banned the platform. “They ban it because they see what’s in their country. India has done it. Why are we last?” To do this?”
Do we have a First Amendment?
In India, the government controls print and television news, imposes regular internet shutdowns (more than in any other country in the world), and has jailed journalists for their tweets and Facebook posts. In March, the government suspended the social media accounts of more than a dozen journalists and media outlets, the BBC added.
That’s why it’s wonderful that Haley cites India as the country we emulate. (GOP mega-donors: At least she’s not looking to save kindergartners from making the transition. LEAVE DISNEY ALONE, RON!)
That’s why I say immigrants deserve to wait at least three generations before telling us how to govern our country. Take the time, practice, and watch the world’s filthiest country work.
One thing Haley may have learned with a few more generations under her belt is that in the case of National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie (1977), the Supreme Court upheld the right of self-proclaimed “Nazis” to march in Skokie. Opponents of this decision, like me, complain that a parade is more about “conduct” than “speech”; that the Nazis did have a right to free speech. )expression. )
Given this history, it’s surprising that Haley would claim that TikTok deserves to be shut down, particularly since Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America” has been trending on the platform recently. (Forget that the very explanation for why this trend trended was because politicians and the media couldn’t help but talk about it. Also, that TikTok temporarily removed it. )
Haley’s justification for banning TikTok is the content of the speech that appears on it. Quoting bin Laden’s letter in a speech in Iowa, he said, “That’s why you want to ban TikTok. “
Wow! There’s nothing more unconstitutional than that (although Haley is right that they don’t do it that way in India).
Using all the clichés of left-wing censors, Haley warns that TikTok will be able to spread “propaganda” and “misinformation” – and even influence our elections!(Who can know how Russia influenced the 2016 election by spending $200,000 on Facebook ads?)
Yes, TikTok could even convince Americans to adopt authoritarian policies similar to the CCP’s, such as banning a social media app.
As is apparently required of any woman running for president — e.g., Hillary Clinton and Carly Fiorina — Haley is trying to prove she’s macho enough to become commander-in-chief by being a jingoistic warmonger.
He has called for war on 3 continents at once and denounces China for everything. By now, it will take him about a week to claim that President Xi Jinping met with Mohamed Atta before 9/11.
There’s a lot to like about China — the theft of intellectual property, COVID, the sale of dog-killing dog food — but complaining about TikTok makes Haley look less like General Patton and more like a tense PTA mom who’s afraid of comic books.