• Sticky Fedi@lemmy.ml
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    7 days ago

    Wow, Americans really gonna kill American hegemony themselves. Like “fuck it, you oligarchs wanna fuck around?! Ni hau, mf. Time to find out.”

      • john89@lemmy.ca
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        6 days ago

        Meanwhile the people from both nations are realizing how much bullshit they’ve been fed by the media about each other.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          5 days ago

          Almost. I’ve seen more Chinese users surprised that the situation in the US isn’t propaganda, like many USians needing 2 jobs just to survive, or paying incredible amounts for medical care. The bit on USians being surprised the propaganda about China being bogus is true though.

          • john89@lemmy.ca
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            5 days ago

            Well, I wouldn’t say many Americans need 2 jobs to survive.

            Usually the people you’re referring to aren’t living as frugally as they could be, and they want to be entitled to excesses they don’t need.

            They’re the people who can barely afford living in a major city, but moving out to the country isn’t “good enough” for them.

            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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              5 days ago

              Horrendous take. The biggest issue isn’t with the workers, but the system that funnels their production to a shrinking and microscopic number of hands at the top.

              • john89@lemmy.ca
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                5 days ago

                Both can contribute to the problem. I’m not even blaming “the workers.” I’m blaming entitled consumers.

                Americans have been taught to conflate their needs with wants, so whoever takes their wants away is a bad person.

                If you’re sitting around waiting for the people at top to enact change, you’re part of the problem. We can all do something about it, and it usually starts in our wallets.

  • Sagittarii@lemm.ee
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    6 days ago

    Should use HelloChinese instead tbh. Duolingo is more like a game than a language learning app.

    • MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml
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      6 days ago

      People searching for a means of connecting with a community is a negative thing since when? Better to look at the source of their feelings of alienation outside of the internet and point the finger at that instead of flippantly dismissing people using social media from a social media platform.

      • oxjox@lemmy.ml
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        6 days ago

        LOL Good job injecting your narrative into something completely unrelated.

        These platforms would not be as successful if they were just about offering a nice place for friends to congregate. If that were the case, Myspace would still be relevant and forums would still be more active than FB and Reddit.

        Here we are on Lemmy - free of ads and algorithms and corporate control. If it was all about people searching for means of connection, what aren’t more people here?

        Because the corporations have created an algorithm to maintain engagement to show you ads. Engagement is driven by strong emotions. Strong emotions are created by chemical reactions in your brain. What you’re being shown on corporate controlled social media is what they know will keep the chemicals flowing aggressively around in your grey matter.

        People have been alienated for millennia. The internet has existed and has been embracing outcasts for over 40 years. I would suggest that you take a step back and consider why people are choosing one platform over another and what differentiates the platforms from one another.

        This is a case where people are so occupied with a platform proven to threaten their nation’s national security and their own perception of reality that they would choose to embrace that foreign adversary over their own country. If that’s not an addiction, I don’t know what is.

        I hope you find a place of peace to congregate with others who make you feel known. Corporate controlled social media should have never been that place.

        • MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml
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          6 days ago

          I agree with your assessment of why people get hooked on these social media apps and what would drive them from switching to TikTok to another app that fills the same role, but I don’t think that’s the only thing that is going on here.

          My original comment was framed the way it was because yours seemed to be implying addiction was the only thing driving people’s behavior in this specific instance, but the article your comment was replying to is showing that while people are switching from TikTok to Rednote, there was also a corresponding increase in US users who are seeking resources to learn Mandarin. This implies that more is going on and is where your “people are only being driven by addiction” analysis falls apart.

          Sure, I can see people switching apps to continue chasing an addiction, however, the uptick in US interest in learning Mandarin implies that people are interested in communicating with people who speak mandarin. If you looked at how Rednote is currently functioning in English, you can see that it’s not necessary to learn Mandarin to use the app the same way they did on TikTok. People are finding more than just a way to fill a social media addiction.

          The fact that they are seeking out ways to better communicate with other users on Rednote suggests they are looking to become closer with that subset of users, which is an action driven by a desire to build a community with them. You don’t go learning a new language because of addiction.

          • oxjox@lemmy.ml
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            5 days ago

            You are delusional. You’re fitting your narrative into the situation without the ability (or desire) to step back and observe the reality.

            People are learning mandarin because they are so addicted to this form of social media that they are choosing to learn a new language over using other forms of social media.

            • MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml
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              5 days ago

              Perhaps this is a case of the kettle calling the pot black? Have you even considered what I said could hold some truth? I can say I have considered yours and told you I thought there was merit to it.

              Does it make sense to go to the extra effort to learn a new language when they could just go to Instagram or lemon8 like many others have done? That is the path of least resistance for feeding an addiction, not overcoming a language barrier.

              • oxjox@lemmy.ml
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                4 days ago

                Do you also send thanks to abusive partners because they force their spouses to learn to cook for them?

                I mean, yeah. It’s great that homeless drug addicts get to know how to use the public transit system so well 👍