A study found TikTok's algorithm recommended more Republican-aligned content during the 2024 US election. Republican accounts saw more like-minded content, while Democratic accounts were shown more opposing views. This suggests a pro-Republican skew.
I’m fairly certain that TikTok plays an instrumental role in the whole brainwashing machinery. The content renders its users incapable of dealing with content that takes longer than 20s to consume. Fact checking however, requires a lot more effort. I just had a fight with my brother. He once was a man that read a shit ton of books and had the patience to sit through epic movies and was culturally adequately informed. Now his 56 year old ass sits on the couch, swiping through one TikTok video after the other and blindly repeats all the “felt truths”. When confronted with evidence showing the contrary, he simply rejects those sources as left propaganda. He doesn’t even put in an ounce of effort. The man is totally lost and I’m fucking sad as hell about it. He’s pretty much the only family I have, other than my wife and daughter. This is in Germany by the way. We’re not too far away from the situation in the US.
Extremely sorry this is happening to you. I know some young men who are “not political” and who if you ask them would say they “don’t follow politics”, yet every dog whistle republican talking point has somehow been demonstrated to them via TikTok without them knowing/noticing. You talk about healthcare or education and it’s always “I saw a TikTok and it said that no one actually needs to go to a doctor or school”. It’s just something the “nanny state” says you should do. Like, how are they so unable to what’s happening to them? Then they say it’s not political because it’s just one persons opinion. Then when you point out that it’s affecting their politics and everything is inherently political, all the sudden you’re the problem trying to convince them to vote when they don’t want to or to vote against Trump or whatever. Normally, I can have a normal conversation with people who disagree with me but I legitimately cannot predict/understand what conclusions they will jump to. I’ve never had such unorganized, unproductive conversations in my life. Best of luck to you and your family.
Thanks for the kind words! The good thing is, I have some very good friends that I can talk to. That way I’m not entirely alone. Hope this is the case for you too!
I’m fairly certain that TikTok plays an instrumental role in the whole brainwashing machinery. The content renders its users incapable of dealing with content that takes longer than 20s to consume. Fact checking however, requires a lot more effort. I just had a fight with my brother. He once was a man that read a shit ton of books and had the patience to sit through epic movies and was culturally adequately informed. Now his 56 year old ass sits on the couch, swiping through one TikTok video after the other and blindly repeats all the “felt truths”. When confronted with evidence showing the contrary, he simply rejects those sources as left propaganda. He doesn’t even put in an ounce of effort. The man is totally lost and I’m fucking sad as hell about it. He’s pretty much the only family I have, other than my wife and daughter. This is in Germany by the way. We’re not too far away from the situation in the US.
Extremely sorry this is happening to you. I know some young men who are “not political” and who if you ask them would say they “don’t follow politics”, yet every dog whistle republican talking point has somehow been demonstrated to them via TikTok without them knowing/noticing. You talk about healthcare or education and it’s always “I saw a TikTok and it said that no one actually needs to go to a doctor or school”. It’s just something the “nanny state” says you should do. Like, how are they so unable to what’s happening to them? Then they say it’s not political because it’s just one persons opinion. Then when you point out that it’s affecting their politics and everything is inherently political, all the sudden you’re the problem trying to convince them to vote when they don’t want to or to vote against Trump or whatever. Normally, I can have a normal conversation with people who disagree with me but I legitimately cannot predict/understand what conclusions they will jump to. I’ve never had such unorganized, unproductive conversations in my life. Best of luck to you and your family.
Thanks for the kind words! The good thing is, I have some very good friends that I can talk to. That way I’m not entirely alone. Hope this is the case for you too!