TotallynotJessica

No idea

We're obsessed with responsibility, thinking that someone MUST be responsible for everything that happens. The sad truth is that NOBODY is in charge. There's NOBODY to blame. Bad shit happens for reasons that transcend intentionality, as even when there is intention, it can still be of little consequence to what actually happens.

We're specks of dust in the wind that think all gusts must come from another speck. We don't know shit, and that truth has been staring us in the face for millenia.

Did you just reply within your own comment?

:3

gives headpats

Proposed Addendum:

• Thank You ➔ Good Boy!
• Can you grab the door? ➔ Be a Good Boy?
• Have a good day at work ➔ Be a Good Boy!
• How was your day? ➔ You're a Good Boy <3
• Good morning ➔ Hi-ya Good Boy!

Mooching

I've found that my best responses both take them at face value, AND make them not want to troll anymore

Even if something is clearly bait, it still might be worth pushing back against. All internet arguments, bait or not, are principly about the audience, not the person you're responding to. I honestly don't care what someone's motivation is. If someone says bad shit uncontested, people start believing it.

This even applies to someone saying something to troll. If they tell a lie often enough, they tend to internalize it. If you actually want to influence a troll, make them not want to troll there. Give pushback that isn't fun for them to respond to.

Like all other social media, they harvest an invasive amount of data. Not more than meta apps or anything, but it is part of standard capitalist practice. They exist, like every mainstream social media platform in China or America, to promote economic interests in a corporate system. It deranked BLM videos because deranking popular dissent is part and parcel with selling to advertisers. China doesn't even need a backdoor, just the basic understanding of how it's similar to all their own apps.

China is another capitalist empire under a different flag. They're neoliberal to the bone, only better at exploiting the system than America in certain ways. They don't want to undermine the global capitalist order, as they're quite good at winning in it. They've become more nationalistic and hawkish militarily, but that's a direct result of neoliberalism. It quickly becomes unpopular if there aren't internal and external scapegoats. The degenerate western influences are scapegoated there, while the degenerate commie immigrants are the enemy here.

All of it serves to protect power. Trump will adopt many strategies from them, because that is what their government exists to do.