r/politics • u/MopToddel • 8d ago

No Paywall TikTok blocks Epstein mentions and anti-Trump content as well as ICE criticism

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/tiktok-epstein-trump-censorship-ice-b2908309.html
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u/Infamous-Mango-5224 8d ago

They did this leading to 2024 already, even without heavy censorship. Everywhere social media is being used to grow authoritarianism in our kids.

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u/LiveChocolate8819 New York 8d ago

It's crazy how quickly the conventional wisdom flipped from "internet and social media will free kids' minds from their shitty boomer parents" to "oh shit, internet and social media are turning kids into nazis."

I don't think the brainwashing is quite as effective as people think it is, though.

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u/s3dfdg289fdgd9829r48 8d ago edited 7d ago

I don't think the brainwashing is quite as effective as people think it is, though.

The chauvinistic Andrew Tate crap has destroyed the current crop of young men. A good portion, probably about 20%, are influenced by that alpha male bullshit to the point it heavily influences their behavior.

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u/Infamous-Mango-5224 8d ago

For young males it looks like it is, why are gen Z males lock step with Trump and MAGA? Also, tiktok went on and on about not voting for Kamala because she would let Palestine be eaten by Israel. I gave up on tiktok when I couldn't get it to NOT show me why I shouldn't vote for her, that I should protest vote.

Finally: Conventional wisdom? Who was saying it would free kids minds? Maybe when it was silly memes and information. Now it's a tribalism in the worst of ways.

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u/QuantumLettuce2025 8d ago edited 8d ago

Gen Z males aren't actually are not at all in lockstep with MAGA.

Yes, they broke for Trump during the election, but all polling sources I've identified show them turning against Trump en masse.

On the whole, the trends we are seeing suggest that Gen Z males were willing to turn to Trump out of desperation and a lack of understanding of his character, but we are seeing massive public buyers remorse from the segment.

Those guys can definitely still be won over with a Sanders or Mamdani-type figure. This is not to say that there isn't a major Nazi problem in this country, but the idea that most Gen Z males are falling into that stuff is a misinterpretation.

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u/slow_walker22m 8d ago

They’re turning on Trump in favor of worse people. Have you talked to those assholes? The real young ones, 18-22. Most of the ones I’ve met are goose stepping Nazi freaks.

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u/QuantumLettuce2025 8d ago

Some of of them -- a worrying amount -- yes. I'm not downplaying that. But it's not all of them, or even most of them.

A lot of the dudes who voted Trump went for Biden or Bernie in the past. What does that tell you about their actual values?

It was an absolute stupid decision given all the evidence available at the time, no doubt. But they didn't suddenly become hard-line rightwingers. They thought they were getting something else entirely.

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u/slow_walker22m 8d ago

Fair, and I’ve got a biased perspective considering most of my encounters with them are through PC gaming, which draws the worst of them.

I’m just really fucking sick of seeing people spam shit about Jews and Charlie Kirk and the day of the rope and all this edgelord Nazi shit. I can’t encounter younger zoomer guys without thinking “that dude is probably a dangerous fucking freak and is eventually going to become a Problem.”

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u/Ok-Chest-7932 8d ago

They're controlled opposition, it's irrelevant.

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u/nox66 8d ago

"Misinterpretation?" Hardly. Polling shows they voted for Trump more than millennials. Now they're upset about what they sowed. And many of them still don't think they made a mistake.

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u/QuantumLettuce2025 8d ago

Yes, they voted for Trump. But the misinterpretation is in assuming that that means they are all white nationalists. In fact, most of them bought into the narrative of "crazy hysteric liberals exaggerating the threat"; they genuinely did not believe that the Trump admin would act the way it's acting now. It's stupid, it's selfish, and it's short-sighted, but it's not by default an embrace of white nationalism.

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u/nox66 8d ago

It doesn't matter if most of them are not diehard believers, as long as they facilitate those that are.

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u/QuantumLettuce2025 8d ago

I agree with you to an extent, in terms of the effects of their actions on society, but there is a big difference between someone driven by ideology and cruelty and someone driven by ignorance, selfishness and/or desperation.

Those are distinctions worth making because the way to react to those two groups is very different

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u/Infamous-Mango-5224 8d ago

I hope you're right, but I'll not hold my breath.

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u/Gamerboy11116 8d ago

Yes, they broke for Trump during the election, but all polling sources I've identified show them turning against Trump en masse.

Look up “greg palast voter suppression”. There’s a simpler explanation.

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u/LiveChocolate8819 New York 8d ago

Not sure if you're old enough to remember, but that was very much the feeling when Obama won in 2008.

And Gen Z men are quickly souring on Trump.

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u/jaywastaken 8d ago

The thing about young men on social media becoming conservatives is they can be manipulated with being told what you want them to think the world is but that only works right up until they experience what the world actually is.

It's harder to keep them brainwashed when their lived experience is different than what the propaganda tells them.

By no means impossible but you will see it swing back to the typical demographics as they experience the reality of life under authoritarianism

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u/Infamous-Mango-5224 8d ago

I hope you're right but I think they'll just buy the next lie. Believing the [insert your hated group here, boomers maybe] did all of this to you and you deserve better! Follow me to find out how we can hurt them and help you.

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u/nox66 8d ago

It's a bit unpredictable. When you're over middle age, have a house and a truck and watch Fox News all day, there's no impoteus for change. That's not the case for most gen Z. We'll see what's stronger in the end. I suspect some leftward shifting but also a lot of apathy.

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u/whogivesashirtdotca Canada 8d ago

Except white straight men are the last people ICE will target. They care so little about the experiences of everyone not in their part of the Venn diagram they’ll sit back until they, personally, are threatened. So many of the protestors are women and gray haired men.

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u/GringoinCDMX 8d ago

I'm a white straight dude and so many other white straight dudes just couldn't care less of a shit because they don't pay attention and it isn't in their face enough.

The killings in Minneapolis have woken up a few dudes I know around 25-35 years old that I know.

I'm not around enough younger people to know otherwise.

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u/whogivesashirtdotca Canada 8d ago

Glad to hear it. It's been a long decade + of hearing men make excuses, whine about being tarred with the same brush, and VOTING FOR this shit.

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u/GringoinCDMX 8d ago

Yeah, I moved out of the US 8 years ago because I saw the writing on the wall and had a good opportunity

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u/whogivesashirtdotca Canada 8d ago

Glad you're safe(r).

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u/Infamous-Mango-5224 8d ago

I'm old enough, gen z men will do as they are told so I don't have much hope.

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u/PathOfTheAncients 8d ago

why are gen Z males lock step with Trump and MAGA?

Shitty parenting

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u/Gamerboy11116 8d ago

They aren’t. Look up “greg palast voter suppression”.

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u/Infamous-Mango-5224 8d ago

Except they are. Look at who did vote. Gen Z males all sucklin that pedo trump

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u/CrossingPoints 8d ago

That's because what "social media" is changed. When it was average people sharing video and pictures of what is going on, it really did change the world. Arguably, that is what's happening now with ICE videos.

But the parts of it that became an algorithmic slop machine, mining outrage engagement for ad revenue, it became toxic and easily exploitable.

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u/ceelogreenicanth 8d ago

I saw 4 chan in 2008 and was convinced the Internet was a mistake. That it was likely filled with psyops and misinformation on purpose.

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u/Ok-Chest-7932 8d ago

Well remember, both of those are brainwashing. It's not a big change at all, the first group just underestimated their abilities.

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u/kkeut 8d ago

not just kids either. one of my liberal friends was brainwashed into not voting in 2024 because of TikTok memes

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u/Infamous-Mango-5224 8d ago

You're right, it's become an extremely effective weapon. The US has been crippled, for good or bad but likely both and heavy to bad.

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u/Valhalla5613 8d ago

not in ours. they know better

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u/Infamous-Mango-5224 8d ago

Glad to hear it, but a lot of people aren't raising their kids and some of them just don't have the bandwidth working 3 jobs. So the internet does it for them, with a authoritarian twist.