• @Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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    57 months ago

    Ffs! This bullshit is pure demagoguery and corruption!

    It’s an election year, so pretending to care about privacy rights and national security (even though they’re doing fuck all about American companies spying, including for oppressive regimes such as those of Putin, Modi, Netanyahu and MBS) while being “tough on China” is a demagogue jackpot.

    Meanwhile, the ACTUAL reasons are thus:

    1: With Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube heavily censoring criticism of the Israeli apartheid regime, TikTok is the main social media outlet for pro-palestinian and anti-genocide activism. AIPAC and other reliable sources for legal bribes don’t like that.

    2: In the event of a sale, the purchaser is likely to be an oligarch that also bribes American politicians and will do so even more afterwards.

    • @disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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      27 months ago

      I keep seeing this comment- it has nothing to do with the election. They have until January 19th to divest. That’s well past the November election date.

      • Flying Squid
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        37 months ago

        I think the bigger issue is that this is terrible timing for Biden and he’s being an idiot about it. The last thing he needs is to lose the youth vote.

        • @disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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          07 months ago

          Do you think it would be better for him to kick the can to the next president? I think that would only raise concerns that he’s in bed with China after a unanimous Senate vote.

          • Flying Squid
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            47 months ago

            Do you think anyone who would have voted for Biden would have believed he was in bed with China and then not done it?

            Because I can think of a lot of young people who would be very pissed off by this. So yes, kicking the can down the road in terms of politics would have been the best thing to do.

            • @disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              I hear you. There’s not much he can do with such strong congressional support without it looking like a personal agenda.

              He has a lot more to offer the youth vote than Trump, between marijuana reform, abortion rights, tuition reimbursement, DEI, LGBTQ+ rights, lower taxes, etc. He’ll have to run on those.

              • Flying Squid
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                27 months ago

                He really hasn’t reached out to the youth vote much so far, at least from what I’ve seen, although definitely legalizing marijuana would do it if he is able to (it’s more complicated than some people think).

                • @disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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                  37 months ago

                  He pushed to reschedule in his first year. HHS proposed rescheduling to class 3, from class 1. We’re waiting on approval from the DEA now.

                  It’s also on the November ballot in several states. The Florida Supreme Court, for example, put statewide marijuana legalization as well as abortion rights on this November’s ballot. This should encourage the 18-24 vote turnout. Trump only won the swing state with 3.6% last election, and he’s lost popularity in his home county.

    • Flying Squid
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      27 months ago

      The problem with your first reason is that this TikTok sale nonsense started before Israel invaded Gaza.