The Red Note Development
Tuesday, January 14th, 2025 10:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudio |
05F tonight, going down to zero.
We're into a cold snap, here in the early part of the week.
I did put in for PTO on Monday, for TUE 21, and today, Mark approved it.
Derick, from Auqua Dale is the guy who'll be covering for Mark the next two months, but he seems like a great guy!
He looks to be late 30s or early 40s... with long black hair in a ponytail, a long black beard, and tattoos up and down both arms.
But he's very smiley & friendly, and good natured.
Basically like the younger brother of every friend I ever had... into metal, gaming, and D&D... but can also fix your mom's car and build her a deck... kinda guy!
Salt of the Earth!
So, as of my entry on Sunday night, I hadn't heard anything on TikTok about where people were going.
It was just the boilerplate, "I'm the same username on all platforms, so follow me on those."
But then as soon as I was done with the entry... about going underground... I fire up TikTok and suddenly everybody's downloaded Red Note!
It was as if everybody on TikTok simultaneously had the same idea to do this, while I was writing that entry!
Red Note, also translated as, Little Red Book, is a fully Chinese app, run by, and inside China.
And the name refers to a collection of Mao Zedong's communist teachings... kinda the bible of communist China.
Everybody on it speaks Manadrin, and all the text is in Mandarin characters, because it was never meant for English speaking Americans to use.
The only reason it's on American App stores, I'm assuming, is for the benefit of Chinese Americans who have family and friends back in China.
But somehow, everybody on TikTok simultaneously decided that this was the Chinese version of TikTok, and the perfect place to go, because of what a huge fuck-you it would be to the American government!
So many TikTokers created profiles on Red Book, on Sunday night, that by noon on Monday, it was the number one app in the American app stores!
And yesterday (Monday) my TikTok feed was nothing but deleriously happy TikTokers singing the praises of Red Book, as well as communist China!
In a span of 24 hours, so many Americans flooded into Red Book, that native users started posting English subtitles, to be polite, for all of the, "TikTok Refugees."
And many English speaking Chinese users began making videos to teach the Americans how to speak Mandarin.
And by the end of yesterday, those Americans were back on TikTok, showing off the Mandarin sentences they'd learned!
The Chinese were, by and large, very welcoming of the TikTok Refugees because... you know... EVERY culture that is NOT American, is hard wired to be welcoming of, and generous to, ANY guests!
But at any rate, this crazy, direct cultural exchange had begun, between everyday Americans, and everyday Chinese people, like has never happened before in history!
And everbody got very heady about it, as they still are tonight.
But... I mean, at some point the honeymoon's gonna be over because... LGBTQ, for example, are not tolerated in China, and if you're Black, Mexican, American Indian, or some other shade of brown?... I dunno how well that's gonna go over, either!
And freedom of expression, of course, is closely monitored!
Cats and memes?... great!
Political discourse?... Yearrrr... not so much!
Or at least... it's a one way street.
The Chinese people have been lovingly ribbing their American guests not only about being refugees, but about having to work two jobs to survive... and how hospitals don't save our lives, but instead rent them back to us at 85% interest!
And the Americans have been quite fine with that, and agreeing with it... which the Chinese government, no doubt, just loves!
But things won't be so friendly, when the Americans get comfortable and start questioning the Chinese government!.. which they definitely will!.. because that's what we do!
Also, despite the Chinese hospitality right now, and the good intentions of the Americans... we are kinda like a bunch of tourists invading a small town.
Reports were coming through today, that the huge influx of Americans to the app has been throwing off the algorithm to the point that the regular Chinese users are having difficulty finding the things they normally use it to find, on a daily basis.
And then when these native users try to have a discussion about the impact of all the Tiktok refugees... an American will show up in the comments... oblivious to what they're saying... post something in choppy Mandarin, and add a picture of a cat, like, Hey guys! Here to pay my cat tax! Hehahah!
Which has to be just painfully awkward!
But to make things more complicated, a lot of European TikTokers are also setting up camp at Red Note, because... even though for them, TikTok is not banned... they say that it's just not the same without the Americans!
Which is... really heartwarming!
But it's also adding to the confusion for the poor Chinese!
So, while this is an amazing moment in global history, where East and West are finding common ground, on a Chinese platform, and realizing we all have more in common with each other than we do with the ruling classes of our respective countries...
It can't be the final solution to the loss of TikTok, because so much of who and what TikTok was, just won't be tolerated by the CCCP!
I mean... we, as Americans SHOULD maintain this new relationship we have with the Chinese people, for the sake of international relations and class consciousness...and I'm sure that we will.
But we DO need an app where LGBTQ people, and people of color, and artists, educators, political thinkers, journalists, etc... are free to interact, like we did on TikTok.
And... ya know... High school girls should feel safe doing dances on it too!
I mean... that was the bedrock upon which TikTok was built!
That brings me to the next point, which is that only the teenagers will be able to identify the next true app!.. The chosen app, to lead us forward!
In American culture, there are two immutable laws;
- Black people mint all the slang, and define all new movements in music.
- Teenagers determine what becomes pop culture.
But we're talking about a social media app to replace TikTok, so it's more in the teenager's court!
However... we could argue that it's actually black teenagers, who define the culture that is later adopted by American teens of all other colors.
Either way... the teenagers in whole, must reach their consensus on what is the cool new app!
And only THEN... will the 20-somethings, try to respectfully adopt it.
Only after THAT, can the rest of us jump in to appropriate the whole thing for ourselves!
That's what I mean about keeping an ear to the rail... or listening for the word on the street.
If you're 30 or older?.. you just DO NOT KNOW what's emerging anymore.
UNLESS!.. you're the PARENT of a teenager!.. or you're a high school teacher.
And that's how word typically gets to the rest of us old farts!
This, however, remains a very critical week in the history of both social media, and class consciousness.
I dare say... ridiculously so!
Because this massive meeting of the working class minds on Red Note, over just two days, has people in Congress scrambling to put a stay on the ban, before it hit's on Sunday!
The irony is NOT lost on them, that the nightmare scenario they dreamed up as justification for the ban... one which they knew was absurd... is ACTUALLY PLAYING OUT IN REAL TIME RIGHT NOW!
But that's TikTok!
Even in it's final week, the users found this way to ban together, as they have done so many times in the past... and shove whatever dildo the government's weilding this time... right back up their asses!
And that includes Mark Zuckerberg this time!
Because there's been a call for everybody to, if not delete, then at least uninstall both Facebook and Instagram from their phones, to show that we are NEVER going back!.. and it's tanking Meta stock after just two days!
And meanwhile the politicians have all turned on Zuckerberg, and there's suddenly talk of going after him for different legal indiscretions they'd previously turned a blind eye to!
So... the shit storm's fully developed an eye, since the weekend, and is in full rotation now, with wind speeds climbing!
I did uninstall Instagram last night, and... well, Facebook hasn't been on my phone at all since 2014!
As I mentioned in the last entry, I both deleted and uninstalled Twitter a few years ago.
But I have installed Red Note... though I'm having trouble creating an account with just my phone number, so I'm not active on it at the moment.
I did log into it through Google to check it out, briefly, but... I'm not gonna be using it under my actual name, with my main gmail account, cuz... I didn't even do that for TikTok!
There are other alternatives being floated out there, such as, Clapper, an American TikTok clone.
But I do still think there's no point in bothering, until the teens & twens come to their consensus... which could take a while!
I can afford to be underground while we wait for that because... I've never based my livelihood on an app before.
But millions of TikTokers DID rely on the app for their income, and to grow their careers... making this ban not just a monopolistic bid to kill the competition, or a drastic crackdown on free speech, but also a sweeping destruction of small business in America!
It really does highlight how corrupt our government has become, at the hands of unfettered capitalism!
The Chinese DO have a point, that they ARE living better than us right now!
They have free healthcare, mass transportation, a great economy, futuristic infrastructure, superior education, and they're kicking our asses when it comes to social media algorithms!
And anything they're doing to curtail people's rights... we're also doing right now!
They're ahead of us!
They're winning the quality of life competition, hands down!
And we're finally seeing that, with our own eyes!
To them, we look as we truly are... a people being neglected and abused by an oppresive regime, on the payroll of capitalist pigs!
When the Berlin wall fell, in the early 1990s, our government thought that competition was over, and immediately set about to dismantle the middle class, because there was no communist superpower left to make them look bad!
And they rested easy on those laurels for decades, while the fat cats grew fatter... and much bolder in their bids to suck society dry...
As evidenced most recently by the price gouging of groceries to the point of pain... the rentalization of the housing market (destroying the American dream)... and now... this massive monopolistic bid to kill an app, and with it, free speech, and millions of small businesses overnight!
And that was all on the DEMOCRATS' watch!
That's all been in just the past FOUR years!
So, it's very good that we're having our East Berlin moment this week... waking up to the fact that we've really fallen behind China, and... forget socialism... even communism is proving superior to what we're doing here!
And I think it's also very good this is all happening before Trump takes office again!
Because he's being put on notice that... whatever those bullshit plans were, for project 25?.. are political suicide!
They know... right now!.. that if China were to try and come to our rescue?... we would welcome them with open arms!
That's how badly they've already lost the competition!
And I almost called it a propaganda war... but Americans going homeless, while still working two jobs, to not afford groceries... and having all their avenues for communication shut down... is REALITY!
There's a challenge here, for Trump, to catch up to the Chinese.
There's an opportunity, for him to do that, and in so doing, destroy the Democratic party once and for all!
It's as simple as... Look at the sorry state we're in right now, compared to China! Well, that's all thanks to the Democrats! But no more! Free health care! Mass Transit! Education, education, education!
Something like that.
But I think we all know he doesn't have that in him.
But this could still put the kabosh on any plans to become more evil!
And then we just continue to fight it out, state by state, group by group, voter by voter, clawing for progress, inch by inch, but getting somewhere!
I dunno!
At the end of the night...
This isn't just another week.
I do think this is a very pivotal week, leading into a very pivotal couple of years!
The unique issues of the early 20s, are all coming to a head, here in 2025!
And what happens through 25 and 26, will define the historical impact of this decade, and set the stage for the 2030s.
But the future is unwritten, and things could go any direction, at the moment.
So whether you are on some foreign social media front, acting as an ambassador, or you're a hermit like me, meditating in the woods... maintain situational awareness!... and be ready to act, when you see an opening.
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