tiredturtle

Marx and Engels developed communism as a scientific critique of capitalism, envisioning a classless, stateless society built on the abolition of exploitation and private property. Their revolutionary theory sought to empower the proletariat, not to impose authoritarianism.

Lenin, Stalin, and Mao departed from this vision. Lenin’s vanguard model centralized power, which under Stalin became a tool for repression. Stalin and Mao betrayed the revolutionary spirit by targeting workers, peasants, and even communists who resisted their distortions of Marxism. Their regimes prioritized the interests of the party-state over the emancipation of the working class.

Despite the harm these deviations caused to the global proletariat and the communist movement, revolutionary theory has advanced. Many contemporary movements reject the errors of authoritarianism, advocating for socialism rooted in democratic, collective power. The struggle for communism continues, undeterred by those who betrayed its principles.

Critique those regimes, which shouldn't be conflated with the original ideals of communism as a philosophy for human equality. The horrible ones were against communists.

Yeah who knows. As of now things look like a PR stunt

A solid theory to explain how platforms align with state interests, exemplifying how state-capitalist powers weaponize media as tools of soft power, subordinating them to geopolitical and ideological agendas.

Maybe, although Trump’s initiation of the ban in 2020 and its culmination under a bipartisan effort makes it seem that this is not a party issue but a function of state power responding to perceived threats to its hegemony, maybe economic, cultural, or political. This underscores the Marxist understanding that capital ultimately unites in opposition to the interests of the working class.

Communist theory is grounded in the material reality of class struggle, not in abstract "LLM slop". The facts remain and is important to repeat: capitalism exploits workers everywhere. Let's focus on the real issues, not dismissive labels.

Or was it an out of place reference to a meme thread in my profile history where one joke was to ask chatgpt if one doesn't catch a joke

The dismissal is a classic deflection, avoiding the material reality of global capitalist contradictions. The working class faces the same forces of exploitation, and any attempt to obscure that fact only serves to reinforce bourgeois ideologies. It's crucial to avoid inadvertently reinforcing us-them language; you are a part of us, as I am. The truth remains: capitalism's structure perpetuates oppression everywhere, and the task is to unite workers globally in solidarity, not retreat into nationalist illusions.

Our dire situation is indeed global, and the crises of capitalism spare no nation, including China. While the Chinese state presents the veneer of rising material conditions, this trajectory is underpinned by the same contradictions inherent to capitalism everywhere: exploitation of labor, environmental degradation, and the alienation of workers. The notion that Chinese workers, amid rising inequality and workplace pressures, are immune to propaganda or the diversionary tactics of consumerism is illusory. What RedNote—or any platform of genuine cultural exchange—offers is the potential for workers to transcend these national divisions, expose the ideological frameworks that bind them, and unite against their common enemy: capital. To stifle the struggle of Chinese workers by reducing their experiences to caricatures or dismissing their agency as propaganda-induced is not only an act of sinophobia but a failure to recognize the universality of their plight. Whether in the imperial supepowers or somewhere in the periphery, the struggle is the same, and solidarity forged in shared understanding is the path forward. To reject this is to retreat into illusions of exceptionalism that only serve the ruling class.

We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office

And the masks came off

Edit; let's amend (profoundly as wished) if that helps someone missing the context

The spectacle of TikTok pledging allegiance to Trump in the face of its ban is a stark revelation of the deeper alignment between authoritarian state-capitalism and reactionary forces within global capitalism. TikTok, a tool of China’s soft power, has long operated as an instrument of the CCP’s technocratic and market-driven strategy. Trump, a figurehead of American neo-fascism, represents the extreme contradictions of bourgeois politics in crisis, wielding populist rhetoric to consolidate power. Their sudden alignment is not an aberration but a crystallization of mutual interests: TikTok secures its foothold in the US market, while Trump uses the platform’s return to bolster his populist image and project dominance over a fragmented capitalist class.

This moment unearths a truth Marxist theory has long emphasized: in times of crisis, capital will shed its ideological pretenses and unite across borders to secure its survival. TikTok’s deference to Trump is a mask-off moment for both Chinese state-capitalism and the American far-right. It reveals their shared hostility to the potential of an organized, class-conscious proletariat, particularly among the app’s young, progressive user base. The CCP and Trumpism alike aim to neutralize this energy, diverting it into consumerism or reactionary politics. In this, we see the machinery of global capital—state-guided or otherwise—aligning against the revolutionary potential of the masses, reaffirming the urgency of a unified proletarian struggle against the forces of oppression.

Everyone else is an agent in this honeypot

Their systems are slightly different so a local Luigi copycat would target someone else than an insurance CEO

It's for collecting phone number, network cell data etc. It's basically the most sensitive permission and usually not needed for apps to request.

If an app only needs a phone number, it can ask it with user input instead.

Interesting indeed, both countries' governments don't want truths out