POV: It's January 19th

[gnomesaiyan@lemmy.world]

And one naturally says the reason why we are in such a mess is not simply that we have wrong systems for doing things—whether they be technological, political, or religious—but we have the wrong people. The systems may be alright, but they are in the wrong hands, because we are all in various ways self-seeking, lacking in wisdom, lacking in courage, afraid of death, afraid of pain, unwilling really to cooperate with others, unwilling to be open to others.

—Alan Watts, Mind Over Mind

[ataridump@lemmy.world]

Because democracy is an abstract name for a system and republic is the more concrete result of that system, democracy is frequently used when the emphasis is on the system itself. We could say that democracy is to republicas monarchy is to kingdom.

Democracy or Republic: What's the difference?

The words democracy and republic are frequently used to mean the same thing: a government in which the people vote for their leaders. However, there are some situations in which one is better to use than the other.

(www.merriam-webster.com)

[samus12345@lemm.ee]

Because democracy is an abstract name for a system and republic is the more concrete result of that system

In other words, a republic is a kind of democracy.

[flexibletoast@lemmy.world]

That capitalism baby! I suppose Congress can at least control who Facebook et al. are selling to through sanctions and such.

[idkwhatusernametoputherelolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

A republic you say?

Republic just means a country without monarchy.

China is a Republic

North Korea is a Republic

The US is a Democratic Republic

Where do you think the name of the political party "Democratic-Republicans" come from?

[sus@programming.dev]

when exactly did that happen

[idkwhatusernametoputherelolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

Hybrid Regime with democratic features

[idkwhatusernametoputherelolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

Lol, I don't give a shit about tik tok, I'm more worried about the First Amendment implications.

They could just declare Lemmy instances to be "foreign propaganda" and ban every instance they don't like.

[feelthepower@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

as an American yeah, seeing this post is just depressing. like people are actively cheering a loss of internet freedom. the government doesn't care about bytedance or else capcut would have to go too. they care about controlling information, tiktok has been essential in issues like Palestine, even if I don't like the platform itself I can admit that.

[idkwhatusernametoputherelolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

I'm not a fan of government banning stuff, but like... if they are gonna do it, ban Wechat too. My parent's be so deep in the Wechat propaganda, I wonder what they do without Wechat.

[appletea@lemmy.zip]

If I wanna get my propaganda from more than one world power, that's my right under the first amendment. Or it was.

[dx1@lemmy.world]

Last year.

[dx1@lemmy.world]

Oh my god, can you people shut up with this already.

[dx1@lemmy.world]

OK, but find me an exact quote that actually says that. Not something that sorta sounds like that, but that exactly.

[kworpy@lemm.ee]

if Vine was still here (let alone brought back) it would become just as bad as TikTok. Social medias can have their golden age but they will inevitably turn into shit, vine was simply shut down before its golden age came to an end

[archomrade@midwest.social]

(there are several people in this thread who would not mind banning certain lemmy instances on this basis)

[archomrade@midwest.social]

Yea, they were comparing tiktok to other american-owned social media sites, which are guilty of exactly the same thing themselves.

Any site that doesn't explicitly push anti chinese content is going to look like a pro-chinese bias

[rooty@lemmy.world]

"Freedom is when you let foreign governments spy on your citizens"

[cm0002@lemmy.world]

What? Wechat is a thing here? I have literally never heard about Wechat like anywhere, pretty sure more people know about Lemmy in the US than Wechat lmao

[idkwhatusernametoputherelolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

WeChat is very common amongst the Chinese diaspora worldwide. Everyone in China uses WeChat. Its like China's Facebook. Its either that, or just sms, which lack many features like, group chats, or some weird Lunar New Year gifs, stuff like that. That's only for first-generation immigrants tho. People born ouside of China, Taiwan, or any Chinese-speaking areas would probably not use WeChat. I arrived in the US at before I was 10, I hate the idea of having any corporate apps on my phone, regardless of nationality. Many Chinese Americans born in the US just use the typical Instagram, Snapchat and stuff like that (and yes, some use TikTok as well, but that just a "kids these days" thing, nothing to do with ancestry)