[Micrococonut]

People are very aware that American tech companies want to control and exploit them as much as possible so there's really no difference to them between a Chinese app and an American app. Big tech trying to use its political power to force users into their platforms is an assault on our freedoms. You call it a bratty thing but I call it the only way the people have left to protest the enshittification of their digital lives.

[abdullahkhalids]

Zizek has a very interesting argument [1] that is perhaps relevant here. (Lightly cleaned up transcript)

> Imagine you are a small girl or boy of, let's say, eight years. It's Sunday afternoon and your father wants you to visit your old grandmother. You, of course, detest it - she's old, senile, whatever. But then, if you have an old authoritarian father, he will tell you something like - and this would be, as Alenka put it, a good thing to do - he will tell you: "Listen, I don't care how you feel. Just do your duty, go to your grandmother and behave there properly." That's perfect, I claim, because you will retain your, let's call it, inner freedom. You will be furious at your father, but that's good for your long-term freedom.

> Now, what would a monster called post-modern permissive father do? He would not give you an order, but he would have told you something like this: "You only go to visit your grandmother if you really want to. Just remember how much your grandmother loves you." Now, a child is not an idiot, and he or she will know perfectly what this order means. Beneath the appearance of a free choice, it gives you a much harsher order. The order is not only "you must go and visit your grandmother," but "you must do it freely." You must really wish to visit your grandmother.

> So you see, this nice example of how - and this is basically what also Alenka described as that situation - "do whatever you want," etc., where the apparent freedom of choice masks a much harsher choice.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZoheZbxT6I

[lenerdenator]

> People are very aware that American tech companies want to control and exploit them as much as possible so there's really no difference to them between a Chinese app and an American app

I mean, if that is indeed their rationale, then our civics education really does suck.

[brendoelfrendo]

Or, perhaps they have made a reasoned determination that their own government does not represent their best interests, and are less concerned about the impact a foreign power thousands of miles away has on their lives.

[ohjimny]

You think the purpose of civics education is to teach young people to trust American big tech and the American government above foreigners regardless of evidence??