Sorry if this is controversial, but I’ve heard some people saying (title) and that it’s ironic that after the American government tried so hard to ban the little red book of the cultural revolution from being in everyone’s pockets, now it is in everyone’s pockets again in the form of an app on their phones.

I’m sure the first thing people will say is, it’s a social media app similar to TikTok, which is why Americans are flocking to it in the wake of (and in anticipation of) TikTok’s ban for reasons related to CCP interference. It’s not literally the writings of Mao Zedong, in any way. But I think it’s more of a symbolic idea of what it represents. It’s also very interesting that the first choice of an app to replace TikTok was one that seems even more closely associated with China than TikTok is; I wonder if Red Note actually takes off in America that it will be banned as well otherwise it may have just replaced the perceived problem with another one.

  • socsa
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    31 hour ago

    Yes the American government tried to ban a book I can get for $6 on Amazon Prime. Why do people believe these things?

  • @communism@lemmy.ml
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    124 hours ago

    …No, it’s a social media app.

    If you’re referring to the title of the book, it’s called “Quotations from Mao Tse-tung”. “Little red book” is an English nickname and Chinese people don’t call it that, so the app name would not be a reference.

  • @Achyu@lemmy.sdf.org
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    4 hours ago

    I don’t think so.

    But if it really has leftist ideology and good discussions in it, unlike the mostly centrist slighty left-ish discussions in social media like Reddit, that would be awesome.

    Is it really so? Then I’d join it to see the discussions

    • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]
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      3 hours ago

      It is leftist, in a way that’s so much more casual and all-encompassing than I’m used to. Lemmy communities feel like little hidden leftist saloons in the wasteland, while the culture and friendliness on rednote feels more like what a whole society of people who share leftist values should feel like. It’s immensely refreshing to just look at people’s art projects without alo feeling like you have to be constantly prepared to do battle against a firehose of manufactured outrage, clickbait and smug dehumanization, like on basically any American social media I see these days. The cultural exchange itself is heartwarming beyond description, and I’ve seen tears on both sides of it.

  • ProfessorOwl_PhD [any]
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    108 hours ago

    It’s an app like tiktok. Symbolically you can interpret it as representing anything you want, that’s how symbolism works, but what it actually is is an app like tiktok.

  • Future_Honkey [none/use name]
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    5 hours ago

    I just wish i was more soc media savvy. Besides the language barrier, my experience is limited to places like lemmy/reddit and the learning curve for more it has me feelin like a time traveler, i don’t know what any of this shit does, what following even means. Its fun though, what little i do get

  • @DragonWasabiOP
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    89 hours ago

    The app is also literally called Little Red Book as an alternative name

  • Jeena
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    39 hours ago

    The law if not explicitly for TiKTok but every app with over a milion users.