Mahmoud Khalil Is the First Activist to Be Disappeared by Trump

[u/thenationmagazine]

https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/trump-arrest-detention-mahmoud-khalil/?nc=1

[u/NeonArlecchino]

It's happening, but not being televised.

[u/WildYams → u/NeonArlecchino]

"Televised"? Are we blaming mainstream media for not "televising" the revolution now? What happened to social media bypassing all that? Why isn't TikTok plastering these supposed huge protests everywhere this year like they did last year?

[u/ObjectionablyObvious → u/WildYams]

Social media is no longer used to give people a voice—it is designed to keep them consuming. It used to thrive on personal, user-generated content, but that’s long gone. These platforms have been rebuilt from the ground up to push content creators, YouTube Partners, and monetized pages, not regular people. Algorithms don’t amplify your voice; they amplify engagement metrics, ad dollars, and whatever keeps you scrolling.

That’s why we’ll never see something like the Arab Spring happen through social media again. The days of raw, unfiltered, ground-level footage spreading like wildfire are over—only in the darkest, unmonetized corners of websites, subreddits on the verge of shut-down. Now, everything is sanitized, curated, and ad-friendly. News won’t break—it’ll be rolled out, pre-approved, and ready to run with pre-roll and mid-video ads. Social media doesn’t empower people anymore; it pacifies them.

[u/WildYams → u/ObjectionablyObvious]

Social media doesn’t empower people anymore; it pacifies them.

I guess except for last year when it convinced a bunch of easily manipulated otherwise Kamala voters to sit out the election because it told them that "both sides are the same."

I don't disagree that social media is tailored just to keep people engaged (just like television was), but it's doing this by whipping people into angered frenzies, not by "pacifying them".

My point above was that it was stupid for someone to be complaining that the TV networks weren't covering some story enough for their liking when all these same people were getting their "news" last year from TikTok rather than from mainstream media like TV networks.

[u/NeonArlecchino → u/WildYams]

I can't speak to what you're seeing, but the leftist circles I run in are still full of protest news.

[u/WildYams → u/NeonArlecchino]

So then I guess it's being televised after all, just like it was last year, so what are you complaining about?

[u/NeonArlecchino → u/WildYams]

It's clearly not being televised or everyone would know about it. Just because my groups share the news of when, where, and what happened doesn't mean there's a mainstream awareness. You're just trying to be belligerent about anything I say.

[u/WildYams → u/NeonArlecchino]

Feel free to post evidence of these widespread protests that you're referring to. There were widespread protests a year ago, and that's why they got a lot of coverage. There aren't any now, which is why nobody is talking about them. If they're super underground, then they're not massive and widespread. Some rumor you heard on a discord channel isn't what's actually happening.

[u/gummi_girl → u/WildYams]

you should use bluesky. most all of the protest stuff i've seen has been on there. the other major social medias are suppressing such content.

[u/imisstheyoop → u/NeonArlecchino]

Well that's good, I read somewhere that the revolution wouldn't be televised!

[u/NeonArlecchino → u/imisstheyoop]

I literally said it isn't being televised.

[u/NeonArlecchino → u/[deleted]]

I said it isn't being televised and you said that that's good because you read that the revolution wouldn't be televised. Was that meant to be that you're happy things are as you read? It reads more like you misread what I said and were glad it is being televised. Based on the personal attack, I'm even more convinced you misread what I wrote.

[u/imisstheyoop → u/NeonArlecchino]

Google "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised".

Have a great rest of your evening.

[u/NeonArlecchino → u/imisstheyoop]

I don't need to because I directly referenced it by using the word televised.

A good evening to you as well.