The CCP Sucks. So Does Banning TikTok.

Plus: A listener asks about Republicans and Democrats monopolizing political power in the United States.

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The CCP Sucks. So Does Banning TikTok.

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In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman weigh in on the approved House bill that could potentially usher in a ban on popular social media app TikTok in the United States.

01:49—Legislation to ban TikTok

16:39—California's continued high-speed rail boondoggle

33:48—Weekly Listener Question

43:25—Elon Musk launches Starship rocket

46:31—This week's cultural recommendations

Mentioned in this podcast:

"Banning TikTok Would Give the Feds Way Too Much Power," by Robby Soave

"Algorithm Not for Sale," by Liz Wolfe

"TikTok's Opponents Want Chinese-Style Censorship in America," by Matthew Petti

"The U.S. Steel/Nippon Deal Should Be None of Joe Biden's Business," by Eric Boehm

"Hey look a new scientific book abt how TikTok is addicting kids like 'narcotics'!" writes Nick Gillespie on X, formerly Twitter

"California's High-Speed Rail Needs Another $100 Billion. That's a Great Reason Not To Build It." by Eric Boehm

"Annie Duke: Quitting Is Totally Underrated," by Nick Gillespie

"America Is Taking a High-Speed Train to Bankruptcy," by David Ditch

"How Florida Beat California to High-Speed Rail," by Natalie Dowzicky

"The Problem With the 'Abundance Agenda,'" by Christian Britschgi

"We Told You Why and How California's High-Speed Rail Wouldn't Work. You Chose Not To Listen." by Matt Welch

"The Political Class Knew California High-Speed Rail Was B.S., and Supported it Anyway," by Matt Welch

"3 Reasons Obama's High-Speed Rail Will Go Nowhere Fast," by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie

"On the Passing of a Liberal Deregulator," by Matt Welch

"Learning From Kodak's Demise," by Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch

"Milton Friedman Was No Conservative," by Brian Doherty

"Jennifer Burns on Milton Friedman's Legacy," by Nick Gillespie

"Oscar-Nominated Robot Dreams Is a Gentle Animated Love Story About Dogs, Robots, and 1980s New York," by Peter Suderman

Send your questions to [e-mail]. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.

Upcoming Events: 

• Reason Speakeasy: Jonathan Haidt on The Anxious Generation, April 15, 2024
• Reason magazine interview with Students for Sensible Drug Policy, May 8, 2024

Today's sponsors:

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Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.

Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve

• Producer: Hunt Beaty

What are we consuming this week?

Nick Gillespie

• Feud: Bette and Joan

Katherine Mangu-Ward

• Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative by Jennifer Burns

Peter Suderman

• Robot Dreams

Matt Welch

• Ancient Apocalypse

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Comments

[SQRLSY One]

Let's SHOW those communist bastards ovary there!!! By be-cumming JUST LIKE THEY ARE!!! If'n ye can't beat them... JOIN them!!! THOUGHT CUNTROLL and SPEECH CUNTROLL for the win!!!

[Uncle Jay]

"The CCP Sucks."

That's not what progressive will tell you.
They will tell you the CCP is the reason why China is a proletariat paradise filled freedom, wealth and forward thinking.

[Roberta]

No, progressives will tell you China was on the way to becoming that until the current regime hijacked the ship and stopped their progress.

[CE]

True communism has never been tried.
Because people prefer eating to starving.

[LIBertrans]

Kinda like Alabama's AfD-controlled Lootvig caucus wants the LP platform to say "ban abortion," AND finance MAGAt candidates in Lib drag? Someone is already spending money to pack the next LP convention with "no borders" anarco-terrorist importation hacks.

[LIBertrans]

I didn't find that in Teedy Roosevelt's Progressive Party platform. Was that a faith based Revealed Truth depicting the future?

[Dillinger]

>>The CCP Sucks.

$500 for Dead tickets sucks. CCP is evil.

>>So Does Banning TikTok.

not banned even if Brandon signs. where do you source?

[VinniUSMC]

Well, they (Reason) also refer to the bill attempting to prevent non-dairy products being labeled "milk" as "banning vegan milk". Dishonest or stupid?

[LIBertrans]

See? Whatabout that new Nazi Germany AfD platform, eh? Germany just repealed some weed prohibition. So, since nazis are the soi-disant "New Libertarians" I checked their platform. The words repeal, legalize and decriminalize appear zero times in the AfD platform. The GOP says to repeal 14A the way their Court stripped female citizenship from 15A to help the Klan in 1875. The GOP platform regards "decriminalize" as Oldspeak. Then--holding its pocket handkerchief before its streaming eyes--it mentions "legalized" in its funeral dirge for dear, departed Prohibition.

[CE]

Can't they ban anyone who adds more than ONE... TRILLION... DOLLARS!!! to the national debt in any given year instead?

[AT]

Why does banning TikTok suck exactly?

[Quicktown Brix]

Exactly,

We have to ban tik tok to battle against the CCP because the CCP censors its peoples' access to the internet partly by controlling which apps they can use. Also, it directly controls private businesses by determining who can own companies and what those companies can do. So in order to protect ourselves from the CCP, we have to....

no wait...

We have to ban tik tok to protect our freedom...

no wait...

We have to ban tik tok for the children. Yeah, that's it.

[VinniUSMC]

Banning TikTok doesn't suck necessarily, but banning anything does suck generally.

[AT]

We ban the intentional addition of lethal poisons to our food and drinking water, and nobody seems the slightest bothered by that. They're thankful, even.

[I woke up when Hillary talked about Reconstruction]

Okay but medicaaly there are tons of things that are good in a certain does and bad in others. You say nothing.

And the way you write. IF they are thankful then of course they are not bothered. What are you thankful for that bothers you ???????

Are you trying to imitate Kirkland the hater with no command of language.

[AT]

Okay but medicaaly there are tons of things that are good in a certain does and bad in others.

That's not true psychologically as well? Or economically? Or in terms of national security?

Are you trying to imitate Kirkland the hater with no command of language.

Are you? The obvious point was that we welcome bans on things that clearly have known destructive effects. When the State says, "Hey, you - stop adding cyanide to the drinking water" - we're perfectly fine with it, because nobody wants cyanide in their drinking water.

TikTok has been clearly and repeatedly demonstrated as Chinese cyanide in America's water. So go back to the original question: Why does banning TikTok suck exactly?

How is doing so anything but a net positive in all regards?

[I woke up when Hillary talked about Reconstruction]

By logic you contradict yourself. THe general is only the umbrella of all specifics. Anyway, by saying something doesn't 'necessarily' you avoid actually answering the question. IT either does or doesn't or is undecidable.

[Incunabulum]

>The CCP Sucks. So Does Banning TikTok.

Yes. And maybe the CCP sucks *more* than banning TikTok.

[I woke up when Hillary talked about Reconstruction]

A column built on the pure nonsense thinking of a HIllary Clinton. THere are some things in life, many in fact, that are x or not-x and neither is perfect. Hillary always used to pit any sane realizable good against the utopian best possible and make you look morally deficient.

[The Mysterious Edwin Dunkel]

This topic is becoming a real firecracker. Guess what comes next?

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/tiktok-supporters-blame-jews-for-congressional-ban/

[I woke up when Hillary talked about Reconstruction]

Okay but that is bigotry on both sides. If you are a Jew a Libertarian, a gay person, a free-marketer -- why would you privilge "Jew' as the reason everytning by that person is done.

[LIBertrans]

Not bad. This is the first of these I ever watched, after years of downloading the audio to groove on during walks. The spinning record intro is catchy and the team is working better than ever.

[LIBertrans]

So if China nukes California, should These States not declare war or bomb any of their assets because that would "make us more like them?"

[middlefinger]

The national security narrative is the bullseye on Taiwan while the constant flows of revenue from Tik Tok builds Xis military.

I’m against the ban from a philosophical standpoint.

I’m for the ban from a realist standpoint. After all terrorists always go after the peace promoters or pacifists, as we saw at a peace festival concert in Israel, and to an extent in Ukraine.

Marxist socialist ideology promotes using capitalist tools to overthrow the bourgeois and spark the revolution. Of course Current Affairs would be against the ban.