Like millions of other Americans, I recently set up an account on the Chinese social media app Xaiohongshu to protest the TikTok ban.

The unexpected part was how unbelievably kind and welcoming everyone has been over there. I already talked about that a bit the other day.

I don’t know what I was expecting really. Maybe that us Americans would hang out in our own little corner and the Chinese people would ignore us… maybe be a little confused about why we’re there.

But it didn’t go down like that. Not at all.

Everyone immediately started making friends and collectively realizing that being human is a pretty universal thing. No one from either side is as different or terrible as we thought the other side was.

So now I’m learning Mandarin 😅

I’ve been using Duolingo for a few days and it seems like a good place to start. The most intimidating part for me has been learning the characters. That’s not my main focus anyway, but it’s cool that Duolingo includes that in their lessons.

But I mean the population of China is 1.4 billion. That’s almost 20% of the entire population of earth. Why not take a shot at learning the language?

There’s so much potential for making friends and learning about a culture that’s pretty alien to most of the western world.

Sure our governments are wildly different but is that a good reason to judge an entire population?

The “national security risk” is still there I guess. I mean obviously moreso on an app that actually is based in China, but who gives a shit?

Almost every app we use is constantly collecting a nauseating amount of data. Especially if you use X or anything from Meta. Or Temu, or SHEIN, or…

We’re on day one of a full blown authoritarian takeover by the oligarch class in ‘merica anyway.

I just don’t give a shit at this point. I’d rather make some friends and try to forget about how our own country is circling the drain right now. Even fucking Snoop Dogg is suddenly a MAGA guy for Christ’s sake.