Definitely. I think not much is being emphasized in the role of the internet in affecting our own social development.

It is definitely not natural for a few clicks of a button to lead us to the most vile and disgusting views known to man being espoused.

Nor is it normal to see other terminally online people deride others for deviating from their specifically flavoured groupthink.

It isn’t healthy nor normal. The pseudo-anonymous nature of the internet can’t facilitate healthy emotional responses, especially when we disagree about things.

Over here, unlike the rhetoric found in the West where the youth are incredible “based” or “left-wing”, our recent elections involved the lowered voting age of 18 year olds.

And you know what happened? Most of the disenchanted Malay youth here voted for a borderline fascist, religious and reactionary Islamic Party.

They gained prominence through the supposedly “Chinese-controlled” TikTok.

This is also why I push back on “vulgar developmentalism”, and are much more critical in that regard to those that say any sort of capitalist development is good as it is supposedly “progressive”.

I admit that my own existence relies upon the fact that my country rapidly industrialized. But now the superstructure is actively inhibiting for further development of the productive forces, and a lot of the present contradictions I see now in this country can never be managed sufficiently under a bourgeois dictatorship.

I went on a bit of a tangent but my point is, the internet needs to be more heavily regulated, personally. China’s restricted “gaming hours” on weekdays for children I think is a good example that should be copied in other countries.