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.
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.