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At El American Idiocy of the Week, we’ve covered a lot of ridiculous things, but socialist magazine Jacobin‘s absurd proposal to socialize Tinder and other dating apps has certainly won a place of honor in our section, and in our hearts.
“The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know,” said French intellectual Blaise Pascal. However, it seems that someone has finally unraveled the mysteries of the heart and has found the solution to the neuronal and cardiac problems caused by falling in love: socialize Tinder.
Nick French, philosopher, member of the far-left organization Democratic Socialists of America, and editor of the socialist magazine Jacobin, has found the magic formula to end the headaches when it comes to flirting, where he has published an article entitled “Tinder Wants Money. We want love. The solution: Socialize Dating Apps.” Note: one can subscribe to Jacobin magazine by paying money. We are off to a bad start.
Despite the slight discrepancy between the article’s title and the magazine’s business model, what it promises is so appealing, that it’s well worth turning a blind eye and reading on. Spoiler: like socialism, the article is full of absurdities and inconsistencies. And no, socializing Tinder is not going to create a love utopia on Earth.
But while we’re at it, let’s take a closer look at their proposal to socialize Tinder, if only for the laughs.
According to the columnist, his problem with Tinder is that “So even though I’m a pretty open-minded guy, I do have to wonder why I, as a democratic socialist of modest means and faith that the international working class shall free the human race, I am regularly shown profiles of venture capitalists and Wall Street types.”
Very open-minded, and very open to everything but knowing evil capitalists, nor Wall Street people, and I suppose not to anyone whose political views are a little more to the right of Stalin.
He says, “what matters to the app owners is not getting their users good dates. What matters is that they can make money off of us.” “Tinder, like other apps, in many ways resembles modern slot machines.”
As we know, according to the socialist mentality, casinos are to blame for gambling addiction and food is to blame for morbid obesity. Incidentally, the problem of obesity does not exist in socialist countries, except among the ruling classes. I wonder why that is.
Nick knows exactly what everyone wants, and he knows how to make the perfect app, but unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to want to invest any money or effort in developing it. However, he freely gives his sage advice to developers who are investing in them.
For example, he finds it very wrong that apps like Tinder “let users filter whose profiles they see or might be matched with by race or ethnicity.” This filtering doesn’t sit well with Nick, but he’d be happy to be able to filter out Wall Street capitalists. Take note Tinder owners and company, these small changes could increase your profits even more.
That’s not the end of it, no. He asserts that “we could ask similar questions about class dynamics or how to deal with gender disparities in the use and frequency of matches/matches.”
Although I have a hard time following him, I guess this means you shouldn’t be able to filter by social class or economic status – unless you’re evil Wall Street capitalists, remember – nor should you be able to filter by gender or sexual orientation.
Let’s see if he clarifies it for us. Oh yes, he says that “it would be much better if questions about how to deal with bias in dating apps were subject to public and democratic deliberation.”
Well, the truth is that I don’t know why you should insist on socializing Tinder, if you can achieve what it proposes by entering a dark room free of your prejudices and let the majority of people gathered there democratically decide what to do with you and that’s it.
He finishes the article by saying that he does not necessarily advocate the nationalization of apps, but rather the creation of cooperatives to manage them, or government subsidies and intervention. Anything but leaving them in the hands of private companies. What can go wrong?
Incels of the world, unite… to socialize Tinder
Socialism is the resource of failures and envious people, of those who believe that things can be achieved without any effort. When they talk about socializing something they mean that “someone else pays for it” or that “someone else has to do the work.”
There are times when even their boldness goes beyond that, as in the case of the socialist feminists — excuse the pleonasm — women who, if you notice, do not even propose that gyms be socialized and free, but demand that the beauty canon be changed. They are willing to do mental gymnastics, but not physical gymnastics.
However, I really didn’t expect the socializing of Tinder for trying to reach out to those who can’t get a match. They never cease to amaze me, although I’m also not surprised that they have trouble finding a supportive partner.
Today’s Idiocy of the Week serves as a reminder that we should not underestimate the capacity of a socialist to pigeonhole his problems to others. It is a humbling reminder that we must always be vigilant and prepared for socialism, because they begin by nationalizing the means of production and, in the blink of an eye, end up nationalizing the means of reproduction as well.
Ignacio Manuel García Medina, Business Management teacher. Artist and lecturer specialized in Popular Culture for various platforms. Presenter of the program "Pop Libertario" for the Juan de Mariana Institute. Lives in the Canary Islands, Spain // Ignacio M. García Medina es profesor de Gestión de Empresas. Es miembro del Instituto Juan de Mariana y conferenciante especializado en Cultura Popular e ideas de la Libertad.
Social Networks: @ignaciomgm