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“Apple CEO Tim Cook plans to donate $1 million to Donald Trump’s inauguration fund, reports Axios. The donation will be a personal donation directly from Cook rather than a donation from Apple”
I’ll defend Apple as being the least shitty of the big tech giants but I can’t defend this.
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Pathetic thinly veiled bribe
Or it is protection money. “Nice apple you got there, would be a shame if anyone took a bite out of that”….
Why would Tim Cook be assosiated with Apple in trumps mind?
Apple is owned by Tim Apple.
Kind of strange that this line cook is able to afford a small 1 million dollar loan…what? You think trump knows that a loan is different than a donation? You think he knows you’re supposed to pay back loans?
I am very sure Trump does not actually think, at best he works based on instinct, but so does his chaotic band of mouth-breathing, blood-seeking raging insurrectionists.
If any company could insulate itself from Trump’s agenda, it would be Apple with its “fuck you” money.
This is cowardly and craven.
I think they are buying carve outs for the tariffs
Needs to make sure there’s a loophole for Apple production when more China tariffs hit.
I’ll defend Apple as being the least shitty of the big tech giants but I can’t defend this.
Why would you do that though? The only thing I’m aware of that they do even remotely better than anyone else is privacy. But it’s not that much better, and it comes at the cost of gestures at everything else
IDK why people say they have better privacy: They just settled a lawsuit over evesdroping using Siri. I think they probably have less interest than Google in selling data for advertising, mostly likely using it internally for their ecosystem so they probably come across more privacy focused but I assume they snoop just as much as any other big tech company.
less interest than Google in selling data for advertising
Google don’t sell data. The data is what makes them valuable, so it wouldn’t make sense. If they did sell data, the other big tech companies would just buy their data to remove their competitive advantage.
What Google actually sells is your attention. Advertisers can target people based on demographic data, things you like, etc, but the advertiser never sees the data used for targeting.
You can use Google and Facebook’s Ads Manager sites yourself and see exactly what advertisers see.
On the other hand, Apple mostly keep their collected data for their own ad network. Yes, they have one - it’s mostly just used for ads for “recommended” apps in the app store, but last I heard, they have plans to expand it.
Yeah apologies, that’s a good point - thanks for adding more context!
No worries - it’s a pretty common misconception that tech companies sell data. I’ve worked on ads systems at big tech companies so I’ve seen some parts of how it works. The companies are very protective of their data as it’s essentially their highest-value asset. Employees can’t see any of your data either - it’s very tightly locked down, with strict ACLs and audit logging.
Large advertisers generally don’t get any special access either - the tools/apps that large advertisers use are mostly the same as what small advertisers / individuals can see and use.
They just settled Siri snoop case for a fee pennies…
“Privacy”
would a nice $20 bill appease the peasantry?
The only thing I’m aware of that they do even remotely better than anyone else is privacy.
Where did you hear this? Its my understanding that they are one of the worst when it comes to privacy.
Siri “unintentionally” (because it’s a sentient being right?) recording entire conversations def feels pretty terrible.
They do better about privacy because they make enough money from their inflated prices and blind brand loyalty where they dont have to become an ad company like google. Google is very good at protecting their users data from third parties, as long as they can still collect all of it.
Apple (currently) doesn’t collect a lot of data which allows them to design products with security as a primary component instead of as an afterthought
They collect everything. Every detail of your usage. They may not sell it, but your entire life is on an apple server
I’ll get downvoted because Lemmy has a weird hate boner for asking for proof but do you have any proof that they “collect everything”?
The proof is in your iCloud.
How so?
When you log into your phone with an apple ID, they hold a record of every interaction you have using it. Download an app, song, or backup your phone using icloud? Use their health app? It’s all stored and associated with your apple ID and phone serial number as well as other device unique identifiers. They reserve the right to analyze this data in-house or 3rd party and how you use their products and services to improve them, produce new, market to, etc.
This isn’t proof, is it?
Like I said, they’re the least shitty. Can you think of a corp that’s better? Google? Fucking Meta? Microsoft?
At least with android devices there is a possibility of swapping the operating system and windows computers can always be made Linux.
Microsoft didn’t spend multiple decades trying to force their own chargers and ports over universal standards. Not saying any of them are good, but apple is in no way better and has spent years creating contention between consumers. It’s just as likely they sell your tracking data as anyone else, they spend developer time every month making sure their ecosystem is considered better for cultural reasons while being ostensibly worse than competitors for most things. Their phones are generally a year or more behind competitors but they have made-up features that serve no purpose consumers rally around like imessage. They have a tiny sandbox to play in without completely voiding your warranty - Themes instead of real customization. “Blue bubbles”? Are you kidding me? How about allowing any form of tinkering beyond a garden path? How about supporting repair of devices at their actual branded stores? They’re easily up there as one of the worst for consumers at large.
I’m really not interested in a long, drawn out debate about this, suffice to say that if you think all the things you listed, most of which are your opinion rather than indisputable fact, somehow make Apple worse than Google, Microsoft, or Meta … well let’s just agree to disagree.
The things he listed aren’t opinion lol, they’re proven facts.
Why don’t we just say that all these mega corps are evil, period?
It’s Lemmy lol if you don’t use your own airgapped Linux distro you’re a complete cuck
TempleOS master race rise up.
I have my own problems with them, but off the top of my head I think the following tech companies all do better than Apple: Red Hat, Canonical, Framework, Purism, System76, Fairphone.
Imagine being a woman working for Apple and having a CEO who funds a rapist.
Imagine being an openly gay CEO who funds a party who hates gays
They hate poor gays
No, they hate all gay people. They are just lower on the list right now, but they are definitely there.
First they came for…
And open guys, and gays suffering for our sexuality. None of them visited Roy Cohn as he died of AIDS. Tim Cook may get spared from raids at first, but if it goes as bad as we fear he’s going to have nobody willing to defend him
The guy clears 2 billions in net worth. There are plenty of people who are willing to defend him for a piece of that.
Ah, but what will others do for all of it? Fascists eventually decide to just steal from the undesirables
They don’t hate gays, they hate honesty, and also having social and legal limitations for various divergent traits allows blackmail and defamation.
They don’t hate gays
Yeah, they only cheer on the concept of queer genocide and talk about how queer people groom children to support the idea.
But they don’t hate them. Jesus loves them after all.
It’s absolutely wild how the first time around, everyone left of center was against Trump, even if it was only posturing. This time around, he’s even worse and the same people are literally supporting him.
It’s not the same people. It’s more people. He actually won the popular vote, which hasn’t been done since W Bush. And arguably, that didn’t even happen.
Why does such a thing as an inaugural fund exist? Seems like it’s just to facilitate more corruption!
It doesn’t usually. The ‘why’ in the case is because Trump and his team refuse to sign the ethics agreement to get the normal funding from the government.
Thanks, it must be amazing for Americans to have a president who won’t sign a standard ethics agreement.
Up here in Canada, we’re only ever 10 years behind at most.
Germany, too, is poised to follow suit at the upcoming elections in February.
Americans have been convinced to sell themselves out.
Every trump supporter is either a dipshit or someone taking advantage of dipshits.
It’s coercion but somehow legal.
As a Bi man there is something that particularly stings about a well known, openly gay CEO funding a man who is hateful towards LGBTQ+ people. I never really liked him nor apple but it is an extra fuck you.
Being rich is ultimately the disease as it compels him to appeal to power but I hope the last things hears is “Told you I would kill you last”.
His in-group is not LGBTQIA+, it is other rich people. The same is true for all of them.
The wealthy all seem to understand that class solidarity is more important than any other issue. Why is it taking so long for everyone else to figure that out?
Hands down, the most effective punishments for these people at the top is to redistribute their wealth so they have to live like everyone else.
That is legitimately a fate worse than death in their eyes, which should put things into perspective for the rest of us.
There are no real allies in the oligarch class. Temporal alliances or common goals at best. They will (and do) kill for a penny.
Peter Thiel is also a gay man, and pulling a lot of these strings behind the scenes.
It’s oligarchy. Thiel can fuck who ever he wants (and make them disappear when he’s done…) while maintaining political power by sacrificing queer people to the Hour of Hate.
Tim cook will never suffer the consequences of anti-gay legislation or the lack of legal protection for gay people.
Unfortunately, gay people like money too. He cares more about furthering his own personal empire than he does about helping those who have less money than him.
In the eyes of timmy, the struggles of poor gay people are completely irrelevant to the struggles of rich gay people.
West was similarly eager to sell out his fans after they made him wealthy so he could suckle on trump’s teat.
West was similarly eager to sell out his fans after they made him wealthy so he could suckle on trump’s teat.
Sam Altman, too
he is ultra rich, the hateful divide and conquer tactics applied to common people don’t apply to him so he simply does not have any empathy for the matter.
Yeah this is so weird. I guess it’s either comply or die when it comes to this stuff
I’m really not sure what the threat to him is though. Does “die” in this case mean lose out on money? One would think he already has his walk away money.
I meant it more metaphorically. I think it’s more like lose out on some benefits and have to go through tons of bureaucracy if you don’t comply.
Yeah that’s what I was trying to imply: that he’s not supporting a bigot empowering fascist leader to save his actual skin, but to keep his personal business running smoothly.
Whereas queer folk without money are existentialy threatened by this administration and those it emboldens.
Yup. For once we could have had a CEO choose the good side, but this just goes to show how corrupt the oligarchy is
He’s doing this to avoid being associated with Apple, but this only highlights that he’s personally a piece of shit, in addition to Apple.
Fuck him, fuck Apple, and fuck all those other motherfucking bootlickers enabling these fucking fascists.
What’s funny (or sad) is that 100 years from now this will be looked at the same was as when Ford or IBM supported the Nazis. Their business won’t hurt long term and Tim Apple will be long dead.
IG Farben, Krupp, Thyssen, Boss, Porsche and the list goes on and on and on. Fuck I suspect that even my own grandfather “had stripes” (slang for collaboration with Nazis without yourself being proclaimed nazi) and he even fought them during the invasion of Norway.
History doesn’t repeat. It rhymes.
Buckle in kiddo it’s gonna be a fun couple of decades if we survive it.
If we survive that long as a species.
He should just be honest and said “this $1m is a mandatory payment to trump so that he exempts Apple from tariffs, no other reason”, of course, then it’s an obvious quid pro quo.
A rich white cis gay man backstabbing trans people?
This never happens, I’m shocked!
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/24/tech/tim-cook-gay-apple/index.html
https://time.com/4036006/tim-cook-coming-out-gay/
Seems $ is the idol he is worshipping.
What the fucking, fuck.
This is one of the reasons why I am gradually untying myself from the Apple ecosystem, and all of propriety/big tech; especially US based.
When push comes to shove capitalism will not resist fascism. They will ignore all stated virtue signals and choose profits.
Choosing E2E encrypted FOSS products, that are interoperable with FOSS standards/formats and do not lock you into walled gardens, are the only viable long term solution.
This might actually become the year of Linux on the desktop for me.
Try PopOS if you’re coming from Mac, it’s pretty easy to get used to!
My only-ever-windows SO just got a computer with PopOS on it (default) and it took some getting used to, but he loves it. I was like, “you know this is a Mac OS clone, right? 😏” and he was like 🤯
Suprised? Had you put him on a pedastle in your mind? Did you think him to be more than a sniveling greedy capitalist prick? I’m sorry for this very harsh fall from artificial grace if so. I’d be careful about holding anyone with more than a few hundred million dollars to lose in too high esteem in the future.
It really is a class war, not a culture war.
Always has been.
No matter how much money they spend on this party they’re still celebrating putting a convicted con man in the White House - whoopeee! - while the chumps who voted for him say, “What… my meds aren’t covered anymore?”
Congratulations on flushing your country down a solid gold toilet, “conservatives”.
Amazon, Meta, Uber, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Coinbase, Toyota, Ford, GM, AT&T, Black & Decker, and Charter Communications are also making donations to Trump’s inauguration fund.
I guess I never really paid attention before but is it normal for companies to donate to an inauguration fund? It sure seems like a government sanctioned protection racket.
Perfectly normal, but not like this.
ABC News reported that Trump’s second-inauguration haul is on track to shatter the previous $107m record, as pledged contributions have already exceeded a $150m fundraising goal. Barack Obama’s inauguration raised $53m in 2009 and $42m in 2013, and Joe Biden’s raised $63m in 2021.
Oh wow, this is really informative. Thanks for the link friend
Speaking of forgetting what’s perfectly normal… the days before uniting the citizens…
Obama capped money for his inauguration at $50,000 per person - still, more than 10 times what individuals could give to his campaign.
Only since Citizens United.
you’re thinking of FECA probably. inauguration vs campaign funds are different things, and Citizens United was about campaign funds.
It certainly has a FECAl smell about it.
It’s less than .05% of his worth. It’s like us dropping pocket change in the Red Cross bucket and he’ll make more than that in profit from changes the bribe paid for from the great cheetoh.
Gross. Sick of rich assholes enabling the fascist.
These CEOs are funding hate, violence and the end of American democracy - they have enough power, money and influence to oppose, yet they don’t. They decided that a few must be sacrificed for the greater
goodprofit.Something happened on the 4th of December. Today is the 4th of January. Just in case anyone’s calendar app is stuck closed. Interesting if true…
Well… they saw that they can show their real face.
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All these Billionaires PAYING Trump MILLIONS of Dollars is PROOF he CANT be Bought!
None of these companies would touch Trump with a 10 foot pole in the situation wasn’t so dire. But he is the next president, and he is known to respond to stuff like this. Bend knee, kiss his ass and carry a huge wad of cash. This is just the cost of doing business, and even if a vocal minority cries out most people still buy iPhones, Teslas and shop at Amazon and Wal-Mart.
It’s almost like capitalism is a terrible idea.
lol I interpret this as sarcasm, as with many of your other comments around Lemmy. If they are so, I think they’re funny and so far I agree with what you actually value, democracy. However, it took me some time to understand your sarcasm. This might be just me, but I wonder if your comments could be subjected to Poe’s Law (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe’s_law). Is it impossible that they could be interpreted as candid?
I got the joke right away, I don’t think there’s any problem with it.
The thing is, no matter how obvious a contradiction is, far-right folks won’t understand any of it, because they’re so dumb. You cannot give them even the most basic, easily digestible facts and explanations, because even that requires a brain, which they don’t have.
So I think, these kind of jokes are perfectly fine for our entertainment, and no amount of facts and information will ever convince the dumbest of the people.
Fair points:
- I see how that joke can be fine in the sense that, if everyone in the group shares values, there is no need to consider how a staunch Trump supporter will respond to the joke. After all, I think there are very few staunch Trump supporters reading this.
- I also see that it can be very hard to convince people to reconsider tightly-held beliefs, or at the very least gain perspective on them. It sounds like you do not believe changing perspectives is even possible, that no dialogue can ever be worthwhile or useful.
I see you appreciate facts and information, the scientific process and the institutions that enable it. We have that in common. That’s why, ironically, I’ll start with anecdotal facts and then move on to more robust and generalizable findings. Do you know about my friend who went from defending “one dollar, one vote” (a couple of years ago) to explaining how the lack of third spaces is associated with inequality (a couple of weeks ago)? I don’t expect you to at all, so do you know Contrapoints’ impact on radicalized people who reach out to her (https://www.vice.com/en/article/contrapoints-interview-2019-natalie-wynn/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nrz4-FZx6k)?
These may sound like cherry-picked examples, but there’s actually evidence of massive shifts in people’s political views: the World Value Survey. Do you know how world values have changed ever since the WVS started?(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIXdRVe92gg)
In the face of the WVS shifts, it may seem like value changes only occur when material conditions allow for it, but there’s evidence within the WVS literature that material conditions are not as important today (in particular, the variance that explains the change in values used to be mostly explained by material conditions, but now it is mostly explained by connectivity). However, we can also look at another set of scientific literature that shows that the way that things are presented can lead to changes in political attitudes. Do you know about the moral reframing literature? I’m sorry for the paywall https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12501 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337861541_Moral_reframing_A_technique_for_effective_and_persuasive_communication_across_political_divides
Thank you for showing me this valuable piece of information. No, I haven’t seen these before.
Until now, I’m 100% confident that it’s impossible to convince someone on the far-right of anything that’s against their views, because I’m from a country that is 15 years ahead of the US on this tragic path into the dark future far away from common sense, thus I have a somewhat clear prediction for the general mental state of the people in the coming decades, which likely cannot be reversed in a century.
Yet, I’m thinking quite often, what I could do as an individual to at least somewhat better the situation in this miserable world. And so far all my ideas are based on withdrawal of content (much like how you take drugs away from a junkie) instead of adding arguments, which is obviously hard to pull off on a large scale.
Not that I could do anything though. Today you need to be rich to achieve something.
Nonetheless, maybe this is the missing piece to the puzzle. I’m considering to pay those extra bucks for that publication, also Welzel’s book; they look promising. So thanks again for sharing.
