“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.

  • Schwim Dandy
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    52 days ago

    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.

  • @JamesFire
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    643 days ago

    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

    • @[email protected]
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      463 days ago

      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.

      • @[email protected]
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        3 days ago

        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.

          • @[email protected]
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            43 days ago

            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.

    • sunzu2
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      163 days ago

      They just settled Siri snoop case for a fee pennies…

      “Privacy”

      • y0kai
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        23 days ago

        would a nice $20 bill appease the peasantry?

    • Corgana
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      93 days ago

      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.

      • Bakkoda
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        103 days ago

        Siri “unintentionally” (because it’s a sentient being right?) recording entire conversations def feels pretty terrible.

    • @[email protected]
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      33 days ago

      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

      • @[email protected]
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        123 days ago

        They collect everything. Every detail of your usage. They may not sell it, but your entire life is on an apple server

    • @IchNichtenLichtenOP
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      -43 days ago

      Like I said, they’re the least shitty. Can you think of a corp that’s better? Google? Fucking Meta? Microsoft?

      • @[email protected]
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        12 days ago

        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.

      • @[email protected]
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        123 days ago

        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.

        • @IchNichtenLichtenOP
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          3 days ago

          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.

          • @Retrograde
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            12 days ago

            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?

          • @[email protected]
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            63 days ago

            It’s Lemmy lol if you don’t use your own airgapped Linux distro you’re a complete cuck

  • @Fades
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    3264 days ago

    Pathetic thinly veiled bribe

    • Nightwatch Admin
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      1494 days ago

      Or it is protection money. “Nice apple you got there, would be a shame if anyone took a bite out of that”….

      • @Lost_My_Mind
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        674 days ago

        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?

        • Nightwatch Admin
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          154 days ago

          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.

      • @IchNichtenLichtenOP
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        444 days ago

        If any company could insulate itself from Trump’s agenda, it would be Apple with its “fuck you” money.

        This is cowardly and craven.

    • @dink
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      234 days ago

      Needs to make sure there’s a loophole for Apple production when more China tariffs hit.

  • @RubberDuck
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    1394 days ago

    Imagine being a woman working for Apple and having a CEO who funds a rapist.

    • @lepinkainen
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      3 days ago

      Imagine being an openly gay CEO who funds a party who hates gays

        • @Snapz
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          283 days ago

          No, they hate all gay people. They are just lower on the list right now, but they are definitely there.

          First they came for…

        • @captainlezbian
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          63 days ago

          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

          • 100_kg_90_de_belin
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            13 days ago

            The guy clears 2 billions in net worth. There are plenty of people who are willing to defend him for a piece of that.

            • @captainlezbian
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              13 days ago

              Ah, but what will others do for all of it? Fascists eventually decide to just steal from the undesirables

      • @rottingleaf
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        -43 days ago

        They don’t hate gays, they hate honesty, and also having social and legal limitations for various divergent traits allows blackmail and defamation.

        • Flying Squid
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          143 days ago

          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.

    • @[email protected]
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      13 days ago

      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.

  • @Buffalox
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    843 days ago

    Why does such a thing as an inaugural fund exist? Seems like it’s just to facilitate more corruption!

    • @[email protected]
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      483 days ago

      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.

      • @Buffalox
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        443 days ago

        Thanks, it must be amazing for Americans to have a president who won’t sign a standard ethics agreement.

          • @djsp
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            73 days ago

            Germany, too, is poised to follow suit at the upcoming elections in February.

        • @[email protected]
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          43 days ago

          Americans have been convinced to sell themselves out.

          Every trump supporter is either a dipshit or someone taking advantage of dipshits.

  • @[email protected]
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    773 days ago

    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”.

      • @[email protected]
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        173 days ago

        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?

    • @[email protected]
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      213 days ago

      There are no real allies in the oligarch class. Temporal alliances or common goals at best. They will (and do) kill for a penny.

    • @[email protected]
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      153 days ago

      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.

    • @andros_rex
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      63 days ago

      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.

    • @[email protected]
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      3 days ago

      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.

      • @irreticent
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        23 days ago

        West was similarly eager to sell out his fans after they made him wealthy so he could suckle on trump’s teat.

    • @iAvicenna
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      33 days ago

      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.

    • @GrammarPolice
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      23 days ago

      Yeah this is so weird. I guess it’s either comply or die when it comes to this stuff

      • @[email protected]
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        33 days ago

        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.

        • @GrammarPolice
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          23 days ago

          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.

          • @[email protected]
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            23 days ago

            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.

            • @GrammarPolice
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              23 days ago

              Yup. For once we could have had a CEO choose the good side, but this just goes to show how corrupt the oligarchy is

  • @LovableSidekick
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    3 days ago

    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”.

  • @[email protected]
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    1064 days ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]
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      444 days ago

      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.

      • @Frostbeard
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        3 days ago

        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.

        • @[email protected]
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          93 days ago

          History doesn’t repeat. It rhymes.

          Buckle in kiddo it’s gonna be a fun couple of decades if we survive it.

      • Flying Squid
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        53 days ago

        If we survive that long as a species.

    • @[email protected]
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      103 days ago

      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.

  • @Snapz
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    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 good profit.

    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…

  • @[email protected]
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    583 days ago

    They’re being shaken down. Same as Mark Zuckerberg being summoned to a meeting with Trump and the next day paying $1m to the same fund.

    I’m betting these meetings went something like, “You don’t want a president as an enemy, do you? Cough up.”

    And don’t think of it as a tax on the rich - it’s not going towards the benefit of the American people. It’s extortion.