7 ms·

Apple Resumes Advertising on X

48 points by greyadept 2y ago

andsoitis 2y ago
I've been trying to think about the cognitive dissonance that I might fall victim to as well as what I think I see in online discourse. Cognitive dissonance, but also binary thinking. For example, if one were to compress a lot of the recent narrative we see, an alternative take on this news would be something like: "Apple supports far-right billionaire who gave Nazi salute and is transphobic". An alternative (gaslighting version) could be "Gay billionaire gives money to richest man on the planet who pushes Nazi propaganda". If one is principled or a social justice advocate, should one then not decry (boycott) Apple and Tim Cook's actions? What about the shareholders of Apple? What about Apple employees? And if you don't, is it because you don't really believe those accusations against said billionaire OR is that you would rather have your devices or your salary or your AAPL stock?
- Ferret7446 2y ago
  If you're being fair, an alternative take would be: "Apple supports ideologue who aligns with the majority of US citizens."
  - Timon3 2y ago
    Why do you think he aligns with "the majority of US citizens", when Trump didn't get 50% of the votes?
    - andsoitis 2y ago
      > Why do you think he aligns with "the majority of US citizens", when Trump didn't get 50% of the votes? Even though he only garnered 49.8% of the popular vote (77,302,580 votes), that is decidedly more than Harris’ 48.3% (75,017,613 votes)[1] The remaining 1.85% of the popular vote went to various other presidential candidates (i.e. not Democrat or Republican)[2] So technically you are correct that the majority of voters didn’t vote for him, but he did win a majority of the popular vote. [1] https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/results/president https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/results/president [2] https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/elections/2024 https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/elections/2024
      - Timon3 2y ago
        No, that's still not a majority of the popular vote, just a plurality.
- talldayo 2y ago
  Not really that wild of a development with consideration to Trump's first administration.
  - andsoitis 2y ago
    > Not really that wild of a development with consideration to Trump's first administration. But we can take it further. "Biden administration awards space contracts to world's richest man who pushes Nazi propaganda" Somewhere, there's a flaw of logic OR a sense of hypocritical righteousness. Or maybe something else?
    - mlinhares 2y ago
      There's no other company to send satellites now, there's plenty of places to advertise.
      - andsoitis 2y ago
        > There's no other company to send satellites now, there's plenty of places to advertise. There is only one company that can launch satellites? Even if that were true, your statement is a form my original comment is trying to dissect. The statement you made suggests that once a moral stand inconveniences even the most ardent moralist, they are likely to cave, or to put it more directly: "talk is cheap".
        mlinhares 2y ago
        Nah, the government should definitely find other companies to do this job or invest in its own capacity to do it again, but comparing buying ads to deploying satellites makes no sense at all. One is a commodity and the other is a highly specialized business mostly propped up by government itself.
    - msie 2y ago
      [flagged]
- mjmsmith 2y ago
  You'll find lots of Apple users/developers on Mastodon and Bluesky who are speaking out about this (and the "Gulf of America" capitulation as well). Exactly what form of decrying do you require?
  - andsoitis 2y ago
    > You'll find lots of Apple users/developers on Mastodon and Bluesky who are speaking out about this (and the "Gulf of America" capitulation as well). Exactly what form of decrying do you require? Complaining on social media sites (that one could argue are niche if you think about user numbers or share of advertising dollars or countless other metrics) is cheap and can be reasonably interpreted as loud but shallow moral outrage.
    - mjmsmith 2y ago
      Perhaps they closed their accounts at the nazi bar. I'm still not sure what is required to pass your test.
  - talldayo 2y ago
    > speaking out about this Man, I can name the number of times Apple has fixed things on this basis with one hand. The smart choice was to regulate Cook and Musk while we had the chance, but apparently that makes our corporations angry.
- disambiguation 2y ago
  Ironically I think most trump supporters already don't own apple products.
ChrisArchitect 2y ago
[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43031493 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43031493
option 2y ago
They are US company. Times are such that they must please real president of USA by advertising on his app or face retaliation
msie 2y ago
[flagged]
- sebazzz 2y ago
  Everything is being normalized, or salonfähig if you like that word.
LeoPanthera 2y ago
They're also adding Starlink to iPhones. And they renamed the Gulf of Mexico in Apple Maps. Donated a million to Trump, and Cook attended his inauguration. Twice is coincidence. But five examples of collaboration is a clear message. I've used Apple devices my entire life, all the way back to when the Macintosh was made by Apple Computer. This is the first time I've ever felt like Apple doesn't want my money. Is anyone maintaining a list of technology companies that aren't collaborating with the far-right?
- sho_hn 2y ago
  The only large company news of note I've heard is Costco not cancelling its DEI initiatives. The resulting political pressure is high: https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/IACIO/2025/01/27/file_attachments/3144563/FINAL%20Costco%20Lettet%20%281%29.pdf https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/IACIO/2025/01/27...
  - Drofus 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - palmotea 2y ago
      > Cancelling DEI is "not far left" but there's quite a distance between "not far left" and "far right". Honestly, I can't help but think that certain groups with "language setting power" (like the media) have gotten in the habit of using deliberate imprecision to tar ideas and people they oppose. For instance, build up a term like "extremist" or "far right" as a pejorative, then start applying it to mainstream opponents and fairly popular ideas. It's probably part of the arrogant 50%+1 strategy that failed so badly it got us our second Trump term.
      - hitekker 2y ago
        I believe the Chinese call it “discourse power” https://digichina.stanford.edu/work/lexicon-discourse-power-or-the-right-to-speak-huayu-quan/ https://digichina.stanford.edu/work/lexicon-discourse-power-...
jacknews 2y ago
They're all kissing rings. Sad to watch the era of relative democracy and freedom seeming to come to an end, let's hope it's just a near-death experience.
- pupppet 2y ago
  In the end, they all have to bend a knee to the shareholders, and the shareholders demand growth, not kindness. The system is rigged to churn out awfulness.
  - brigandish 2y ago
    If kindness were what people want in their products or a company that builds products then it would be competitive. It's not, which is why it had to be imposed. In truth though, that was not kindness, it's a set of policies that those who support them call kindness (either as marketing or belief). Most people don't agree, which is why things are changing. Actual kindness still exists and is widespread, and people want more of it.
    - pupppet 2y ago
      I’m sure most people would be fine with Apple having flat revenue and not sacrificing their integrity. But we’ve all been programmed to believe that a company not growing is as good as dying.
      - brigandish 2y ago
        I hate to belabour the point, but it does give me the opportunity to mangle a well known aphorism: one man's integrity is another man's poison. "Most people" disagree with you on the integrity point, as recent events show. As to growth, I agree, it's often taken as too negative a signal, but if a tech company isn't growing then it's as sign that it's not innovating. Other companies will.
      - lotsofpulp 2y ago
        > I’m sure most people would be fine with Apple having flat revenue and not sacrificing their integrit How about people who own stock in apple, for example in their 401k or taxpayer funded pension plans, which directly mean higher taxes if equities do not perform.
hagbard_c 2y ago
I'm a bit surprised by the reactions here on Apple following the path of highest profitability since this is what they've always done and is what gave them the highest valuation on the stock market. When the previous regime was pushing nonsensical things like 'men can get pregnant' Apple added emoji of pregnant men to their products. Now that a new government has landed which does not hold with such nonsense but which does include the owner of X in a significant advisory role Apple joins the fray. If the pregnant-men-lunacy ever raises its head again Apple will fairly quickly - but not as a first mover, that is not their thing - start adding more pregnant men again. They follow the money and have always done so which makes the often religiously tinted adherence to the Cult of Apple all the more ridiculous. If one thing is to come from this it will be the lessening of the zeal with which the cultists praise their Holy Corporation for which I will gladly say 'Thank you, Elon Musk, for making these people remove the blinds from their eyes even if unintended.'
- the_gastropod 2y ago
  1. The pregnant man emoji proposal was submitted to the Unicode Consortium in March 2019, during Trump's first presidency. 2. Even if this goofy example was true, how is that at all equivalent to donating $1M to a Presidential inauguration, attending that inauguration, and resuming business with a company owned by a man with extremely close ties to that presidency? This is classic "both sides" brain. It's nonsense on stilts.
  - quyleanh 2y ago
    > 1. The pregnant man emoji proposal was submitted to the Unicode Consortium in March 2019, during Trump's first presidency. Liar. The pregnant man emoji was submitted on Unicode version 14.0.0 on 2021 July and officially released on 2021 September 14. [1] [2] [3] [1] https://x.com/Emojipedia/status/1415723027388567557 https://x.com/Emojipedia/status/1415723027388567557 [2] https://www.unicode.org/history/publicationdates.html https://www.unicode.org/history/publicationdates.html [3] https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/new-emoji-2021-pregnant-man-gender-b1885359.html https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/new-emoji-2021-pregnant-m...

48 points by greyadept 2y ago

I've been trying to think about the cognitive dissonance that I might fall victim to as well as what I think I see in online discourse. Cognitive dissonance, but also binary thinking. For example, if one were to compress a lot of the recent narrative we see, an alternative take on this news would be something like: "Apple supports far-right billionaire who gave Nazi salute and is transphobic". An alternative (gaslighting version) could be "Gay billionaire gives money to richest man on the planet who pushes Nazi propaganda". If one is principled or a social justice advocate, should one then not decry (boycott) Apple and Tim Cook's actions? What about the shareholders of Apple? What about Apple employees? And if you don't, is it because you don't really believe those accusations against said billionaire OR is that you would rather have your devices or your salary or your AAPL stock?

Ferret7446 2y ago
If you're being fair, an alternative take would be: "Apple supports ideologue who aligns with the majority of US citizens."
- Timon3 2y ago
  Why do you think he aligns with "the majority of US citizens", when Trump didn't get 50% of the votes?
  - andsoitis 2y ago
    > Why do you think he aligns with "the majority of US citizens", when Trump didn't get 50% of the votes? Even though he only garnered 49.8% of the popular vote (77,302,580 votes), that is decidedly more than Harris’ 48.3% (75,017,613 votes)[1] The remaining 1.85% of the popular vote went to various other presidential candidates (i.e. not Democrat or Republican)[2] So technically you are correct that the majority of voters didn’t vote for him, but he did win a majority of the popular vote. [1] https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/results/president https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/results/president [2] https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/elections/2024 https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/elections/2024
    - Timon3 2y ago
      No, that's still not a majority of the popular vote, just a plurality.
talldayo 2y ago
Not really that wild of a development with consideration to Trump's first administration.
- andsoitis 2y ago
  > Not really that wild of a development with consideration to Trump's first administration. But we can take it further. "Biden administration awards space contracts to world's richest man who pushes Nazi propaganda" Somewhere, there's a flaw of logic OR a sense of hypocritical righteousness. Or maybe something else?
  - mlinhares 2y ago
    There's no other company to send satellites now, there's plenty of places to advertise.
    - andsoitis 2y ago
      > There's no other company to send satellites now, there's plenty of places to advertise. There is only one company that can launch satellites? Even if that were true, your statement is a form my original comment is trying to dissect. The statement you made suggests that once a moral stand inconveniences even the most ardent moralist, they are likely to cave, or to put it more directly: "talk is cheap".
      - mlinhares 2y ago
        Nah, the government should definitely find other companies to do this job or invest in its own capacity to do it again, but comparing buying ads to deploying satellites makes no sense at all. One is a commodity and the other is a highly specialized business mostly propped up by government itself.
  - msie 2y ago
    [flagged]
mjmsmith 2y ago
You'll find lots of Apple users/developers on Mastodon and Bluesky who are speaking out about this (and the "Gulf of America" capitulation as well). Exactly what form of decrying do you require?
- andsoitis 2y ago
  > You'll find lots of Apple users/developers on Mastodon and Bluesky who are speaking out about this (and the "Gulf of America" capitulation as well). Exactly what form of decrying do you require? Complaining on social media sites (that one could argue are niche if you think about user numbers or share of advertising dollars or countless other metrics) is cheap and can be reasonably interpreted as loud but shallow moral outrage.
  - mjmsmith 2y ago
    Perhaps they closed their accounts at the nazi bar. I'm still not sure what is required to pass your test.
- talldayo 2y ago
  > speaking out about this Man, I can name the number of times Apple has fixed things on this basis with one hand. The smart choice was to regulate Cook and Musk while we had the chance, but apparently that makes our corporations angry.
disambiguation 2y ago
Ironically I think most trump supporters already don't own apple products.

ChrisArchitect 2y ago

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43031493 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43031493

option 2y ago

They are US company. Times are such that they must please real president of USA by advertising on his app or face retaliation

msie 2y ago

[flagged]

sebazzz 2y ago
Everything is being normalized, or salonfähig if you like that word.

LeoPanthera 2y ago

They're also adding Starlink to iPhones. And they renamed the Gulf of Mexico in Apple Maps. Donated a million to Trump, and Cook attended his inauguration. Twice is coincidence. But five examples of collaboration is a clear message. I've used Apple devices my entire life, all the way back to when the Macintosh was made by Apple Computer. This is the first time I've ever felt like Apple doesn't want my money. Is anyone maintaining a list of technology companies that aren't collaborating with the far-right?

sho_hn 2y ago
The only large company news of note I've heard is Costco not cancelling its DEI initiatives. The resulting political pressure is high: https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/IACIO/2025/01/27/file_attachments/3144563/FINAL%20Costco%20Lettet%20%281%29.pdf https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/IACIO/2025/01/27...
- Drofus 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - palmotea 2y ago
    > Cancelling DEI is "not far left" but there's quite a distance between "not far left" and "far right". Honestly, I can't help but think that certain groups with "language setting power" (like the media) have gotten in the habit of using deliberate imprecision to tar ideas and people they oppose. For instance, build up a term like "extremist" or "far right" as a pejorative, then start applying it to mainstream opponents and fairly popular ideas. It's probably part of the arrogant 50%+1 strategy that failed so badly it got us our second Trump term.
    - hitekker 2y ago
      I believe the Chinese call it “discourse power” https://digichina.stanford.edu/work/lexicon-discourse-power-or-the-right-to-speak-huayu-quan/ https://digichina.stanford.edu/work/lexicon-discourse-power-...

jacknews 2y ago

They're all kissing rings. Sad to watch the era of relative democracy and freedom seeming to come to an end, let's hope it's just a near-death experience.

pupppet 2y ago
In the end, they all have to bend a knee to the shareholders, and the shareholders demand growth, not kindness. The system is rigged to churn out awfulness.
- brigandish 2y ago
  If kindness were what people want in their products or a company that builds products then it would be competitive. It's not, which is why it had to be imposed. In truth though, that was not kindness, it's a set of policies that those who support them call kindness (either as marketing or belief). Most people don't agree, which is why things are changing. Actual kindness still exists and is widespread, and people want more of it.
  - pupppet 2y ago
    I’m sure most people would be fine with Apple having flat revenue and not sacrificing their integrity. But we’ve all been programmed to believe that a company not growing is as good as dying.
    - brigandish 2y ago
      I hate to belabour the point, but it does give me the opportunity to mangle a well known aphorism: one man's integrity is another man's poison. "Most people" disagree with you on the integrity point, as recent events show. As to growth, I agree, it's often taken as too negative a signal, but if a tech company isn't growing then it's as sign that it's not innovating. Other companies will.
    - lotsofpulp 2y ago
      > I’m sure most people would be fine with Apple having flat revenue and not sacrificing their integrit How about people who own stock in apple, for example in their 401k or taxpayer funded pension plans, which directly mean higher taxes if equities do not perform.

hagbard_c 2y ago

I'm a bit surprised by the reactions here on Apple following the path of highest profitability since this is what they've always done and is what gave them the highest valuation on the stock market. When the previous regime was pushing nonsensical things like 'men can get pregnant' Apple added emoji of pregnant men to their products. Now that a new government has landed which does not hold with such nonsense but which does include the owner of X in a significant advisory role Apple joins the fray. If the pregnant-men-lunacy ever raises its head again Apple will fairly quickly - but not as a first mover, that is not their thing - start adding more pregnant men again. They follow the money and have always done so which makes the often religiously tinted adherence to the Cult of Apple all the more ridiculous. If one thing is to come from this it will be the lessening of the zeal with which the cultists praise their Holy Corporation for which I will gladly say 'Thank you, Elon Musk, for making these people remove the blinds from their eyes even if unintended.'

the_gastropod 2y ago
1. The pregnant man emoji proposal was submitted to the Unicode Consortium in March 2019, during Trump's first presidency. 2. Even if this goofy example was true, how is that at all equivalent to donating $1M to a Presidential inauguration, attending that inauguration, and resuming business with a company owned by a man with extremely close ties to that presidency? This is classic "both sides" brain. It's nonsense on stilts.
- quyleanh 2y ago
  > 1. The pregnant man emoji proposal was submitted to the Unicode Consortium in March 2019, during Trump's first presidency. Liar. The pregnant man emoji was submitted on Unicode version 14.0.0 on 2021 July and officially released on 2021 September 14. [1] [2] [3] [1] https://x.com/Emojipedia/status/1415723027388567557 https://x.com/Emojipedia/status/1415723027388567557 [2] https://www.unicode.org/history/publicationdates.html https://www.unicode.org/history/publicationdates.html [3] https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/new-emoji-2021-pregnant-man-gender-b1885359.html https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/new-emoji-2021-pregnant-m...