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> It’s folly to think these CEOs should steer their companies into direct confrontation with Trump. …Are Apple and Google combined really not powerful enough t
by yakshaving_jgt 9mo ago
> It’s folly to think these CEOs should steer their companies into direct confrontation with Trump.
…Are Apple and Google combined really not powerful enough to take on Trump?
This smacks of learned helplessness to me.
- alexford1987 9mo agoNo, they’re absolutely not
- yakshaving_jgt 9mo agoI am ignorant and I don't know how to quantify any of these things, but it just seems strange to me that entities accounting for such a large part of the US economy have no leverage over 47. A topic in the news lately is the upcoming midterm elections. Could they not threaten him with an aggressive informational warfare type of campaign? After all, he benefitted from the coordinated influence campaign that russia undertook during the 2016 elections.
- queenkjuul 9mo agoCompanies that big can do whatever they want. People just make excuses
- alexford1987 9mo agoThey have some leverage over his party politically or him as a candidate, but as a sitting president (especially one as unhinged as he is), his power is absurd. Apple and Googles revenue combine to around 3% of US GDP (substantial!), but it’s not like they would threaten to take that elsewhere or stop selling in the US or something. The ways they can “hurt” Trump hurt them and the rest of the country also. But Trump can do targeted damage to them across many avenues with a stroke of the pen (or even a Tweet)
- _DeadFred_ 9mo agoOnly because they personally chose the 'obey in advance' starting with funding his inauguration and power leveled him up. https://www.carnegie.org/our-work/article/twenty-lessons-fighting-tyranny/ https://www.carnegie.org/our-work/article/twenty-lessons-fig...
- queenkjuul 9mo agoThe article makes no sense to me. The original verge article wants X off the app store. This article says Apple isn't powerful to confront Trump, seemingly as an excuse for why they're leaving X on the store, and then goes on to say that, uh, Apple should kick X off the store. Not only do apple and Google have a huge amount of power, but all anyone wants is for X off the app store, and apparently even this author agrees they're powerful enough for that. So i don't see how Cook and Pichai are, in fact, anything but cowards
- akmarinov 9mo agoOnly at the expense of profits and they’d be damned if they let anything affect profits
- amazingman 9mo agoGoogle's military and Apple's police force are surely up to the task.
- yakshaving_jgt 9mo agoThis sarcasm is not constructive, and it’s only making yourself look bad. Soft power is a thing, obviously.
- wiseowise 9mo agoThey’ve abducted president of another country in broad daylight, what soft power are you talking about?
- yakshaving_jgt 9mo agoI’m talking about what soft power Apple or Google could hypothetically leverage.
- red-iron-pine 9mo agothey shape, globally, the perception of people, places, and situations. propaganda works. we are in this place globally because it works.