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Comment by khawkins | Hacker News Reader

Louis Rossman owns a repair shop in NYC and has been touring the nation lobbying for Right to Repair. He's rarely sees success though because the lobbyists for places like Apple have deep pockets and there isn't a lot of public outrage.

The article is wrong to give any credit to Apple for being on the side of Right to Repair, as Louis explains in numerous videos.

https://youtu.be/zFA3szW9nWk

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The problem here isn't just lobbying but that the people in the government that we entrust to make these decisions are complete idiots. The lobbyists' arguments are so flawed that anyone with half a brain or a bit of common sense should be able to say "hold on, this is bullshit!" and yet these people are swallowing it whole.

I'd have more respect for them if they outright turned around and said "yeah we know we're screwing you over but the lobbyists' money is too good to pass up" but in this case they appear to be getting played without even realizing it themselves.

Well they know corporations are going to be a colossal pain in their ass if they pass something, but that the citizens won't do anything. Might make the local news, but nothing more. If only there was a little enthusiasm in this arena, substantial progress could be made. But there are far too many flashy "causes" out there that eat up the public interest. As a people, we really deserve what we're getting here.

Are they idiots, or do they get something out of it?

Some of the arguments made by the lobbyists deserve pushback even if you're secretly in their camp just because of how absurd they are.

Given this isn't happening, I'm not 100% convinced the senators are doing this on purpose or if they're legitimately too stupid to understand the argument at play. Furthermore I remember Louis Rossmann saying in one of his videos that one senator turned out to not even be checking his official government e-mail account... that's not someone I would entrust with understanding anything even remotely related to technology.

> do they get something out of it?

"robust conversations"

I switched from iPhone to Fairphone mainly because of the fact that my last two iPhones became irreparable for what I regarded as stupid reasons.

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