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Comment by KerrAvon | Hacker News Reader

trusting a dude who is compromised by interests in China up to his eyeballs to do anything involving national security seems unwise

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He is 1/10th as compromised as Tim Apple, and the DoD uses iPhones.

I think it's pretty ridiculous to compare Tim Cook to Elon Musk.

Elon has demonstrated in both his public and private life that he can be very flexible with his ethics and morals if it furthers his business objectives. Tim by comparison has been pretty consistent.

You mean like when he committed perjury testifying to Congress that "[Apple App Store] guidelines are transparent and applied equally to developers of all sizes and in all categories"? Or how he keeps marketing iMessage as "end-to-end encrypted" while Apple continues to hold the encryption keys to the overwhelming majority of user messages and regularly decrypts them for law enforcement purposes? Or how Apple continuously bends over for the Chinese government, handing over complete control of all data in iCloud for Chinese accounts?

https://twitter.com/alx/status/1598473176102600704

It's a ridiculous comparison. Tim Cook literally censors for the communist party on a daily basis he is practically working for them. Not at all a fair comparison

The only virtue Tim Cook knows is money. Everything he pretends to believe in the context of America goes completely out the window in the context of China. Why? Because money.

I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion. Neither Tim Cook or Elon Musk would really say "No" if the government asked them to do something, both are business-motivated people with the ability to ignore morals.

DoD iPhones can only be used for “For official use only” information—that is, unclassified data.

Don't forget the rampant drug abuse.

literally can't make who you are talking about

They don't have a fake Russian Kompromat file to justify the foreign boogieman narrative this time around but they'll believe it if it suits their ideology ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yevgeny Prigozhin admitted that he interfered in US elections.

And there was plenty of evidence other than the file that indicates that it happened.

Yes I remember the study showing the total amount of ad spending by Prigozhin was <$1 million. In a campaign where both sides spent $1 billion, not to mention the priceless wall-to-wall coverage the global media provided worth far more than an additional $1B.

But yes, I'm sure Russia did enough to sway the election...

All of the social media campaigns attributed to Russian agencies weren't even backing one party. They hit both sides. All they cared about was generating social conflict.

I am glad we can both agree that Russia did in fact interfere in the election.

You're openly spreading Russia propaganda by the guy who founded Wagner (Russia is very important, they even swayed the US election!). I wouldn't pat myself on the back for such a thing.

If spending a few hundred $k on foreigners using Twitter/FB advertising accounts is enough to meaningfully sway an election I think we have bigger problems than Russia.

I believe your last statement is accurate.

Then by your standard everybody interfered too. This is a nonsensical stance. Degree matters, particularly when the degree was beyond miniscule relative to the handwringing and accusations and response.

It’s been obvious for years that the narrative around “Russian interference” was an absolute ploy and a con. It’s a little silly to be still pushing it in 2022 don’t you think?

> It’s a little silly to be still pushing it in 2022 don’t you think?

When you live in a bubble like subreddits and Twitter communities then this sort of reality distortion is encouraged and rewarded.

They never seem to have a response when someone outside their circles calls them out though. They just go quiet or redirect.

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