> If we can't get our corporate behemoths to reinforce our country's views and ideals, we're no better than the CCP, who can and do get to do just that.
Precisely.
America's FAANG corporations have proven beyond a shadow of doubt that they cannot be trusted to conduct free and fair business on their own terms. Everyone is complicit, and Hacker News loves to fight tooth and nail to pretend like Apple isn't one of them. Go figure, though - Apple has been in the CCP's lap for decades, it should come as no surprise that they rely on China to be profitable. Now we all shift uncomfortably thinking about the iPhone in our pocket as a vehicle for human oppression and intersectional industrial cruelty.
And of course, the Clarion Call response to this point: "Just get an Android phone then!"
I have one. And frankly, it kinda sucks. It was manufactured in Vietnam, presumably with similarly low standards-of-living to China. It was designed to compete with an iPhone, and I'm worse off because of it. Everyone is worse off for it, and Apple still leads the market in hardware margins since they're just so close with China. Sorta seems like the US is propping up Apple because we think it's worth the tax dollars, but ignoring where those dollars and goodwill get spent.
Being gay myself, I avoid casting it in a "persecution mindset" light in the first place. Tim Cook's behavior is wrong and contradicts his shallow veneer of caring about people and standing up for human rights. He can wax sophistry about protecting the gays once he takes down the Foxconn suicide nets and gives the Chinese people the "human rights" he so adamantly provides to other countries.