Yuuuup. The state and capitalists collude against the working class. Neither one nor the other can ever be trusted to put the interests of workers first, though they will each make empty promises to do so. Then they will privilege the ruling class every time.

I despise that I have to use this OS at work. I would never run windows on my own computer again. Its just insanity. Next they’ll require a credit card to make a Microsoft account.

Of course she deserved better treatment. So did Sophie Scholl. It’s just very odd to act like this is not a believable thing that Israel, famed mass murderers of children, would do.

Israel hasn’t devolved, the state was founded on acts of colonialist genocide. This is what the state of Israel has always been.

Where did i say it was okay? It is abhorrent. I said that if they were going to invent a story about her graphic torture, this abuse is comparatively minor compared with other accounts from Israeli prisons.

Idk why this is treated as though its so inconceivable. Greta is hated by conservatives around the world. Most countries have already condemned Israel. They only care what Trump’s regime thinks. Their prisons are notorious centers of physical emotional and sexual torture. This is relatively mild treatment in comparison to many of the accounts I’ve read. It’s still awful, but if they were going to invent a story about how vile the Israeli prison guards were, this wouldnt be noteworthy in any way. Barely even scratches the surface of the things that happen in those prisons.

Not directly related to post but. The steam sale prices are honestly ridiculous. Barely even discounted. Like 30% off games that are over 5 years old.

I agree that collective action is our strongest pressure against them and it does work.

I do not think a boycott itself is likely to reverse Apple’s removal of the app. I also think it makes more sense for the app to become available from a web browser, or some other avenue that circumvents the need for Apple’s approval in the first place.

I also believe that collective action in this circumstance is better spent on ICE itself, which would be more effective (its the reason the US government wants Apple to remove the app in the first place) and more direct to fascist power.

I’m not sure why you’re taking such an aggressive / dismissive tone towards me. Did your comment really warrant a breakdown of possible forms of collective action? It never really seemed you were interested in a nuanced discussion in the first place.

I think collective action in this circumstance is better spent on directly obstructing ICE operations. The developers of the app would be better served by making their project accessible in browser, and self hosted so as to prevent further attempts to make it inaccessible. Group collective action should be focused on demonstration and obstruction of the root of the problem, ICE itself. How you go about the depends a lot on when/where but there are a lot of ways to obstruct their operations.

Ive never personally spent money on any kind of Apple device. I would certainly encourage others not to as well, a thing I was already doing. But I think focusing on Apple as the root problem here is a mistake in the first place.

There are a lot of other ways to apply pressure besides boycotts.

?

I dont understand why recommending other forms of collective action makes me cynical.

I wasnt gatekeeping it. Just pointing out how ultimately ineffective it is in creating meaningful change.

Can you show me where I said to do nothing? Or is boycotting the only form of collective action you’re aware of?

Yes, as opposed to spending money at another capitalist institution that will inevitably do the same thing, which is somehow not a subservient take.

There are a lot of other ways to apply pressure besides boycotts. I dont think a boycott would ever work against Apple over this.

Jimmy Kimmel made Disney a lot of money. They had to choose between pressure from the US government, and losing a popular source of revenue along with the vast amount of liberals who swore them off. Jimmy Kimmel was not a real institutional threat to the US government. So the US government did not have a very strong incentive to continuously push for him being taken down, and Disney had a lot of incentive to keep him around.

An app that targets fascists makes Apple no money. The US government faces the loss (or rendering ineffective) of their fascist police force. Both sides therefore face a huge amount of pressure to have the app taken down. It would have to be a gigantic part of their profit margin to warrant any pushback from Apple. I’d be very, very surprised to hear that this change is ever overturned through a boycott.

Do you really think this situation is comparable in any way to Jimmy Kimmel? I really don’t. Even if it were, nowhere near that many Apple customers care whether or not the app that targets fascist militias is on the app store or not.

Oh we are way passed the point where “voting with your dollar” means literally anything. These billionaires are making more money than they ever have in human history. They have literally turned all of society across large swaths of the world into a gigantic personal capital generator. It makes literally not a single difference if all of us here boycotted them or not. It’s meaningless.

I really do genuinely believe that AI content is a substantial drop in quality even from minimal effort content. They’d better invest their time moving to a subscription model. And evidently, whatever theyre currently doing isnt working or they wouldnt be in this situation in the first place. So, id say, firing everyone and moving to AI based content is unlikely to save them and I would believe likely to make their situation much worse.

This is assuming people will pay money to play AI slop. These companies continue to vastly overestimate the value of AI produced content. It might be passable on like, bags of candy, maybe even occasionally passable on like free webcomics. And low quality website design. Maybe some simple cash grab mobile games that get taken down after a couple weeks due to the obvious scams.

But paid video games? Which theyre already charging absurd prices for? No. This bubble will burst and companies that continue producing actual games will come out ahead. Companies that are foolishly going all in on entirely unproven technology will crumble.