[autoexec]

> Apple is a vendor, not a government.

Apple is worse than a government. They have more money and reach than many governments and unlike many government officials, the public doesn't have the power to vote the heads of apple out of office or vote for who they want as a replacement.

Apple didn't invent proprietary technology, but they leverage the shit out of it in consumer hostile ways just to take even more money from people.

[kube-system]

Governments have a monopoly on the use of force, and they exercise it to compel their citizens to do things whether or not they want to. For example, I have to pay taxes, and if I don't, they will use force against me.

Your relationship with Apple is very different. If you don't like Apple, you can just simply not buy or use their products. You have a choice and they have no way of compelling you otherwise.

[ryandrake]

The inability to use force doesn't make corporate power any less powerful--it only makes it a different kind of power. Yes, BigTech cannot arrest me or throw me in jail, but that doesn't mean that they don't wield other kinds of enormous power over my day-to-day life.

And unlike my (technically democratically elected government), corporations do not have to answer to the people they exert their power over.

[kube-system]

I'm not trying to say that big tech doesn't have any sort of power at all that significant, of course they do. They certainly have a lot of control over information and how it shared. But I think that is unequivocally a lesser power than being able to imprison someone or put them to death. The fact that some small number of government officials are elected might be a rationale for that power, but it doesn't decrease it in any way.

[int_19h]

The problem is that, with enough money, you can buy the people who have the power to imprison someone or worse.