Today’s links The antitrust case against Apple: End of the line for Apple exceptionalism. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2009, 2014, 2023 Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. Recent appearances: Podcasts, events and more. Latest books: You keep readin’ em, I’ll keep writin’ ’em. Upcoming books: Like I said, I’ll keep writin’ ’em. Colophon: All the rest. The antitrust case against Apple (permalink) The foundational tenet of “the Cult of Mac” is that buying products from a $3t company makes you a member of an oppressed ethnic minority and therefore every criticism of that corporation is an ethnic slur: https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/12/youre-holding-it-wrong/#if-dishwashers-were-iphones Call it “Apple exceptionalism” – the idea that Apple, alone among the Big Tech firms, is virtuous, and therefore its conduct should be interpreted through that lens of virtue. The wellspring of this virtue is conveniently nebulous, which allows for endless goal-post shifting by members of the Cult of Mac when Apple’s sins are made manifest. Take the claim that Apple is “privacy respecting,” which is attributed to Apple’s business model of financing its services though cash transactions, rather than by selling it customers to advertisers. This is the (widely misunderstood) crux of the “surveillance capitalism” hypothesis: that capitalism is just fine, but once surveillance is in the mix, capitalism fails. Apple, then, is said to be a virtuous company because its behavior is disciplined by market forces, unlike its spying rivals, whose ability to “hack our dopamine loops” immobilizes the market’s invisible hand…Pluralistic: The antitrust case against Apple (22 Mar 2024)