Spyglass: “Aside from That, Mr. Cook, What Did You Think of the Movie?”

While Cook was enjoying his popcorn and champagne with the likes of Mike Tyson, Tony Robbins, and other “VIPs”, it was complete and utter chaos on the streets of Minnesota. Just hours earlier, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, was shot and killed by ICE agents. Maybe, just maybe, postpone the movie premiere?

Of course, President Trump was never going to do that because the official White House stance is that Pretti was a “domestic terrorist” and the agents were acting in self defense. And never mind that this was the second such murder in the past 17 days, the show must go on!

But it didn’t have to for Cook. He could have, and should have, backed out of the event. Obviously. The fact that he didn’t either suggests horrible judgement on his part or worse, cowardice. This is a man and leader of one of the biggest and most important businesses in the world who had long been thought to have a great moral compass.

He has lost his way.

M.G. Siegler

I’ve heard the same point about Tim Cook’s ‘moral compass’ in a podcast the other day and I couldn’t roll my eyes hard enough. It takes an incredible amount of naivete – or rather self-delusion – to think the CEO of a billion-dollar corporation has any guiding principle aside from his own wealth and status. This whole concept that Apple and by extension its leadership is somehow more moral or righteous than its competitors can only be explained, I suspect, by Apple fans retroactively constructing this narrative to justify their unflinching loyalty to the brand.

Tim Cook was pictured at the black tie premiere with the film’s director, Brett Ratner, who posted the snap on Instagram screen grab

Was Tim Cook a ‘moral role model’ as he preached privacy and security while attempting to crush Facebook’s ad model on iPhones and simultaneously cashing in billions from Google for their default search placement? Of course not; those were calculated business decisions predicated on preserving and expanding their monopoly. But Americans do love to ascribe morality and good character to the party in a dispute they identify with regardless of actual merits.

Given their striking vulnerability to trade tensions with China, Cook has been on a Trump appeasement tour since his first term as president. The trouble with giving in to Trump is that sooner or later he is going to come back asking for more, so Cook ended up donating $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, then gifting him a gold-plated statue, and now this…

Reading the post linked above, you might notice a conspicuous absence of any push back against Apple, such as giving up Apple products or anything of the sort. Siegler talks of the ‘embarrassment’ for Tim Cook and vaguely tries to rationalize his choices. Not terribly surprising coming from such a hard-core Apple stan; many of them would criticize specific product decisions at one point or another to leave readers with the impression that they’re impartial observers, while continuing to fully back Apple in any other respect. But this underscores a deeper issue, how big tech companies have become so entrenched in our digital society, and how their monopolistic dealings have almost completely driven out smaller competitors from the market. In short, there’s little talk of renouncing Apple products because the alternatives are just as awful and corrupt – if not worse.