Trapped by Apple—a Tale of the Great Reset
CommentaryI woke up this morning with a feeling somewhere between unnerving and guilty in the pit of my stomach. I had just purchased—and am writing this on—a spanking new M2 Apple MacBook Air in a very slick midnight blue because my old Air (2017) had, I told myself, slowed down and was too old to run the new software. (Hey, it was a lot cheaper than buying a new car.) It seems to be a great machine and is making my external monitor shine with a crisp clarity I have never seen before. It was never a question of getting anything other than Apple because I have been on their equipment since 2004 when I was helping found PJ Media and my then partner, who was the tech arm of our operation, wanted us on Apple, including for our servers. From then on I have been in their ecosystem with the usual variety of products. I’m a bit too old to get off them now without interrupting my work for a considerable time. And besides, they worked. But then, last night, on the same computer and later on Fox, Newsmax, and NTDTV, I had been watching the mass demonstrations across China, Iran, and Brazil. My heart went out to these people fighting oppression—as I assume yours has been—not to mention my admiration for their extraordinary courage against brutal dictatorships that do literally anything to preserve power. Where was Apple with its “progressive” CEO Tim Cook in all this? Part of the solution or part of the problem? Like our government—remember “Obama, Obama, are you with us or are you with them?” during a previous round of Iran demonstrations—they are clearly part of the problem. Apparently, they are more upset with Elon Musk for trying to bring a modicum of transparency to Twitter, pulling their ads from his newly-purchased platform and, according to Musk, threatening to remove the Twitter app from the app store. Yet worse, in China, Apple has restricted AirDrop file sharing, the very method the demonstrators have been using to communicate privately out of earshot of their totalitarian masters. Was this on advice from the communist regime or did Apple just figure out for themselves what was in their best interest to do? It wouldn’t have been hard. Meanwhile, Apple stock has lost some ground because these protests may be interfering with their iPhone production. Poor things. Further, according to Bloomberg, violent protests have erupted at Apple’s main iPhone plant in China. (Wasn’t Apple supposed to be leaving China for production? I guess not.) What’s going on is, sadly, not surprising. Apple is acting in tandem with our administration, which also, not surprisingly, has stayed mostly mum about what’s going on in China and Iran. Freedom is of no interest to them. Behind the Iran silence is, obviously, the three-letter word oil, for which Biden has only himself to blame for having seriously restricted our domestic supply for the most dubious reasons. As for China, Biden, we recall, is the man who insisted the Chinese—meaning the regime—were our friends, before he recanted it for electoral purposes. The true story of the Biden family and the Chinese communists, some of which must reside on Hunter’s laptop, is yet to be fully exposed. What all this adds up to is Apple and the rest of Big Tech cooperating with the administration in the big lie that domestic terrorists (Trump et al) are the threat to democracy when they themselves are. True democracy, whether manifest as a democratic republic or otherwise, has become an inconvenience for them in the march to globalism and the “Great Reset.” When its guru Klaus Schwab said, “You will have nothing and you will be happy,” it’s not hard to imagine he would exclude the iPhone or its equivalent implanted under our skin—“the better to track you with, my dear” they might say in a modern version of a Disney classic. I have written all this, I admit, in a vain attempt to expiate myself for the really unnecessary purchase of the M2. But let it also be a warning to the majority of us, even enlightened Epoch Times readers, that we all, most of us anyway, have needles in our arms courtesy of Big Tech and Big Pharma. As Arthur Miller once wrote, “Attention must be paid…” Finally, with God’s help, may the people of China, Iran, and, yes, Brazil make it through this time and live in freedom. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Follow Roger L. Simon is an award-winning novelist, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, co-founder of PJMedia, and now, editor-at-large for The Epoch Times. His most recent books are “The GOAT” (fiction) and “I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasn’t Already” (nonfiction). He can be found on GETTR and TRUTH Social @rogerlsimon.
Udumbara
Commentary
I woke up this morning with a feeling somewhere between unnerving and guilty in the pit of my stomach.
I had just purchased—and am writing this on—a spanking new M2 Apple MacBook Air in a very slick midnight blue because my old Air (2017) had, I told myself, slowed down and was too old to run the new software. (Hey, it was a lot cheaper than buying a new car.)
It seems to be a great machine and is making my external monitor shine with a crisp clarity I have never seen before.
It was never a question of getting anything other than Apple because I have been on their equipment since 2004 when I was helping found PJ Media and my then partner, who was the tech arm of our operation, wanted us on Apple, including for our servers. From then on I have been in their ecosystem with the usual variety of products. I’m a bit too old to get off them now without interrupting my work for a considerable time. And besides, they worked.
But then, last night, on the same computer and later on Fox, Newsmax, and NTDTV, I had been watching the mass demonstrations across China, Iran, and Brazil.
My heart went out to these people fighting oppression—as I assume yours has been—not to mention my admiration for their extraordinary courage against brutal dictatorships that do literally anything to preserve power.
Where was Apple with its “progressive” CEO Tim Cook in all this? Part of the solution or part of the problem?
Like our government—remember “Obama, Obama, are you with us or are you with them?” during a previous round of Iran demonstrations—they are clearly part of the problem.
Apparently, they are more upset with Elon Musk for trying to bring a modicum of transparency to Twitter, pulling their ads from his newly-purchased platform and, according to Musk, threatening to remove the Twitter app from the app store.
Yet worse, in China, Apple has restricted AirDrop file sharing, the very method the demonstrators have been using to communicate privately out of earshot of their totalitarian masters. Was this on advice from the communist regime or did Apple just figure out for themselves what was in their best interest to do? It wouldn’t have been hard.
Meanwhile, Apple stock has lost some ground because these protests may be interfering with their iPhone production. Poor things. Further, according to Bloomberg, violent protests have erupted at Apple’s main iPhone plant in China. (Wasn’t Apple supposed to be leaving China for production? I guess not.)
What’s going on is, sadly, not surprising. Apple is acting in tandem with our administration, which also, not surprisingly, has stayed mostly mum about what’s going on in China and Iran. Freedom is of no interest to them.
Behind the Iran silence is, obviously, the three-letter word oil, for which Biden has only himself to blame for having seriously restricted our domestic supply for the most dubious reasons.
As for China, Biden, we recall, is the man who insisted the Chinese—meaning the regime—were our friends, before he recanted it for electoral purposes. The true story of the Biden family and the Chinese communists, some of which must reside on Hunter’s laptop, is yet to be fully exposed.
What all this adds up to is Apple and the rest of Big Tech cooperating with the administration in the big lie that domestic terrorists (Trump et al) are the threat to democracy when they themselves are.
True democracy, whether manifest as a democratic republic or otherwise, has become an inconvenience for them in the march to globalism and the “Great Reset.”
When its guru Klaus Schwab said, “You will have nothing and you will be happy,” it’s not hard to imagine he would exclude the iPhone or its equivalent implanted under our skin—“the better to track you with, my dear” they might say in a modern version of a Disney classic.
I have written all this, I admit, in a vain attempt to expiate myself for the really unnecessary purchase of the M2. But let it also be a warning to the majority of us, even enlightened Epoch Times readers, that we all, most of us anyway, have needles in our arms courtesy of Big Tech and Big Pharma.
As Arthur Miller once wrote, “Attention must be paid…”
Finally, with God’s help, may the people of China, Iran, and, yes, Brazil make it through this time and live in freedom.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
