Thanks for this really thorough breakdown. It all really does seem to stem from the core idea that they view their clientele as idiot consumer-cattle rather than human users.

Not only do they do that with prices, like you said, the rest of their user experience practices have had devastating ripple effects on society as well.

I was so excited for the idea of “pocket computers”, but the i-garbage phenomenon I think is what super-accelerated our current tech economy of the 6-month-cycle disposable privacy nightmares designed primarily for “content consumption.”

That of course, evolved from their “You’re not allowed to touch it, you’re too stupid.” appliance-like ethos from the very beginning. Special screws, special dongles, special ports, special cables, control, control, control.

Then that got paired with forcing everyone to need an “app” for everything from shopping to government assistance, and here we are, barely a generation later, and nobody has any idea how a computer works anymore.

Nobody on either side of “Millennials” seem to understand how files and folders work, or what the Internet actually is, or how email works, and I blame Apple’s smoke and mirrors for the majority of it, because after their profit margins could be whatever they wanted, like you said, nobody wanted to innovate anymore.

They all had to be Apple.

And since Apple’s profits relied on ignorant and dependent users, everybody’s profits suddenly did.

Apple said "fuck what the market can handle. If people are stupid enough to pay us a 300% profit margin while they’re on food stamps…that’s their fault.

And on this point, it reminds me when I worked at the public library. A father asked my opinion on getting a computer for his young school age daughter. Dude was on a budget, and kids break things.

I suggested that ~$200 could get him a used ThinkPad on eBay. They can handle spills, sometimes drops, last a long time, and so forth. Incredible deal (the market has since seemed to wise up to. ☹️ )

Dude comes back the next week asking how to set up a freaking $2000+ MacBook. Daughter’s like 6 or something.

What the heck, my dude. 95% of Apple’s R&D must go into marketing and mind control.

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Anyway…yeah, It grates on me when people talk about modern computing like keyboards and mice and folder structures are “obsolete” and “only for technical people” because “everyone’s on tablets and phones now” as if that’s a linear progression of technology and we’re just getting old.

It’s a progression of technology heavily manipulated by marketing and propaganda forced as “The Future™” because friggin Apple said so, and everyone else (including Microsoft) feels like they have to follow it to stay relevant to the slobbering ignorant consumer-being customer-base Apple has bred…

If only they cared about building better products rather than untraining decades of computer education so they could play Hungry Hungry Hippos with mind-slaves.