this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2026
16 points (94.4% liked)
Hacker News
5293 readers
469 users here now
Posts from the RSS Feed of HackerNews.
The feed sometimes contains ads and posts that have been removed by the mod team at HN.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Big lumber is cutting down rainforests so even though I've trained my whole life in wood working, having invested time and money into a tool set and work space for the purpose, someone online thinks I should stop complaining about the problems with Big Lumber and just quit being a woodworker all together.
That's what this sounds like.
I will fully admit that Apple has a walled garden. We have known that for decades. I understand that the sentiment is, "if you don't like it vote with your wallet". I even understand that there's a lot of value when thousands or millions of people do that all in one go.
But at the same time, asking someone to quit their trade because the platform is corrupt and you want to stick it to the man just doesn't work.
Then as a species, we're doomed. Sometimes the thing someone is doing is not sustainable and they just have to stop. There's no way around it.
If giving up using hair spray and certain AC gases was a voluntary thing people had to choose, the ozone layer would already be gone. People collectively almost NEVER do the right thing when responsibility is shared among many.
I thought about what you said some, and I think it's not that we're doomed.
These companies are making a concerted effort (with multiple modes of attack and hundreds or thousands of variables taken into account) that is multi-pronged and in lock step with all the other corps in order to prevent people from leaving. Because it's basically the same no matter what platform you switch to.
So what it takes isn't just "quit buying [X thing]" and teach these companies a lesson. It won't be one singular action by millions or billions of people that makes that change. It's got to be multiple actions done by the majority working together in order to make the kinds of changes we're asking for.
Anyone saying "just do this one thing and that will show them" is underestimating just how organized and streamlined the system we are working against is.
It will never be one thing. Large problems never are one thing.
If we all stopped buying said product or one company's products tomorrow they would switch it up (by doing market research and lobbying and incentive programs and so on) in order to find a new line and continue their upward trajectory. It won't just be a new ad campaign or a new cheaper alternative product or more features or whatever. It will be all of those things and more.
So what we really need is to brainstorm some dynamic angles to attack this from and do all of those at the same time.