Bad Apple – Tim Cook’s Dark Soul and Bloody Soles

Tim Cook, in case you didn’t know, is the first recipient of the Anti-Defamation League’s Courage Against Hate award. Apple’s CEO for the last decade was presented the award in December 2018 at ADL’s Never is Now summit, and here is his introduction and the speech he gave (starts at 5:43) at the occasion. Fair warning – you might barf due to the excessive virtue-signaling and self-congratulating.

The only reason I remember this speech is because he spoke (or should I say tried to speak) a little bit of Hebrew in that speech. He clearly did his homework in preparing this speech and on 9:01 he quotes a part of Leviticus chapter 19 verse 16 and says:

לֹא תַעֲמֹד עַל דַּם רֵעֶךָ

Here is a short glossary for those of you who wish to better understand each of the words comprising this sentence.

The word רֵעֶךָ (re’ekha) comes from the word רֵעַ (re’a) or רֵעֶה (re’eh) which essentially means friend, but in biblical context most commonly translated to neighbor. The meaning of the whole verse is one simply should not stand idly by when he has the ability to help his friend and save him from danger.

Time Cook took it even a step further and said it means “do not be indifferent for the bloodshed of your fellowman – do not be indifferent”. Tim Cook is indeed not indifferent to the suffering and bloodshed of his fellowmen. But these days many people in China wish he were. That is because Apple plays an active role in the suppression of the protests against Covid lockdowns which has sparked all over the Middle-Kingdom.

An Apple a day keeps the dictator in play

Something big is going on in China right now. The country is experiencing a wave of nation-wide demonstrations and protests on a scale not seen since 1989 and the events of Tiananmen Square. By the way, one of the epicenters of these protests was Apple’s Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, but that not the reason why people are furious with Apple in China.

Last month Apple released an update which has significantly limited the ability to use Airdrops file sharing in China. Chinese demonstrators have been using airdrop to get around the Chinese social media, which just like any other form of communication in China, is heavily monitored and censored by the authorities.

Tim Cook was actually confronted about this a few days ago. Here is what the man who believes we all have a duty to speak up against hate, violence, and oppression in every shape and form had to say about this issue:

As you can see, both Tim Cooks speech and his introduction by Jonathan Greenblatt did not age very well. Clearly it was all just a huge lip service, or as Chinese people would describe it – 心口不一 (xīn kǒu bù yī) – his heart (心) and his mouth (口) are not (不) one (一).

Tim Cook’s Hypocrisy 2.0

This is not the first time Apple has helped the Chinese Communist Party to suppress dissent and trample on basic human rights. During the Hong Kong protests of 2019, Apple removed the HK Live Map app from the Appstore at the behest of the CCP, because they claimed rioters were using it to pinpoint police locations.

Tim Cook is one of the most despicable people to ever walk on the face of our planet – and his footsteps are painted red with the blood of his neighbors. Never have I been more proud not to own a single Apple product. I was playing with the idea of buying an iPad one day, but I can tell you right now – it’s definitely not going to happen.