So my roommate has informed me that Android and Motorola donate to Republicans more than Democrats whereas Apple does not, claiming this as a reason that the iPhone is better than an Android phone. While I could find statistics confirming the fact about Motorola, I don’t even know what they were referring to when they mentioned Android and I tried looking for “Android” and “Android Foundation” and came up with nothing. If they’re referring to the fact that Android, while it’s an open sourced project, is maintained by Google, I’m already aware of that and would like to de-google my phone as much as possible (note: my phone is a Motorola Moto G Power (2022)). I however couldn’t find any stats to support the Apple claim and my roommate has yet to provide me with any sources.

In any case, for my next phone, I’d like to move to a more privacy-focused phone. I’ve heard about the Fairphone, but re this comment, I’m slightly dissuaded from getting one when it comes to the US. I got a Motorola phone in following the advice of this post regarding the safety of the hardware used, but I might want to switch off of the phone when it comes time to upgrade to a new one down the line.

I’m not sure what to go with, so feel free to give me tips on that. Also I’ve wanted to install an alternative OS on my phone but all the ones I’ve seen aren’t compatible with my phone at the moment.

  • MJBrune@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    It reminds me of the argument that beehaw made on keeping lemmy over switching to kbin and that is that we use technology every day built on terrible practices and terrible people. “The Good Place” TV show also made this a major plot point. Essentially the argument boils down to that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism.

    This isn’t to say throw everything to the wind and support the worst of the worst terrible practices but it is to say that even when you try, you probably can’t make a net positive out of a phone purchase. From the metals mined to the component manufacturing. Overall the end of the day you are still putting money into the GOP pockets because Apple still donates to the GOP. Also Apple still donates more to the GOP than Motorola. Apple gives 200k to GOP and 1 million to the dems https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/apple-inc/totals?id=D000021754. Motorola gives 8k to GOP and 6k to dems https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/motorola-solutions/summary?id=D000000355 So it’s fairly silly to praise Apple for it. In fact, I’d say donating at all to one or the other party (bribing) overall is negative.

    But either way, there isn’t any ethical phone in the world. There are “better” options but it’s kind of silly as you can put far more positive things into the world by focusing your efforts into positive actions rather than researching to death which company might give the GOP less money. At the end of the day, these are large corporations and they aren’t giving money to government officials because they believe in their policies. It’s because they need to influence the laws. I’d frankly say because Motorola has less money and thus gives the government fewer bribes that they are probably more ethical. Which isn’t to say if they had tons they wouldn’t bribe more or less than Apple. It’s just that they can’t or don’t right now because it doesn’t benefit them as it does Apple.

    So TL;DR: Buy whatever phone you want. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. If there was, Apple is still far less ethical than Motorola even by their own measurements. Overall on top of that, the less money going towards lobbying the better, and Apple lobbies far more than Morotola and thus you can stuff that in their pipe next time they try to look down on you because you bought a different phone.

    • Cass.Forest@beehaw.orgOP
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      1 year ago

      “The Good Place” TV show also made this a major plot point. Essentially the argument boils down to that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism.

      Ah yes, I’m familiar with the scene. It’s a great scene and a great show.

      In fact, I’d say donating at all to one or the other party (bribing) overall is negative.

      Agreed, 100%.