It’s easy to rage against the machine on a moral pedestal. It’s harder to actually steer the machine in the right direction.

To be clear, I am supportive of putting things to a vote even if there’s no chance it succeeds. Get the votes on record. I think that’s an important archive that can be used later in election season to hold politicians accountable for their votes.

I like what Bernie and AOC are doing when they push for these kinds of votes.

But make no mistake. They can only do this from a position of being unable to effect any change. Under normal conditions, moves like this poison the well and make others on both sides less willing to work with you.

They have the luxury of grandstanding specifically because they have zero hope of garnering support.

Someone like a president can’t really do something like this without completely burning their political capital.

I also thought VLC was a bit shaky on their legality as well, but since their HQ was in a Nordic country (iirc) with more lax copyright laws, they got away with it.

So I wouldn’t blame an app store for not wanting to take on legal gray area risk.