Edit: Jesus Christ, people. If you buy a $150 Thinkpad made by slave labor instead of a $1,200 MacBook made by slave labor, you’re still supporting a capitalist economy based on slave labor. We all do. We have no choice. The number of smug liberals in the comments saying “well I buy a cheap used laptop” or “well I buy coffee beans and make my own coffee” are completely missing the fucking point.
Don’t tell yourself your consumption is moral. All of us make unethical choices every day because there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Accept your shame and guilt and let it drive you to do better.
But Apple is one of the good embodiment of capitalism. It is a symbol of excessive consumption, surveillance for profit, and consumer-right abuse.
That being said, is not like most popular alternatives are any better. If people don’t have time to switch to or even heard about better alternatives (upgradeable open hardware running an open community-driven OS), I guess it is not their fault.
Starbucks, however, has many alternatives (at least in the U.S.) that doesn’t involve as much union busting and harmful labor practices.
Not in the ways you mentioned. Apple is the most profitable of them all though (due to their horrendous prices, duh), which doesn’t fit an anti-capitalist attitude. I guess, it could be a second hand laptop but they are still supporting that ecosystem.