A signature only tells you where something came from, not whether it’s safe. Saying APT is more secure than Docker just because it checks signatures is like saying a mysterious package from a stranger is safer because it includes a signed postcard and matches the delivery company’s database. You still have to trust both the sender and the delivery company. Sure, it’s important to reject signatures you don’t recognize—but the bigger question is: who do you trust?
APT trusts its keyring. Docker pulls over HTTPS with TLS, which already ensures you’re talking to the right registry. If you trust the registry and the image source, that’s often enough. If you don’t, tools like Cosign let you verify signatures. Pulling random images is just as risky as adding sketchy PPAs or running curl | bash—unless, again, you trust the source. I certainly trust Debian and Ubuntu more than Docker the company, but “no signature = insecure” misses the point.
Pointing out supply chain risks is good. But calling Docker “insecure” without nuance shuts down discussion and doesn’t help anyone think more critically about safer practices.
I voted for Kamala Harris and encouraged others to do as well, and even I think it’s naive to blame leftists and pro-Palestine advocates for the Democrats’ loss in 2024. The Democratic establishment campaign was basically just, “We’re not as horrible as the other guy”. That was plainly not enough to excite people to vote. It worked in 2020 at the start of a global pandemic, but it was not going to work again. People stayed home not because they internalized some message from chronically online leftists, but because Democrats failed to give them a reason to take time off work and stand in line.
It’s in the data. Across four battleground states, over 900,000 registered Democratic voters stayed home compared to 2020; Trump only won those states by 500,000. If you look at analyses of the data (Cooperative Election Study, Pew Research Center, Catalist), many of them conclude that it’s because the Democrats failed to provide a real plan to improve the lives of their own voter base, especially in economically disadvantaged, nonwhite communities. It’s not even a question of the plan being too progressive or not enough—there was just no clear plan.
In contrast, look at Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral primary campaign in New York City where they saw the highest voter turnout in history. Early voting more than doubled compared to 2021. His campaign was grounded in actually solving problems for everyday people, especially with regard to affordability, and it worked. Establishment Democrats who are in the pockets of billionaires are so terrified of this that they are pouring their money and endorsements into a guy who resigned in disgrace following sexual harassment allegations, instead of the guy who won the primary. What ever happened to “vote blue, no matter who?”
If the Democrats want to actually win elections, they need to deliver a plan to the American people that shows they can follow through on making life materially better for everyone, not just their billionaire and corporate donors. Otherwise, they just seem like controlled opposition and no one will care to show up at the polls.