The phone backdoor thing seems to break orthogonal to left-right, closer to the libertarian-authoritarian axis. At least that's my impression.

I tend to agree. People who love when governments control things and people who hate terrorists are both probably pro-FBI. People who want reduced government control or people who value digital freedom are probably pro-Apple. Not that these groups are mutually exclusive, it just depends on what you value most.

> People who love when governments control things and people who hate terrorists are both probably pro-FBI.

Pretty much everybody hates terrorists regardless of whether they're pro-FBI.

That's what gets my goat, I feel like everybody is pretending to argue about technical merits, when in reality they are just arguing to their agenda.

Isn't that how it's supposed to work? Everybody tries to make the best possible argument for their desired outcome and then some ostensibly neutral decider reads all the arguments and decides who's right.

Yes, that is exactly what I meant.