I’m sure some flame-baiting tech writers have already written me off as a zealot, based upon me taking an issue with his editorial alone, but hopefully some of you will at least understand why I find stereotypes and strawmen so utterly meaningless.
Jason Cross, channeling John Dvorak, has penned the piece The Worst Thing about Macs. If you haven’t heard about the “article” already, I’m sure you can guess the premise. Create the strawman of a rabid Mac fan, then knock it down (but be sure to slip in a couple lines saying that not all Mac fans are like this wink wink). I can’t imagine why anyone might get angry by an article that starts:
I’m sure some irate Mac fans have already fired off angry emails, based upon the deck for this editorial alone, but hopefully the rest of you will at least get through this background stuff first.
It’s really hard to predict that you’re going to get angry responses because of a piece that starts by putting a group of people on the defensive. This is the oldest trick in the book. “You’re a bunch of rabid, reactionaries. You’re so rabid, I bet you’ll even get upset that I characterized you that way.” Here’s his version of that old yarn:
But honestly, the thing I hate most about using a Mac are the Apple fans. The old song and dance about the Steve Jobs worshipping, sycophantic, “thank you sir may I have another”, na-ture of the Cult of Apple is true.
But wait, you need the copout you can use as a crutch to defend that Mac fans are too sensitive.
And while it certainly does not represent all Mac users, there are enough bad apples (pardon the pun) to spoil the bunch.
I will not pardon the pun. You’ve basically just told me I’m a cultist, then said “well, everyone’s a cultist… except you. wink” I was hesitant to link this clear flamebait, but I’m not going to sit idly by while someone uses this tired spiel again. It’s old and we all see through it. You act like other platforms/products/companies/cars don’t have their own fanatical fans. I like Linux, but some of its users are… passionate.
Let’s drop the strawman. Write something that’ll get me to link you because it’s actually good work and not just insulting people.
But you have just proven his point by creating this blog post. Mac users are indeed too oversensitive. The smallest thing said about the users or platform, there is a blog post like this. You need to look into the mirror and realize who you guys really are.
After reading John Dvorak's columns enough times, one comes to realize that the main reason why he writes what he does it to get links, which people click to view the page, which, in turn, is full of ads. It's not rocket science. He's written the same over-blown nonsense about topics as far reaching as Microsoft to "e-books". Just a year or two ago, he spent the better part going on about how great his switch to a Mac has been and asking "Why can't Microsoft be this good?" in the very same column. Both John Dvorak and OS fanatics deserve a great big "WHATEVER". Just ignore and move along.
Cheers and all that...
I agree with the first commenter. There certainly seems to be a culture of very thin skin amongst many Mac users. These types of blog posts seem to be written more and more often, and I really think it detracts from the more interesting posts that contain, gosh, actual news.