Blog post

February 1, 2007 [LINK / comment]

Mac Left vs. PC Right? (again)

This is one of those old controversies that will never be settled. At the Daily Kos, "Devilstower" (Wyoming?) argues that "buying a Mac makes you liberal." He cites various statistics, such as the fact that only 2% - 3% of visitors to Instapundit use Mac OS X, compared to 15% - 25% of visitors to Daily Kos. Of the various explanations he proposed, I found the "Conformists vs Individuals Theory" to be most dubious, and quite ironic, given that the initials PC stand for "political correctness." Granted, there are signs of stodginess in conservative circles these days, in contrast the the dynamism of the 1990s, but that doesn't mean the Left has all of a sudden been "born again" as creative thinkers. And what about the contrasting ideals of rugged individualism vs. egalitarian collectivism? That certainly confounds his argument. Interestingly, the author does not mention the fact that Rush Limbaugh is probably the most prominent Mac user in the country, despite the fact that he has been shunned by Apple's Steve Jobs. Al Gore, of course, is on the Apple Board of Directors.

Perhaps those data mean something, but the findings do not apply to me. In fact, I shifted toward the center of the political spectrum within a couple years of buying my Mac Plus in 1987, and began to identify myself as a Republican not long after I bought my Apple PowerBook in 1994. About a year ago, I responded to local columnist Fred Pfisterer's thoughts about Mac users.

This is the first blog post in the new Science & Technology blog category, which like the Culture & Travel category, used to be part of the former "Macintosh and Miscellaneous"category.

UPDATE: Unlike most initial reviewers, Joe Hutsko really liked the new Vista version of Microsoft's Windows operating system. He is a long-time Apple and Mac user, and says he has caught heavy criticism from Mac loyalists for making the switch. Via Donald Sensing, who sees this as an example of "religious intolerance." Well, in a way it is.