MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

Jan 17, 08 - 10:46 am Comment from: Ampar

Oh no! That awful "L" word? This will go several pages.

It's liberals who have the superiority complex. Not just Mac owners.

Jan 17, 08 - 10:54 am Comment from: ChrissyOne

I can feel the love brewing already.

Jan 17, 08 - 10:55 am Comment from: Cubert

What happened here? Sorry, I was looking in the mirror and admiring my smug superiority.

Jan 17, 08 - 10:58 am Comment from: Big Al

Mac users are more liberal?

I doubt it. Mac users make more money, pay more taxes, get pissed off at government spending practices and become more fiscally conservative.

Now, if they said Mac users are better looking, they'd be right. I am the exception that makes the rule on that one.

Jan 17, 08 - 11:00 am Comment from: ChrissyOne

I mean, compared to me, you're all pretty much philistines anyway.

Liberals and leftists (like Randy Newman) are anti-Capitalists, anti-corporate America, and anti-American.

But, when it comes to gathering all that dirty money from the stellar growth in AAPL (a perfect picture of the wonders of American Capitalism), they are as happy as can be to rake it in.

So, libs, get over yourself - your actions speak louder than your rhetoric.

Jan 17, 08 - 11:01 am Comment from: Jimbo von Winskinheimer

Wow, they figured all that out about me just by my computer purchase???

Jan 17, 08 - 11:02 am Comment from: Bobby Skinner

Some of us are quite conservative, realize that "open-mindedness" is a myth and we know we are superior. We are superior because we look at the choices and select the best, which makes us superior to the many that simply buy what they have at the office, or that a friend has. Though we may not be superior as in being more intelligent, but the very face that we chose the mac shows that we are better at using our intelligence!

P.S. Last chance to buy AAPL below $160 - again.

Jan 17, 08 - 11:05 am Comment from: Grigori

This is going to get so nasty...

Jan 17, 08 - 11:05 am Comment from: lurker

Actually, that is small "l" liberal, not big "L" Liberal. You'll find that many big "C" Conservatives are quite small "l" liberal. Just look at the out of wedlock teen pregnancies and divorce rates for big "C" Conservative states. Smacks highly of very liberal behaviors.

Bur I think that much of big "C" Conservative behavior is grounded in low self-esteem. Why else would they spend Sundays and Wednesday evenings supporting a system that tells them how bad they are?

Jan 17, 08 - 11:06 am Comment from: Jimbo von Winskinheimer

Please, before you all go into your "I am not liberal so therefore this is not true" rant, please understand that they are talking statistics here. While you may be surveying yourself and your buds, they probably did a bit more research than you. That's their job.

If someone says "Most Americans are white males" and you say "Wait a minute! I am a black female. This must be wrong!" then you are doing the same thing.

And to Strange But Interesting - you need to understand that not everyone that disagrees with you is anti-American. We disagree on issues, but that doesn't make us anti-American. You sound like Dubya and Rove - if you're not with us then you are the enemy. Please, get over it.

Jan 17, 08 - 11:10 am Comment from: Think

Where did they survey the people?
If at Macworld, then that is a very slanted Mac group. The diehards. I've been to some of the past Geek gatherings and I'll tell you what, it's a differnet crowd.

Jan 17, 08 - 11:11 am Comment from: shen

also, before the political spin begins, do yourself a favor and read the article and look up the word "liberal" in the dictionary. hell just mouse however and "ctrl apple d".

see, not that objectionable.

Jan 17, 08 - 11:13 am Comment from: deepdish

I use to not like the extreme left or right.

But know I appreciate both extremes. They help us remember who we are and help perform a "check and balances" type service.

Well of course we think we're better than everyone else. It comes from using that superior OS. As far as the liberal thing goes, personally, i'm a moderate, and have nothing against liberals, and honestly, those of you who hate liberals because they're liberals, because of their political beliefs, you sicken me. You are the ones who cause so much animosity between parties and political beliefs, and truly, threatening the unity of the country. Let others believe what they want, and don't belittle others beliefs. What's worse is that because of people like you, this article could end up hurting apple from that liberal part. Get over it, and get over yourselves. Pigs.

Dictionary
liberal |ˈlib(ə)rəl|
adjective
1 open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values : they have more liberal views toward marriage and divorce than some people.
• favorable to or respectful of individual rights and freedoms : liberal citizenship laws.
• (in a political context) favoring maximum individual liberty in political and social reform : a liberal democratic state.
• ( Liberal) of or characteristic of Liberals or a Liberal Party.
• ( Liberal) (in the UK) of or relating to the Liberal Democrat Party : the Liberal leader.
• Theology regarding many traditional beliefs as dispensable, invalidated by modern thought, or liable to change.
2 [ attrib. ] (of education) concerned mainly with broadening a person's general knowledge and experience, rather than with technical or professional training.
3 (esp. of an interpretation of a law) broadly construed or understood; not strictly literal or exact : they could have given the 1968 Act a more liberal interpretation.
4 given, used, or occurring in generous amounts : liberal amounts of wine had been consumed.
• (of a person) giving generously : Sam was too liberal with the wine.
noun
a person of liberal views.
• ( Liberal) a supporter or member of a Liberal Party.
DERIVATIVES
liberalism |-ˌlizəm| noun
liberalist |-rəlist| noun
liberalistic |ˌlib(ə)rəˈlistik| adjective
liberally adverb
liberalness noun
ORIGIN Middle English : via Old French from Latin liberalis, from liber ‘free (man).’ The original sense was [suitable for a free man,] hence [suitable for a gentleman] (one not tied to a trade), surviving in liberal arts. Another early sense [generous] ( compare with sense 4 ) gave rise to an obsolete meaning [free from restraint,] leading to sense 1 (late 18th cent.).

Thesaurus
liberal
adjective
1 the values of a liberal society tolerant, unprejudiced, unbigoted, broad-minded, open-minded, enlightened; permissive, free, free and easy, easygoing, libertarian, indulgent, lenient. antonym narrow-minded, bigoted.
2 a liberal social agenda progressive, advanced, modern, forward-looking, forward-thinking, progressivist, enlightened, reformist, radical. antonym reactionary, conservative.
3 a liberal education wide-ranging, broad-based, general.
4 a liberal interpretation of divorce laws flexible, broad, loose, rough, free, general, nonliteral, nonspecific, imprecise, vague, indefinite. antonym strict, to the letter.
5 a liberal coating of paint abundant, copious, ample, plentiful, generous, lavish, luxuriant, profuse, considerable, prolific, rich; literary plenteous. antonym scant.
6 they were liberal with their cash generous, openhanded, unsparing, unstinting, ungrudging, lavish, free, munificent, bountiful, beneficent, benevolent, bighearted, philanthropic, charitable, altruistic, unselfish; literary bounteous. antonym careful, miserly.


If you’re wondering where you may have seen this, it means you may have opened the OSX dictionary.

I think I may have made several "points."

Jan 17, 08 - 11:22 am Comment from: MCCFR

Strange But Interesting…

Well, your name is probably only 50% accurate!

If open-mindedness is a quality of a potential Macintosh owner, it surprises me that you can confuse liberalism with anti-capitalism, or indeed that you can conflate anti-Americanism with being anti-corporate America. By doing so, you practically beg people to equate American values with a sort of crypto-fascism, which – in my idealised view – is not an accurate representation of the values on which your country was founded.

America is supposed to be a celebration of practical individualism, where people who work hard are rewarded for their efforts in what should be a meritocracy; cheerleading for Coca-Cola or Exxon-Mobil, as if they were some sort of cipher for American nationalism, merely replaces the fealty your country used to pay mine with some sort of unquestioning allegiance to people for whom you never have and never will vote.

You may be comfortable with the CEOs of the Fortune 500 running your country, but I would argue that your Founding Fathers would probably be spinning in their graves at the state of your democracy (don't get me wrong, the UK has as large a problem so we're no better) and at your assertion that the individual has to unquestioningly support the "corporate-state".

Jan 17, 08 - 11:22 am Comment from: MacSheikh

@ lurker

So what you're saying is that there are liberal Conservatives and conservative Liberals? Just as there are conservative Conservatives and liberal Liberals?

Jan 17, 08 - 11:25 am Comment from: Buster

Liberal just means open minded. Its all a matter of degree. Just because you are conservative doesn't mean nothing liberal ever enters your bed...errrr....head.

Mac users are generally open minded, smater, better looking and our dicks are bigger!!!!

Jan 17, 08 - 11:26 am Comment from: Buster

@C1...you can call me Phil. Just don't call me late for dinner.

It seems that what folks hate (both liberal and conservative) are caricatures of their opponents which have very little to do with reality. Conservatives hate the cartoon hippy-dippy liberal and the Liberals hate the cartoon greedy corporate rich man. I myself have never met either of these cartoon characters in real life.

Jan 17, 08 - 11:28 am Comment from: Buster

oh cripes...I wish smater meant a subtle intellectual pun but alas. it simply means I prematurely shoot off my message before I examine it.

@ MacSheikh

Stop it!

You're making this "issue" look silly.

I think it's a pretty even mix. Certainly a lot of the artistically inclined use Macs (and then tend to be pretty liberal) but I know many conservatives who love Apple too.

Steve Jobs is the greatest capitalist in history. He's used the American free-market system to his advantage like no one else. He's socially pretty liberal but he's got some opinions on economics and education that definitely don't tow the DFL party line.

Jan 17, 08 - 11:30 am Comment from: AlanAudio

It's a pity that so many people don't understand that words with a lower case initial sometimes have different meanings to the same sequence of letters with a capitalised initial.

Knee-jerk reactions to words like 'liberal' make people look like jerks. The word does have a meaning outside of politics.

The way this article is using the adjective "liberal," they are not referring to your political views, but to your buying habits.

We have broken the Windows mold and moved on to something bigger, better, and much more superior. Because of our initiative and resolve to try something new (besides Windows), we have been marked as "liberal" consumers.

It is not telling you that all Mac users hate George Bush.

Jan 17, 08 - 11:43 am Comment from: Sixvodkas

@AlanAudio...

Agreed.
Within the context of politics, the word "Liberal" has nothing to do with its dictionary definition (exception being the dictionary definition of the political term "Liberal").

Jan 17, 08 - 11:43 am Comment from: Ampar

To Buster: There's a smater of truth to your assertions.

And to some of the staunch conservatives here, I'll bet gay Republicans really freak you out.

Thanks MDN, but is this really necessary?

Jan 17, 08 - 11:47 am Comment from: Ampar

"The word does have a meaning outside of politics."

The anonymous troll in the seventh post once got a nasty burn. The ointment said, "Apply liberally." He screamed shrilly, "Screw that. I'd rather live with the pain."

Jan 17, 08 - 11:54 am Comment from: Buster

@Ampar,
You know what smater with this world? There are too many PC users.

@Ampar

Huh?

Jan 17, 08 - 11:59 am Comment from: PowerPhone

Does this mean I'm gay?....

Jan 17, 08 - 11:59 am Comment from: MacSheikh

@ AppleJack

What, you mean the direction where these comments are going? Silly? Nah...BUllSHit.

So there

btw:
Micros**t sucks

Republicans can be pretty open minded and do things differently than the mainstream american.
Like Mark Siljander for example

Jan 17, 08 - 12:11 pm Comment from: derekcurrie

Judging a personality by a questionnaire is dodgy at the very best. When you examine the entire study of personality you will find that it is entirely valid to give a variety of completely unrelated tests in order to get a full picture. The human personality was attempted to be condensed into 8 traits by Carl Jung, and he made a good stab at it resulting in the Myer-Briggs test. But the 'Beyond Gold' or 'Beyond Platinum' tests of relational versus productive and leadership personalities is extremely revealing in its own right and has no reference at all to Jung's work. Now we have this Mindset Profile that examine even further factors of personality. Good luck trying to create a multi-dimensional diagram of human personality. There are so many dimensions that it is simply beyond our comprehension how to represent it all visually.

This is the first time I have seen a test attempt to pin down a 'liberal' personality. Politics, sure. But personality? And obviously it is just a shot in the dark. I need only speak one person's name to shoot down this entire notion:

Rush Limbaugh!

(Or 'Gush BimBaugh' as I prefer to call him). Here we have an arch neo-con-job who won't part with his Mac until you have to pry it from his cold dead hands. So much for the liberal moniker. And so much for the 'open-minded' moniker. Ha! But yeah, in this case they hit the 'superiority' moniker right on the nose.

Kids: Neither liberals nor moderates nor conservatives have a corner on the 'superiority' market. I see no connection to computers here at all. The 'smugness' factor is spread throughout a wide variety of personalities and the political spectrum. Statistically there are guaranteed to be far more 'smug' people among Windows PC users simply because they represent a larger portion of the population.

It has been a fun marketing ploy in the Mac market to label the Windows users as 'lemmings' and 'sheeple'. But again they win statistically simply by having larger numbers. Equally, there is nothing specifically maverick about ALL Mac users. A huge number of them simply want to escape from user-hostility, Microsoft style, and find something more user-friendly, Apple style. And even then the fact remains that there is no truly easy computer. All of them are a PITA at some time or another. It just happens that Macs are statistically 10x less a PITA than Windows boxes as measured by the number of people required to maintain them in professional environments. As I ever rant: We are still in the Stone Age of Computing.

Conclusion: Take any personality analysis with a heaping spoonful of salt. If you think computers are archaic, try studying psychology and psychiatry. Stone Age doesn't cover how primitive those sciences remain.

Jan 17, 08 - 12:12 pm Comment from: OZZ

I definitely feel like a LIBERTARIAN rather than a Liberal !!!

And I feel more libertarian every time I open my MacBook, 'cause I feel I made the choice of being free (from Windows establishment).

)))

Extend your hand and let it drop while standing. If your knuckles drag the ground you probably use a PC, voted for Bush twice and think that Faux Newz is Fair & Balanced. You probably also think that the New York Times, employer of Bill Kristol, David Brooks & Tom Friedman, is a liberal paper.

That's me.

A great many people care more about what something costs than about what it does. They tend to buy Windows and vote Republican.

Jan 17, 08 - 12:19 pm Comment from: ChrissyOne

"It is not telling you that all Mac users hate George Bush."

Only the smart, funny, attractive ones do.

You left out the part about thinking the NYTimes is liberal without ever reading it.

Jan 17, 08 - 12:22 pm Comment from: LinuxGuyAndMacProdigalSon

This reads like another FUD spew -- whether he is trying to get a political war started and driving away a lot of potential switchers or just stupidly doing so. The article's author can shove it where the sun does not shine.

"Smart, funny, attractive"? ChrissyOne, you damn us with faint praise.

Jan 17, 08 - 12:27 pm Comment from: MacBliss

There is nothing like a political argument to expose the idiocy, pettiness and narrow-mindedness of all parties involved... Anonymous

Jan 17, 08 - 12:27 pm Comment from: Micro Me

How dare Mindset Media accuse me of being assured of my own superiority, those miserable pieces of crawling lowlife.

Jan 17, 08 - 12:29 pm Comment from: NewtonsApple

Mac users are liberal. That's funny. There are some of us, but not many it seems. There's been a awful lot of bitching going on by the "Mac faithful" about the MacBook Air because it lacks this or lacks that, can't change the battery, etc., etc. The MBA is a paradigm shift, much like the original iMac. Any liberal can see that. "Think different." Oh wait, some people think that openmindedness is a myth...

Jan 17, 08 - 12:32 pm Comment from: ChrissyOne

Test...

I am having trouble posting. Must be the left wing conspiracy.

Jan 17, 08 - 12:33 pm Comment from: ChrissyOne

I'd love to know how 'liberal' became a four letter word, a slap in the face, and a poke in the eye with a burning stick.

Is it because people believe everything they see on TV or hear on the radio? Is it because they can't recognize how pundits influence they way they think by telling them what they want to hear?

The upshot - make people afraid of being 'liberal' and they'll be afraid to be 'open minded'. That's a neat trick.

Have people really gotten this shallow?