“Conservatives are so PC. Not PC as in ‘politically correct,’ though they certainly have more than their share of those who patrol the language for any nuance that gives off hints of liberalism. PC as in PC,” Devilstower writes for Daily Kos.
“No one has any doubt that PCs running some flavor of Microsoft Windows dominate the computer landscape as much as dinosaurs did the Jurassic plains. Little Unix systems pop up here and there, as do many less well known systems, holding down small niches in the computer ecosystem,” Devilstower writes.
Devilstower writes, “And then there is Apple.”
“The scampering mammals of the IT landscape, Macs have sometimes come close to extinction and even now hold down just less than 5% of computer sales. Hardware wise, that 5% is not so bad, considering that the PC world is divided up amongst Dell, HP, Gateway, Sony, whoever owns IBM’s name this week, and a thousand others. Apple is solidly among the top brands,” Devilstower writes.
Devilstower writes, “But on the software side, the share of the market held by Apple’s OS X operating system looks tiny beside Microsoft’s behemoth. It’s even smaller on conservative web sites. When it comes to visitors to Instapundit, OS X visitors make up only 2-3%, suggesting that conservatives are less likely to go for the Apple brand than the general public. On the other hand, Daily Kos statistics show that between 15% and 25% of visitors to this site are using Macs — an astounding 5x times the general population of these computers. If you were at YearlyKos last time around, you could spot more Macs at breakfast than you’d find in an Apple store.”
Devilstower asks, “So here’s a question: why? Why do liberals like Macs, while conservatives shun them?”
In the full article, Devilstower explores four theories:
• The Fiscal Conservative Theory
• Conformists vs Individuals Theory
• The Hip vs Tragically Unhip Theory
• The Artists vs. Sausage Makers Theory
Full article, with, oh, about 700 reader comments, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Gandalf” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Devilstower might be surprised at just how many “conservative” Mac users actually exist. Especially “fiscally conservative” Mac users. It really depends to the definitions you’re using for “liberal” and “conservative.” But, certainly in the opinion of most, Mac users are generally considered to be at least a tad more left of center than Windows PC sufferers. Forget about Apple’s usual quarterly guidance, the last time we looked, Al Gore was sitting in Apple’s boardroom, but we couldn’t find hide nor hair of Newt Gingrich. What do you think? How do you label yourself, if you do?
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Do more Florida fans or more FSU fans use Macs? More Alabama fans use Mac’s than Auburn fans? Do higher percentages of Jews use Macs than Christians or Muslims? Any Hindu Mac users out there? What does it matter? If you met me at a Macworld vendor booth we would probably hit it off pretty well because we both really love our Macs. That’s the thing with a Mac…You Love it. You like the way it looks and works. You appreciate the fact that it doesn’t primarily run Windows. PC only users just don’t really care that much. They believe in the fallacy that you can’t find the compatible versions of PC software for OS X. They don’t realize how incredibly easy and logical OSX is. Allot of people still believe that Macs are more costly than PC’s and don’t consider all the cool software that comes with OSX..widgets,itunes,imovie,garageband….on and on.
Is it relevant if we are liberal or conservative? My entire neighborhood is 95% Republican. My county is probably close to that. I still have healthy relationships with many people who I disagree with politically. Some of my best friends are Republicans, use PC’s. I have switched some to MAC. I have a liberal friend who teaches university classes on PC, but has a MAC in his office. His brother, another liberal, would never stray from a PC.
That’s why I don’t think that this conversation is relevant. People who use Mac’s can be good people whether conservative or liberal.
So, that said. Go Obama / Biden 08′
Conservatives are, by definition, herd-followers and afraid to think that anything could ever be better than their own insular world.
So it may not be a 100% rule, but it’s a likely pattern!
i’m conservative,.. and a mac freak. always have been. always will be.
As for me and most of my Mac using friends, we’re all pretty conservative. I’ve been a faithful Mac user since the Reagan years. (that’s the 80’s for kids that don’t remember any presidents before Clinton.) I would think Apple’s user base would be predominantly conservative since you need a steady source of income or be able to hold down a job of some kind to actually afford one. Most of my liberal friends that even use computers are using Dells because it’s all they can afford. And strangely enough, I and many of my conservative friends are professional musicians as well. Oh and Libs, your politics and your worldview is entirely screwed up as shit. You’re ruining the country. This country is a republic not a democracy. You know, Steve Jobs is a capitalist first and foremost. He’s just a “democrat” because he feels he needs to be perceived as anti-establishment I suppose. He’s rich enough where it wouldn’t matter if our sovereignty was disolved and we became the North American Union and all had to use Spanish as our main language. Interestingly, Apple has flourished under a republican administrations, both at the beginning of the company, and now the recent resurgance. I recall the darkest time at Apple during a democratic administration. I suppose they’re doing so well now because the economy is doing so well…under a republican administration…during wartime. Pretty soon I’ll be placing calls from my iPhone to my liberal acquaintances’ pay phones that they have to run down the street every day to make their calls. I’ll ask them who they’re voting for next time around. Ha ha.
COMPUTERS ARE NOT POLITICAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anybody who buys this crap on what this hack is writing for in is magazine is a complete and total moron. Only a bonehead would listen to the other bonehead on this garbage. If you have a brain and common sense, you would know that computers can’t get up and walk and vote at the voting booth. Computers can’t give money for campaigns. It does not matter if your a conservative or a bleeding-heart liberal, a Republican or a democrat. Most of your companies have so called liberals on the company board who makes the computers. You may call them liberals, but i call them secret communists!!
“So here’s a question: why? Why do liberals like Macs, while conservatives shun them?”
All of his theories are completely wrong.
What do political leanings have to do with one’s choice of computer??
I’m right-of-center, consider myself conservative, and have used Apple II’s and Macs since 1983.
Microsoft’s products, leadership, and all-out rejection of religion (they openly say it’s a waste of their “valuable time”) helps make for an easy choice.
IMO Al Gore’s Apple board seat and Steve Jobs’ political donations are necessary ills. I’d rather have profits from my loyalty be pissed to the Democrats, than see it awarded to Ballmer or Gates.
One more point:
An Apple Mac is not a Toyota Prius.
For the most part people don’t buy Macs to make a political statement.
People buy Macs because they’re a better product.
It’s that simple. Political theory is just reading into something that isn’t there.
Dad is a diehard lib with socialistic ideals and he has had nothing but a pc with windows. My wife and kids diehard Apple and conservative. Oh yeah and homeschooled too. Go figure!
Do liberals like Apple Macs, while conservatives shun them?
If this thread is any indicator, I say the answer is no. It’s funny how
in our culture we are always seeking something divisive.
Conservative Mac users RULE! We have more money than hippies and drop outs. We can afford Macs.
Love hearing Rush Limbaugh brag about how he love his Apple Computers. Has since the Gulf War broadcasts.
A great computing is bipartisan.
Hmm. when i used my first mac in 1985 i was extremely “conservative”. I thought all minorities were lazy, democrats stupid and that tree huggers were avoiding real jobs. If businesses could only break free of restrictions, the world would be a better place.
Now I’m much older. You’d be hard pressed to find a greener lefty liberal. I’ve gone WAAAY past democrat. I’m so far left i’m almost conservative again. I firmly believe minorities still get the crap stick and that poverty is often a side effect of past “conservative” actions. I still think democrats are stupid, but I have a real job and i bought a bunch of trees to save them from the chainsaw. Vegan. Major recycler. If multinational corporations could only be destroyed and their board executed, the world would be a better place.
Anyways, my point being that I’ve been a diehard mac user during the whole redneck->socialist conversion so i cant see much merit in the politic/platform comparison.
I am a conservative, long-time Mac owner/user.
My first Mac was a Mac 512K later upgraded to a MacPlus.
But I do have to admit, it is painful buying my Macs from Apple with a leftist Steve Jobs president and a leftist moron Al Gore board member.
Mac user for 20 years, conservative for LIFE.
Libertarian/Conservative Mac lover.
Wow this comments area sure went to hell, didn’t it?
The majority of the mac users that I know are conservative. I believe that my friends who love (?) their pc’s are liberal. The pc users claim they are more cost effective. I do not know of any hospitals that are using macs. (A software vender I know claims that there are pc’s in hospitals however.)
I have two Dell Precision PC’s that appear to be reliable.
Steve
“A software vender I know claims that there are PC’s in hospitals however.”
Now THAT is the scariest thing I’ve heard said in this whole long thread of discussion!
Libertarian. Mac user since 1985.
Conservative here. It’s obvious MDN is also. Read between the lines.
Bullshit.
I am not a political extremist, by any means, but I am closer to the right than the left, and I have always been an Apple fan.
A lot of people don’t really know where their own political views actually fit in the “left/right” spectrum.
The Political Compass has an interesting test to gauge your political leanings. Try it, you might be surprised…
Thanks, Larry. I didn’t realize I was so much a Libertarian.
What makes you think that I care about what irritates your childish sensibilities?
Not sure what the American definition of liberal is – somewhere slightly to the right of Margaret Thatcher I suspect – but it’s hard to see how Macs can be seen as a left wing choice. Everything about them says ‘elitist’, not least the price which excludes a high proportion of the population. OS X is the gated community of computing – very pretty, very secure from nasty intruders, but somehow cut off from the real world.