Okay, Some Mac Users Are Conservative

Hi everyone!

Thanks for giving me the biggest email feedback in my short career as the UK correspondent for the ever so fascinating and brilliantly conceived site lowendmac.com, whose financially troubles seem fortunately over, hopefully due to the generous amounts of money that some of the authors spend on keeping this insanely great meeting place of the Mac community in existence.

Where else would you be able to read Charles W. "political animal" Moore's ramblings on Apple and politics, inspired by no one else but a humble if a bit dim doctor from the Scottish westcoast. Charles, I feel truly honoured.

But back to your emails: I obviously hit a soft spot with my last article, because 43 of you wanted to tell me all about your political allegiance, Rush Limbaugh, George Bush, and politics in general. About 85 percent of the responses came from conservatives trying to set the record straight, there were a couple of left leaning responses, two libertarians, and one socialist.

Almost everybody reminded me of that the fact that Rush Limbaugh (bless him) is a vivid (or livid?) Mac Evangelist and that George "so the polar caps will melt - what do I care about Scotland?" W. Bush apparently uses a Lombard PowerBook. Well, come on: Can you really see him try to use Linux?

Some responses were a bit hostile, stating that I allegedly declared all Mac users to be lefties/liberals, but if you read my last article again, I actually didn't: I used the Apple-friendly bias in left-leaning British broadsheets to speculate about the political tendencies of Mac users in the U.S., okay? So please, chaps: Easy with the vitriol in your email.

I have to admit that the amount of responses from conservative Macionados surprised me: where all the lefties out there not too bothered (or too busy) to write, or is LowEndMac.com some kind of secret Conservative Mac Portal, only known by the initiated? Anyway, here's a little excerpt from some of your emails:

Frank obviously wanted to cheer me up:

In regards to your article on lefties at Low End Mac. I don't know if my politics or views on the environment have anything to due with my devotion to the Mac. I am, on the other hand, left handed. :)

Jeffrey writes:

Furthermore, many of the original creators of Apple and the Mac were part of the 60s-70s counter culture and hacking. According to Guy Kawasaki most of the original Mac team was too young to have participated in the 60s Civil Rights struggle and the anti-war movement, but they were old enough to have been stamped by the political consciousness of that period. They felt very strongly that creating the Mac was their Vietnam and their Civil Rights struggle, their contribution to the Revolution.

Tristram goes for the education factor:

Thus, although it might be amusing if media bias fell along party lines, I think that it has more to do with education level and readership. Mac people are smarter and read papers that are better-written. As for the question of why the better-written papers are considered liberal, I've got no answer.

Birgit from Germany obviously has a mean boyfriend:

Apple users are certainly more creative than Windozers (I am a Windoze user, and I even admit it), but I don't think that the politically left are particularly stronger on the Apple front than anywhere else. In fact, there are millions and millions of lefties among Windozers. ;-) Maybe you should do your empirical research the other way 'round: Search for the (few left) left wingers in Britain, then ask them whether they use Apple or Windoze and then you'll probably be able to prove your point! (Currently Windozer but being harassed frequently by Mac-maniac boyfriend to change sides. ;-)

Thanks for reading.