OT: Microsoft's grinning robots or the Brotherhood of the Mac. Which is worse?

Paul King sciguy-Ja3L+HSX0kI at public.gmane.org
Fri Oct 9 11:14:44 UTC 2009


On 8 Oct 2009 at 2:38, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:

> | From: Evan Leibovitch <evan-ieNeDk6JonTYtjvyW6yDsg at public.gmane.org>
> 
> |
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/28/charlie-brooker-microsoft-ma
> c-windows
> 
> I have to say that I thought that this was a despicable article.
> Instead of reason, it used mockery.  Silly shallow mockery.  Based on
> stereotypes.  Kind of like what a bully does.
> 
> This is the style of argument that divides the world into "us" and
> "them" and argues we're right because we're us.
> 

I didn't take it that way at all. I thought he could have been drawing from 
personal experience and, shall we say, embellishing a few of the details. It 
might backfire in the "Linux marketing department" (didn't know we had one, but 
tons of folks seem to be talking about it as if there is one), but I don't 
think that was ever on his radar. He seemed to have a shot of creative 
inspiration, and followed it. As a piece of "good writing", I think it totally 
rocked.

Although, I might agree, his days at the Ubuntu marketing department could be 
numbered. It's inflamatory. It invites the danger of annoying a few Microsoft 
lawyers, advertisers and sales reps. But it was fun.

> This kind of article could be a fun guilty pleasure but it didn't
> actually give me any pleasure: I felt sorry for those attacked.
> 
> The substantive claims seem to be:
> 
> - all Mac owners are smug because they are mac owners (I know this not
>   to be true)
> 
> - all Mac owners proselytize (not true)
> 
> - proselytization is always obnoxious (not true)
> 
> - Windows 7 launch party tutorials are really really creepy (perhaps
>   not to their intended audience)
> 
> - nobody recommends Windows (patently untrue)
> 
> If you take the universal quantifier off these claims, they are
> probably true and probably uninteresting.
> 
> What the heck is the claim here?
>  I know Windows is awful. Everyone knows Windows is awful.
>  Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's
>  there, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Trying to follow this as if it is part of a course in "Rhetoric 101" misses the 
point. By comparing the problems MS customers face with the "faint smell of 
piss in a subway", he is being literary. Indulging in a literary flair does not 
land you in jail for false (or even ambiguous) advertising. Nor does it equate 
you with being a propagandist. It is just an enjoyable read. That's all. If a 
reader is unsympathetic to his opinions, they can always surf somewhere else.

Paul

> 
> In our society, many of us use the things we own as part of our
> identity.  The Mac seems to fulfill this function for a number of
> people.  Wanting to wear object because of designer labels is
> apparently widespread, so this isn't a characteristic peculiar to Mac
> owners.
> 
> I've seen Windows some users fetishize things like overclocked CPUs or
> big graphics cards or expensive "business" laptops.  Or Windows 7!
> 
> You may think that getting identity from possessing things is funny,
> but I bet you do the same for other objects.  I admit that I do, but I
> won't be specific in public :-)
> --
> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
> TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
> How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists
> 
> __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature
> database 4492 (20091009) __________
> 
> The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
> 
> http://www.eset.com
> 
> 
> 


--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists





More information about the Legacy mailing list