VAW: Apple's Most Loyal Fans are Liberals

I believe that the majority of Apple's most loyal fans are tried and true political liberals. These fanatical fans helped sustain Apple through the dark days of the 1990s, when the company tried and failed to become a popular mainstay. During this time, Apple wanted to present itself as a business solution and spent lots of resources trying to convince the business world that it was a serious corporate going concern. But the company just wasn't able to shake the prevailing view that it was not a serious option for serious people. Apple was home to the misfits, the nonconformists, the trouble-makers; the liberals. Now that Apple is moving to greater acceptance by the regular population of computer users, taking market share away from ultra-conservative Microsoft, will conservative Americans begin using Macs en masse? Or will Apple hit a brick wall in terms of market penetration because of what being a "Mac user" means to most conservative Americans?

The term liberal has a very specific meaning in American political science. Specifically, a liberal is a person who favors government regulation of business, but is opposed to government regulation of morals or social issues. A conservative is a person who is opposed to government regulation of the free market or business, but favors government regulation of morals or social issues. However, most Americans are not ideologs and their opinions on various issues don't always fall neatly into the conservative or liberal camps.

Liberals constitute by definition a minority viewpoint in any society. Liberalism has a different meaning depending on the prevailing traditions and customs of a society. For instance, in the former Soviet states of Russia and Ukraine, a liberal might be considered a person that believes in the free market while a conservative might be a person that believes in big government and a controlled economy. Liberals are often called leftist and their views are considered left of center. A center or moderate position in a society is one that holds attributes that are somewhat traditional or conservative and somewhat liberal. A conservative is said to be right of center. Conservatives tend to uphold the traditional values of a society as a whole and thus make up the majority opinion of what is considered normal. It is relatively difficult to find any single person that is truly left of center or any single person that is truly conservative or right of center. Most people fall somewhere in the middle of the road. Mac fans as whole tend to be left of center or liberal in their philosophy.

But what is it about the liberal philosophy that attracts it's proponents to the Macintosh? In order to understand, we need to look more closely into what typical American liberals believe. Modern American liberalism is pillowed by several issues near and dear to the hearts of its believers:

That is what it means to be an American liberal in the early 21st century. I am not embellishing, condemning, or condoning any of their beliefs. I am simply telling you what these people stand for. I could go on, but I think I have hit on the most important points. Liberals are a powerful minority group in the United States that is generally attracted to Apple products more so than normal Americans. This has given Apple a "hippie" computer stigma and it has no doubt frustrated the company's earlier attempts to sell to the conservative business market.

Liberals are attracted to the Macintosh because the platform is not the status quo. Macs are different from other computers, perhaps better. Since the Mac is so much better than the majority Windows platform, the users of said better computer must also be superior. A superiority complex and liberalism go hand in hand. After all, liberalism involves forcing others to think and act the same way as you do. Big government requires big brother-like tactics to support it. How can one not come to think himself superior when there are so many "stupid" people using Windows computers who aren't smart enough to see Apple computers are better?

As previously mentioned, liberals care more about intention than results. In other words, liberals are more about style than substance. It could easily be argued that any given Macintosh placed beside any given Windows PC would appear superior just on styling alone without taking into consideration anything else. Macintosh style satisfies the liberal need for style over substance and the fact that Macs are superior both cosmetically and programmatically serves to affirm the liberals' perception of their own superiority.

Apple has been an underdog company ever since IBM turned its attention to the personal computer market in 1981. Apple has effectively thumbed its nose at the computer industry establishment by refusing to license its OS, favoring Apple-technologies over standard industry technologies, and steadfastly mocking its chief competitors in print and television ads for over twenties years running. The whole idea of bringing down the establishment is heart-warming to a liberal, but the idea of bringing down a free-market industry is irresistible. As stated earlier, liberals hate the free market. They distrust capitalism. The idea of little Apple Computer holding back the hoards of profiteering industrialists with a "Think Different" computer is too romantic for a liberal to ignore.

Liberals realize that they do not hold the same views as most of the American population. So the notion of standing against the unwashed masses is very attractive to them, for they are special because they see what so many others cannot. They "Think Different."

Think Different was an advertising slogan created for Apple Computer in the late 1990s by the New York branch office of advertising agency TBWA\Chiat\Day. Nothing says more about Apple than this famous campaign. The crux of the campaign came when American actor Richard Dreyfuss gave a liberally inspiring monolog in free verse beginning with "Here's to the crazy ones," in a legendary Think Different television commercial.

Advertising campaigns like the Think Different or the Switcher campaigns don't really appeal to conservative thinkers who would probably find them just a tad bit over dramatic and meaningless. Liberals, who idealize their own importance, eat this stuff up. Unfortunately for Apple, the vast majority of people who have the money and desire to buy expensive computers are conservative.

The most obvious reason that Apple zealots are mostly liberal is the connection Apple, Inc. has with America's leading liberal organizations and leaders. Al Gore, former US Senator and environmental extremist, sits on Apple's Board of Directors where he undeniably influences business decisions made by Apple's top leadership. His influence was felt when Apple released a bizarre statement earlier this month touting its green credentials and sympathizing with extremist groups like Greenpeace. Apple realizes that its core liberal constituency demands nothing less of their beloved company.

Even though Apple's market share has nearly doubled over the last few years, the company is still only a minor player in the overall industry. Even though Apple has been receiving good press as of late, it is unlikely industry leader Microsoft will continue its current downward slide. These things tend to be cyclical. History warns against discounting Microsoft. Too many people have a vested interest in seeing that Microsoft stays the industry leader. That is fine by the liberals, but Apple investors would probably see it different.

If Apple wants to really put pressure on Microsoft and move up into 20% or 30% market share, it is going to have to keep from offending consumers with too much "Think Different" advertising. Regular computer users simply will not respond to this type of advertising. It is doubtful that Apple will ever reach 20% to 30% market penetration because the very thing that makes the company special makes it niche, appealing primarily to liberals and the odd, crazy conservative here and there.

Comments:

Um -- Rush Limbaugh and George Dubya Bush are both Mac users.

Scott! on Thursday, May 10, 2007 at 11:03

"Patriotism is embarrassing to liberals."
"Liberals believe that the country should be run from the top down by a ´liberal elite.´"
"Liberals despise religion and believe anyone practicing any religion is naive or just plain stupid."

No, Kris, these are NOT things that liberals believe. These are things that conservatives with tiny brains believe that liberals believe. This over-the-top caricature of liberalism succeeds only in making you look like a caricature of conservatism.

buddhistMonkey on Thursday, May 10, 2007 at 12:09

Excellent blog. You did a spot on job of defining the liberal movement.

Dobb on Thursday, May 10, 2007 at 14:14

Kris, again with the liberals? Get over it already, we run the country now.

Jerry Dean on Thursday, May 10, 2007 at 14:20

Excuse me, but liberals believe in personal liberties.. I don´t think that the two communist leaders pictured here qualify as liberals.. They are communists. There IS a decided difference! Communism is a system of wealth redistribution. Liberals may be wealth redistributers, but they don´t believe in all the other stuff that communists do and they aren´t all atheists either. Don´t mix your Apples and your Oranges even if they are both fruit in your opinion.

Matt C on Thursday, May 10, 2007 at 14:25

How´s your war going, Mr Conservative?

liberal on Thursday, May 10, 2007 at 14:28

My man, Kris... Once again you have got the liberals all hot and bothered. Good one.

Mikey on Thursday, May 10, 2007 at 14:53

@liberal:

I can answer that question. No terrorist attacks since 9/11 on US soil. We overturned two terrorist supporting governments and killed a lot of Alkida leaders. Oh, you must be talking about the Civil War in Iraq. Well, that is their business. It is better that they spend their time killing each other than trying to kill us. We should be leaving Iraq very soon. Mission Accomplished...

LR on Thursday, May 10, 2007 at 15:05

Hookerman is 100% correct. First, he said, "not everyone falls into the liberal or conservative camp." Therefore, if you disagree with any of what he describes as liberal, you are not completely liberal, because his description is totally accurate. I am one of those "crazy" conservatives who loves Macs!

Matt C:

The images of Mao and Castro are appropriate. You say that you support their politics but not their methods. Don’t you realize that in order to redistribute wealth you must do it at the barrel of a gun? This doesn’t happen in the US because we can fight the liberals by throwing their tax and spend arses out of office. People can’t do that in most countries. You need to seriously examine your moral values because it is people like you that enable dictators.

The Voice of Freedom on Thursday, May 10, 2007 at 22:01

democrat or independent , no more conseratives !!

death to the republicans !!

richard on Thursday, June 07, 2007 at 17:47

LIBERAL MEDIA! LIBERAL MEDIA! LIBERAL MEDIA! LIBERAL MEDIA! LIBERAL MEDIA!

You sound just like Rush Limbaugh...

Redneck_prophet on Monday, June 11, 2007 at 10:05

All I can say to all you ´Patriotic´ Republican sespools of sleaze, corruption and statements as stupid as the ´War On Terror´ is that you´re no better than the democrats and in fact you´re worse in many ways. You dont regard ANYBODY with a different ideaology to your own to be important. For example, Salvador Allende and Hugo Chavez were both democratically elected yet decided to allow a militant coup funded by the US government was more suitable no matter of the consequences to civilians...

Thats what sets Democrats (the so-called ´kool-aid drinkers´) apart from you assholes: Democrats moan and bitch at the very most whereas Republicans shoot first then ask questions later. Fuck the ´founding fathers´, live for yourselves, stop living by ´moral values´ and develop some self respect and respect for others!

IckyThump on Saturday, June 16, 2007 at 13:42

Also, You´re calling John Kerry a ´nutball´: A man who FOUGHT FOR HIS COUNTRY!!!

Republicans, get your priorities straight!

IckyThump on Wednesday, June 27, 2007 at 16:05

Yea...right. I didn´t know John Kerry was from North Vietnam. Hmmm, you learn something new every day.

The Voice of Freedom on Wednesday, June 27, 2007 at 22:34

The Voice of Freedom: Kerry earned 3 purple hearts so how the hell does that make him FROM North Vietnam!?

Geez your comment is one of the most retarded I have ever seen!

IckyThump on Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 17:22

I didn´t know that North Vietnam gave out metals for Americans who were traitors to their own country. Hmmm...I guess Kerry deserves a pat on the back. Good job John, you really earned that North Vietnam American-traitor metal.

The Voice of Freedom on Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 17:34

I see i´m dealing with a typical right-wing ´hawk´. How hard is it for you to understand that John, a Democrat, got many medals for his services in Vietnam by the AMERICAN GOVERNMENT?

IckyThump on Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 18:12

So these "metals" you speak of, does Johnny have them on his wall? Oh wait, he threw them over the fence in protest against his own country, then he went in front of the world and Congress and called our boys murderers and rapists. My Dad fought in Vietnam. How dare this rich, boat driving, fat-cat, insult the REAL soldiers who did their duty, and many of them died for their country. Americans saw through this traitor�s lies and sent him back to Massachusetts where he and Teddy spend their days getting drunk and wondering why neither one of them will EVER be elected to the Presidency.

The Voice of Freedom on Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 18:49

Stop generalizing, you´re worse than Hookerman.

Oh and btw if you class John Kerry as an anti-American ´nutjob´ how about looking at G.W´s OWN MOTHER! Her comments include:

"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? Oh, I mean, it´s not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"

What a callous and cold old woman which is the son of the most fundamentally flawed president since Jimmy Carter. I would include Regan and Bush snr but at least they brought an end to communism and Soviet threats...

IckyThump on Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 19:18

*What a callous and cold old woman which is the MOTHER of the most fundamentally flawed president since Jimmy Carter.

We all make mistakes :P

IckyThump on Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 19:32

You sir, are silly. Why are you changing the subject? The subject is "John Kerry is a traitor". You lack a defense for the obvious, thus you change the subject. Typical liberal. Tired, old trick.

The Voice of Freedom on Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 20:23

YOU sir, are retarded. Why are YOU changing the subject to begin with? The subject of this blog is "APPLE´S MOST LOYAL FANS ARE LIBERALS" In case you didn´t notice. You brand me a Liberal when I never said I was such a thing! Go on, brand me as a commie or extremist because at least that´s what Republicans are good at: branding their opposition.

Typical Neo-conservative. Tired, old trick. Brand somebody in order to gain ´moral superiority´...

IckyThump on Friday, June 29, 2007 at 06:29

Again, silly comment. And I quote, "Also, You�re calling John Kerry a ´nutball´: A man who FOUGHT FOR HIS COUNTRY!!!" Yep, you brought it up. I made you look foolish and you changed the subject. I think you are out of your depth here. It is obvious that you are just throwing up silly comments because you can´t think of something appropriate to counter well reasoned arguments. Hmmm...I think we got a Kool-Aid drinker here.

The Voice of Freedom on Friday, June 29, 2007 at 10:48

1.) Your antagonistic attempt to make me
look foolish amuses rather than offends. Thanks for the laugh at least.

2.) Are backing responses up with history and facts the formula for silly comments? Now who looks foolish. I accept that John Kerry protested against the likes of the Vietnam war and throwing his medals back in the faces of the lunatic right-wing oppressors which sent him there in the first place, but YOU can´t seem to understand that he fought there in the first place! I don´t know which is more stupid, branding Kerry as a traitor or your blatant denial.

3.) As buddhistMonkey said in an earlier post: ´This over-the-top caricature of liberalism succeeds only in making you look like a caricature of conservatism.´ The same clearly applies for you...

IckyThump on Friday, June 29, 2007 at 12:01

"I accept that John Kerry protested against the likes of the Vietnam war and throwing his medals back in the faces of the lunatic right-wing oppressors"

How dare you insult the memory of my father and others who died fighting for this country by belittling their sacrifice just to make a cheap political point. You should be ashamed of yourself. I can tell you never served. Hookerman was right when he said about you liberals:

"Since they hold military members in such high disregard, it is okay to call them baby-killers and torturers."

You prove him right every time you post a comment.

The Voice of Freedom on Friday, June 29, 2007 at 13:32

I NEVER insulted your fathers memory or any of the troops for that matter. I have utmost respect for the people fighting for their country, not for the faceless government that sticks them there in the first place. Look at my post again and you´ll see that I never called the troops as a whole baby-killers or torturers.

I just cant stand the oppressive nature of conservatives that is so cheaply branded as being ´protective´ of their personal agendas without researching the situation first.

Geez man quit getting personal!

IckyThump on Friday, June 29, 2007 at 13:40

Golly gee...I use a Mac because I work in Graphic Design and video editing, but I am not a liberal. It takes more than a computer to define people, and a larger number of liberals use the Windows format than the Mac format.

Sad commentary on the sheer stupidity that undercuts any meaningful political exchange in this Nation.

J.C. on Friday, August 03, 2007 at 00:13

Thanks for your pithy, entirely accurate description of liberals. The angry responses are from little minds that hate the truth.

SCC on Saturday, August 25, 2007 at 17:56

Itunes radio has no conservative talk programs. That is what they do in communist countries; right? You have no choice. Itunes offers dance radio from France, stuff from the Ukraine but no conservative talk radio. Almost all of AM radio is conservative talk radio yet there is none on Itunes.

Being that we are still in a free country one of my mini-missions will be to put the word out about this back-ward thinking repressive Company. I guess in a way they want to be able to control what we think.

I like liberals too, you know, for the loose morals and all, but the STD´s were just killer. As happened to two brothers...dang.

cLIFF on Monday, October 08, 2007 at 20:44

I have to agree somewhat with your article. I´ve been a software developer for over 12 years now. Don´t get me wrong, I think Macs are good computers but one would tend to think that the company´s attitude appears liberal. Why? Well maybe it´s because their stuff is overly trendy. IMac, IPod, IPhone, etc. It all starts with ´I´ so it must be good right? Liberals love anything trendy. Global warming, Barack Obama, Recycling, Protesting at soldier´s funerals, calling politicians they don´t like Hitler, etc.

I believe the computers Apple made back in the 80´s was much better for that era. Why? They used higher end components (ie. SCSI drives, faster memory chips, RISC processors, etc). Today their attitude is, "Why worry about quality or bang for the buck when we have trendiness on our side, right?"

1. Start everything off with an ´I´.
2. Put it in a fancy case.
3. Sell it for twice the money at a fancy store run by kids that used to work at Banana Republic.

Apple has used this recipe for the past 10 years and its worked for them. If this is what you like, great! Not for me. I´ll keep my $500 Dell and put the remaining $1000 in the bank thank you.

Dan on Sunday, February 03, 2008 at 17:16