Steve Jobs and the Left's double standard

[Monkeyleg]

Bruce Bialowsky isn't a well-known columnist, but he writes some interesting pieces. This evening's column presents some faces of Steve Jobs that most people never saw, and exposes the Left's hypocrisy on everything from taxes to exporting jobs.

The column is here.

[AJ Dual]

I get a little Orwellian on them and call it CogDis...

If there actually is a leftist reading what I'm writing using CogDis in.. they usually get real irritable at about the fifth mention of the Portmanteau.

[Monkeyleg]

I didn't get irritated by CogDis, but having to look up "Portmanteau" irked me.

[De Selby]

Wait, how is the left responsible for endorsing Steve jobs? Seriously?  Just because the papers thought he was a hippie from his looks doesn't mean "the left" adored him.

[Monkeyleg]

Wait, how is the left responsible for endorsing Steve jobs?

It's not a matter of "endorsing", but rather giving him a pass for doing things that the left accuses conservative businessmen of doing, or even doing things that are far beyond what liberals think evil businessmen do.

Please don't tell me that you're going to argue that the left doesn't rail against corporations treating employees badly, sending jobs overseas, "not paying their fair share of taxes", trying to create monopolies and, maybe worst of all, actually making a lot of money.

[De Selby]

It's not a matter of "endorsing", but rather giving him a pass for doing things that the left accuses conservative businessmen of doing, or even doing things that are far beyond what liberals think evil businessmen do.

Please don't tell me that you're going to argue that the left doesn't rail against corporations treating employees badly, sending jobs overseas, "not paying their fair share of taxes", trying to create monopolies and, maybe worst of all, actually making a lot of money.

I think they've certainly railed against apple's Chinese operations.  Jobs, who knew anything about him before the bio?  Really, the man was one of the most secretive in the business.  How do you give a pass on behaviors that aren't public?

[roo_ster]

I think they've certainly railed against apple's Chinese operations.  Jobs, who knew anything about him before the bio?  Really, the man was one of the most secretive in the business.  How do you give a pass on behaviors that aren't public?

They were no mystery.  Lots of folks who knew him have written books.

[AJ Dual]

I think they've certainly railed against apple's Chinese operations.  Jobs, who knew anything about him before the bio?  Really, the man was one of the most secretive in the business.  How do you give a pass on behaviors that aren't public?

See Dick?

CogDis...

[longeyes]

Wait, how is the left responsible for endorsing Steve jobs? Seriously?  Just because the papers thought he was a hippie from his looks doesn't mean "the left" adored him.

Hippie?  No  Counter-culture?  Definitely.

[longeyes]

Jobs had monumental social and personal deficiencies, all of them amply documented.  He is forgiven for his sins--frequently being an ahole as the most glaring--because his vision of personal computing, melding technology and creativity, ignited a tsunami of enterprise and innovation and made a hell of a lot of people prosperous--some very, very rich--empowered, and happier.  Consider him the T.E. Lawrence of computing.

[Monkeyleg]

De Selby, you're switching gears, but the synchros don't work too well. I can hear the gears grinding.

Jobs had monumental social and personal deficiencies, all of them amply documented.  He is forgiven for his sins--frequently being an *expletive deleted* as the most glaring--because his vision of personal computing, melding technology and creativity, ignited a tsunami of enterprise and innovation and made a hell of a lot of people prosperous--some very, very rich--empowered, and happier.  Consider him the T.E. Lawrence of computing.

Longeyes, that's not the point of the article. There are plenty of people in business who've had the same sort and levels of effects on society, but who are not given passes by the Left, and are demonized for making profits, sending jobs overseas, becoming personally wealthy, and running companies that are simply too big.

[longeyes]

I understand that, but what made Jobs different was fusing computing with creativity, productivity with design and esthetics.  There was a segment of the population that was hungry for that synergy from the beginning.  It's true that Jobs was an enfant terrible but he was also an enfant merveilleux.

[AJ Dual]

I understand that, but what made Jobs different was fusing computing with creativity, productivity with design and esthetics.  There was a segment of the population that was hungry for that synergy from the beginning.  It's true that Jobs was an enfant terrible but he was also an enfant merveilleux.

We don't disagree, just that the treatment Apple gets for being "so big" is the treatment the oil co's should get, instead of being dragged in front of Congress like something out of Harrison Bergeron...

[longeyes]

Agree, yes.

[RevDisk]

I understand that, but what made Jobs different was fusing computing with creativity, productivity with design and esthetics.  There was a segment of the population that was hungry for that synergy from the beginning. 

My brain tried to eat its way out after reading those two lines. Thankfully, I hit it with an O'Reilly book and it calmed right down.

[DittoHead]

They were no mystery.  Lots of folks who knew him have written books.

Maybe so but people didn't seem to be reading them...

this evening's column presents some faces of Steve Jobs that most people never saw

I never really associated Steve Jobs with the left. Should I have? Should I now associate him with the right or should all sides distance themselves from him now? 

[Monkeyleg]

I never really associated Steve Jobs with the left. Should I have? Should I now associate him with the right or should all sides distance themselves from him now?

I don't know what Jobs' politics were, but he was ---as has been said here so many times--given a pass by the left because what he did was cool. Apple is cool. Ipods are cool. Oil is not cool. Banks are not cool. It doesn't matter how much a person contributes to society but how he contributes to the liberal culture that makes the difference.

Look at George Soros. He broke the Bank of England using $10 billion in 1992. He was involved in creating (and profiting from) a currency crisis in Thailand. He was convicted of insider trading in France, and in 2003 was kicked out of Russia for trying to manipulate that country's currency. Immediately after the planes hit the trade towers on 9/11, he made a tidy sum shorting the US dollar.

But, he gives money to liberal politicians. So he's cool.

[De Selby]

So what is the evidence that jobs was given a pass by the left?

That's what's unanswered here.  I can't find any evidence leftists identified with him, nor do I recall any positive comments by leftists.   

That could be because he was extremely secretive, so he just wadnt on the radar, as detailed in his biography.  But it hardly counts as a pass from an entire political group.

[De Selby]

Maybe so but people didn't seem to be reading them...
I never really associated Steve Jobs with the left. Should I have? Should I now associate him with the right or should all sides distance themselves from him now? 

You don't get it Dittohead, because apple computers are used by people who think they're cool for using them, they are leftist accessories.  You should have associated Jobs with the left on that basis.

[SADShooter]

You don't get it Dittohead, because apple computers are used by people who think they're cool for using them, they are leftist accessories.  You should have associated Jobs with the left on that basis.

Thank you for an accurate and cogent observation.

[Balog]

Perhaps it's the fact that the anti-capitalist OWS filth tended to bang out their screeds on MacBooks and Ipads?

[cosine]

My brain tried to eat its way out after reading those two lines. Thankfully, I hit it with an O'Reilly book and it calmed right down.

 

[grampster]

The point about the Left not saying anything about Jobs is just that.  They don't say anything.  Much of what the Left does not say about certain things is as damning and is as revelatory of their hypocricy as if they had screeched it from the mountain top.

[cordex]

So what is the evidence that jobs was given a pass by the left?

That's what's unanswered here.  I can't find any evidence leftists identified with him, nor do I recall any positive comments by leftists. 

I think that's a fair question.

Prior to the success of iPods and iPhones, Apple products were certainly associated with left-leaning hipsters and artsy types.  Of course, as with any association it isn't even remotely set in stone nor is it a "pass" given to Jobs in particular.  I guess the author might be saying that because a large number of users tend to be leftist they must approve of the company that produces the product and by extension the leadership.  Maybe?

[De Selby]

I think that's a fair question.

Prior to the success of iPods and iPhones, Apple products were certainly associated with left-leaning hipsters and artsy types.  Of course, as with any association it isn't even remotely set in stone nor is it a "pass" given to Jobs in particular.  I guess the author might be saying that because a large number of users tend to be leftist they must approve of the company that produces the product and by extension the leadership.  Maybe?

I'd suppose that's what the author thought, but to me it's a real stretch.  It's like saying conservatives embrace Chinese communism because they shop at wal mart.  To get there you have to assume shopping at Walmart is something conservatives do, and that shopping at Walmart means giving Chinese communism a pass, since almost all of walmarts product is supplied by Chinese communists.

Not sure I see the logic in this article anymore than I see it in the Walmart example, ie, not at all.