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by MaxBarraclough 2015 days ago
I agree it's rather silly for an adult to have a strong emotional attachment to a corporation. I can understand a child feeling that way about the company behind their favourite products, but it seems unbecoming in adults. The best example might be Apple 'fanboys'. (I don't know of a gender-neutral term here. Fanboy implies an excess of appreciation, but fan means something weaker.)

I don't see that it has much to do with religion though. It's only silly because of the specifics of what a corporation is - a somewhat amoral body of capital, very roughly speaking - but it's not always silly to be attached to an institution. There's nothing religious about supporting the Against Malaria Foundation, or the EFF, or (here in the UK) the National Health Service.
3 comments
_qulr 2015 days ago
> I don't know of a gender-neutral term here. Fanboy implies an excess of appreciation, but fan means something weaker.

I would say "fanatic". Of course the word "fan" is derived from "fanatic", but perhaps the fact that "fan" is a shorter word implies less zeal than the longer word.

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matwood 2015 days ago
> The best example might be Apple 'fanboys'.

Visit some investor forums and search for TSLA sometime. They make Apple fans look tame :)

With that said, and it may be my own bias kicking in, Apple anti-fans seem way more passionate than fans. The anti-fan cannot understand why any rational person would ever use a product from Apple.

All of the above completely pales in comparison to the best example of adult fanaticism - political affiliation.

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ghaff 2015 days ago
That sounds about right. Sure there are exceptions but most Apple "fans" have just bought into the Apple ecosystem, generally like their stuff better than the alternatives for most purposes, upgrade now and then, and often buy new types of devices, even though they acknowledge that Apple whiffs now and then. I'd mostly even put Gruber in this category.

They mostly don't openly ridicule people who run Android, Linux, or Windows. Whereas, as you suggest, there's a definite subset of people who think and are happy to say they think anyone who buys Apple products has more money than sense and has clearly been brainwashed.

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scns 2015 days ago
Where does the word fan come from? My guess would be: fanatic.
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ghaff 2015 days ago
It does but, as used, it means something much milder. You can be a "fan" of a band, say, without following them around from city to city.
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