[bmj]

I find it interesting that many people go out of their to defend someone like Linus Torvalds, but with someone like Zed Shaw, go out of their to criticize Zed Shaw.

Sure, Linus has written and maintained an OS, but as others have pointed out, Zed's CV isn't too shabby, either.

[protomyth]

Its really pretty simple. Mr. Torvalds has a community and communities tend to defend their own. Happens in politics all the time because that's what humans do. Zed doesn't have as big a community and he offended some in the Ruby community. I think Zed's lecture in Toronto was an amazing presentation on values, but I've not read his books.

Its also why people say they "hate" a politician, leader, or band without listening to one word they say or believe snippets represent the whole of a person. The group think spreads quite nicely. At the end of it all, there is so much information and we have so little time, we outsource some of our beliefs. Comedians tend to use this to craft some jokes and sometimes abuse folks. For example, President Ford slipped a couple of times in slick shoes. Chevy Chase made him out to be a klutz and un-athletic on SNL to great merriment. President Ford was probably the most athletic President the US has had. He played linebacker in American Football and was consider a decent athlete.

My Dad was not a fan of this and did tend to scold his children that "if we were going to hate someone, we better damn well know why". I do admit to failing at this since there is so much, but it is a good lesson and tends to result in new joys.