The Fake Steve Jobs blog (FSJ) has been getting some attention lately, from mac, PC, and linux fanbois, the press, and especially from Forbes magazine, which gleefully quotes it.
And the blog is pretty funny, though sometimes I think I’m seeing it exactly backwards from its intent. I mostly think it’s an effort to lampoon Jobs, Apple, and their fans, but it seems to miss that mark pretty regularly. Or maybe the writer is really poking at the whole industry. In this story his target certainly isn’t Jobs. This may be a wonderful example of that strange way bias shapes perception
When the Apple detractors read it, they see Jobs, the pompous arrogant SOB, who should die and be hauled under Microsoft’s keel, for having the audacity to compete with Windows and the Zune and for strong-arming the poor abused music industry. The guy just blabs on about how smart he is, stupid others are, how nobody appreciates him, but f—k ‘em anyway…
But when Apple fans read it, they see Jobs, the pompous arrogant SOB, who’s vision seems to drill right to the core of consumer desire and design integrity, who sets incredibly high standards for himself and those around him, who sheds great ideas the way Gates sheds dandruff, who has no patience for fools….
Especially funny in the first post linked above, is the apparent assumption that readers might have sympathy for Doug Morris. As the head of Universal Music, he’s a bully famous for rabid abuse of mothers, and an ardent RIAA and DMCA supporter. Depicting him as a victim to Job’s arrogant manipulation of the music industry is laugh-out-loud funny.
The more you poke at this blog the weirder it gets, FSJ is Daniel Lyons, a Forbes columnist, and infamous corporate shill. He’s known for bilious rants against Linux and the GPL, for laughable fact (non) checking, and for inventing news and trends. Reading his Forbes columns alongside the FSJ blog you have to wonder if he has any actual opinions, if he’s on the Microsoft payroll, or the Apple payroll, or if his masters at Forbes have a clue that one of their lapdogs is losing his mind and trashing their advertisers. And yet, even when he’s writing lies and propaganda he’s funny, and manages to slip in a little truth. There’s interesting background on Lyons here, and here.
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