I thought Tuesday’s Yahoo Tech column about stores blocking Apple Pay and other NFC-payment apps would provoke some emotional reactions from angry iPhone users. I was wrong.
I
nstead, the comments thread, Twitter and my inbox lit up with denunciations of me for being an Apple shill. One typical tweet: “Pathetic apple fanboy. You’re not fooling anyone. How much did apple pay you for that trash?” Another Twitter interlocutor suggested I get Ebola, providing me an overdue opportunity to try Twitter’s block function.
In e-mail, where you don’t have to worry about what onlookers think of your foaming at the mouth, things were even less civil. One fellow whose e-mail signature identified him as a technology consultant decried my enabling “Apple Octopus pot culture,” whatever that is. A particularly incensed reader managed to drop seven f-bombs into the first four sentences.
And all of this was about a column that explained how blocking NFC inconveniences Android and Windows Phone users as well as anybody with an iPhone 6 to 6 Plus, and which led off with a photo of my own Android phone getting rejected at a CVS.
But no, basic logic or reading comprehension isn’t necessary when one is in the grip of Apple Derangement Syndrome. And expecting readers to take a minute to learn that I’ve never owned an iPhone and am responsible for gracing the Washington Post’s site with the sarcastic query “why does Steve Jobs hate America?”… man, that’s just crazy talk.
Apple has always had people who dislike its products and its attitude, but this full-on, frothing hate seems a more recent development. I can only guess that’s because if you think this phenomenally successful company really will take over the world, it must be stopped by any means necessary and you can’t wait a second longer to act.
I’ve seen the same thing happen with Google many times, most recently when a German media exec suggested the gang in Mountain View applied, I kid you not, North Korean media-manipulation techniques. And only a decade ago, Microsoft Derangement Syndrome was much more of a thing than it is now.
But there’s never been such a thing as Palm Derangement Syndrome, Dell Derangement Syndrome or Nokia Derangement Syndrome. Don’t you feel sorry for those companies now?
Rob Pegoraro 
but this full-on, frothing hate seems a more recent development.
#Gamergate.
Or, I suspect, Apple is seen as the “Democratic Party” company, and so gets caught up in that.
Two good points.
erm, no, I do not believe so. I have read a great number of comments authored by sufferers of ADS on various websites, and I seriously cannot recall a single one that makes an issue of the company’s perceived partisan political leanings, apart from a few ranters who were made uncomfortable about Tim Cook coming out as gay. It’s all about iPhone vs. Android phone or Apple vs. Samsung. (Mac vs PC is much less a thing these days, of course, but there are still those ready and willing to fight that battle.)
How about those click now think later syndrome? Knee-jerk reaction, anyone?
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It really is something else to read the comments of people afflicted with ADS. The vehemency and full-on frothing-at-the-mouth makes it sound like Steve Jobs personally skull-raped their puppy or something.