This past weekend, my XYL Marianne and I (along with Cara and Joey) went shopping for a new vehicle. After almost 12 years and a ton of miles, the Ford Explorer grew tired and expensive to maintain. We still need a 4WD vehicle, as there are times Marianne (who is a nurse) needs to get to the hospital while enduring hostile driving conditions. Back in the mid 90s, I owned a Jeep Wrangler. In my book, it was the best vehicle I've ever owned. So we decided upon the Jeep Patriot. It's the most "economical" of the Jeeps while still offering 4WD on demand; and offering the space a family of four requires.
So what's this have to do with Amateur Radio? Both followings, both Amateur Radio and Jeep, have their snobs. I encountered this quite a bit back in the 90s and got reacquainted with it today. Back then, and probably still today, Jeep enthusiasts had their own e-mail reflectors. But looking at some Jeep videos on YouTube, I see comments like, "The last REAL Jeep was made back in the 90s. It stopped when they introduced the YJ", or "They should stop producing the Jeep Compass. If it can't handle the Rubicon off-road course, it's not a REAL Jeep". I saw these comments on YouTube; and even though they didn't apply to me, I got annoyed, nonetheless.
Sound familiar?
"It's not REAL radio unless it has tubes!" "It's not a real radio if it's hooked up to a computer". "It's not real radio because ........" Blah, blah, blah ....... on and on and on and on.
It seems there's never a shortage of folks who are more than ready to rain on someone else's parade. I think that in instances like this (and I am sure there are tons of other followings where this type of snobbery occurs) that it's best to enjoy what you like; and mind your own business when it comes to other folks likes or dislikes. When you go out of your way to denigrate someone's like for something, you just come off looking and sounding like a jerk.
To each his own.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Its not real blogging unless you do it all in html! Seriously though, I don't know why some people don't understand that not everyone needs the extreme version of everything. The Patriot has plenty of space, gets pretty good gas mileage and has 4wd. Sounds fine to me.
ReplyDeleteMost guys who say things like "it's not a jeep if it can't handle the rubicon" have probably never attempted the rubicon, or anything more than a dirt road.
-KB0VER Sean