Why I (note: personal opinion) think that this article was arrogantly written and not for me:
You try to make a rant (because that's what it is) more interesting by adding random fake quotes/thoughts that you attribute to the reader, i.e. me. There's exactly one person that knows my thoughts and I don't feel represented by your 'quotes' - so everything in light green on that site is bullshit according to me. Lucky for me you colored the link-bait title in the same way, so..
Duly noted. The "strawman" argument thing I always find makes a post (particularly an opinion piece) easier or more entertaining to read (I may have read a little too much maddox in my time, though).
All depends on your goal. Maddox runs an entertainment website. It's not meant to convince anyone of anything or otherwise be productive. His style is in service to the purpose of the site, so it stands to reason that emulating it will have a similar impact on what your readers take away from your work.
It might have went over better had you attributed the quotes to some "third party", like "Mr. ERB Exponent, December 2011". You don't risk personally offending the reader. The tradeoff is it might make the joke a little less obvious. (I might Google for "Mr. ERB Exponent", thinking it's a web persona who was notorious for expounding on ERB.)
Writing is hard.
(For what it's worth, the attributions didn't bother me.)
Can't believe so many people here need their fragile egos propped up. I thought the fake comments were silly and entertaining... which is a nice way to break up an opinion piece.
You try to make a rant (because that's what it is) more interesting by adding random fake quotes/thoughts that you attribute to the reader, i.e. me. There's exactly one person that knows my thoughts and I don't feel represented by your 'quotes' - so everything in light green on that site is bullshit according to me. Lucky for me you colored the link-bait title in the same way, so..