If you are a beginner, choosing Python 3 is a no brainer.

One of the main reasons for all the hate towards Python 3 is because it is not backwards compatible with Python 2. So people who have a lot invested in Python 2 have to port the codebase to Python 3. Another issue is that some libraries have not been ported to Python 3. This is becoming less of an issue as all the major libraries have been ported to Python 3.

Anything Zed Shaw says (or anyone for that matter), cross check the facts before drawing conclusions.