I initially found this article disconcerting since in 1999 I would have described Computer Culture as closer to socialist than to libertarian. At that point in

I initially found this article disconcerting since in 1999 I would have described Computer Culture as closer to socialist than to libertarian. At that point in time Silicon Valley was still strongly influenced by HP culture which included giving back to the community and employee ownership of the company (stock options). Both of these are socialist concepts. I got my insight into the authors thinking when he described EFF as a libertarian organization. Then a lightbulb went on in my head. I personally would not describe EFF as libertarian but I can see why someone would interpret it that way. EFF is based on a distrust of oligarchies and a distrust of governments ability to make technical decisions. Ah. Silicon Valley back then still viewed itself as the underdog and not as the alpha dog. Remember that for decades tech was dominated by IBM and suddenly it was dominated by Microsoft. The horrible antitrust case of Microsoft vs Netscape was in 1998. No wonder the tech culture distrusted government! In 1999 the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility was still going strong. They also had a similar goal of EFF of limiting technical invasion of privacy. I look at everything they tried to stop - and it all went through. I can't say that I trust government any more today than back then. The tech giants have changed and they still have an undue influence on government. Distrust of oligarchs is shared between both the far left and the far right.