I am glad you made this post, because recently I've been having similar thoughts. I don't know if it's just because I visit sites that occupy a singular cluster

I am glad you made this post, because recently I've been having similar thoughts. I don't know if it's just because I visit sites that occupy a singular cluster in webpage-space [1], but it seems like the evidence of increased conflict between the social justice community and the hacker community is popping up everywhere. Is this because the social justice community has finally reached critical mass on the web (a traditional hacker domain) and is speaking up, or did something in one of the communities recently change to trigger this? And is this collision / conflict something that we'll see more of in the future, or will the fervor on each side die down? Either way, I think the hacker community's long term response will be really interesting. When looking for historical examples, I can really only see one clear path -- the path taken by industries whose employees already consider themselves privileged, namely those in finance and banking. They've had ongoing conflicts with the social justice community for a while now, and we've seen their response. Will the hacker community respond similarly? Hackers seem to value non-conformity and despise credentialism, so I doubt it. So, I think the long term path of the hacker community will probably be unique. Suppose the hackers recognize that they might be privileged in some ways (e.g. high IQ). Will we see a restored sense of noblesse oblige? I doubt the social justice community let that stand. Maybe the hackers will undergo a cultural transform that satisfies them? Though I'd like to believe this is possible, no examples come to mind that give me any confidence. [1] http://lesswrong.com/lw/nl/the_cluster_structure_of_thingspace/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/nl/the_cluster_structure_of_thingspa...