What a stupid paragraph to read through. No seriously, what a stupid paragraph to read through. > Reading through HN's headlines it is hard not to notice that

What a stupid paragraph to read through. No seriously, what a stupid paragraph to read through. > Reading through HN's headlines it is hard not to notice that most discussion is generated around countless "threats". Why did you put quotes around threats? You seem to imply that the NSA, piracy, patent trolls, banks, other countries' governments [and how they integrate with ours], and big corporations do not warrant our awareness. In fact, you don't even believe they are threats apparently by your continued use of quotation marks. > A hacker is supposedly someone who is enlightened about the power of their own creativity. If you are focused on creating something, none of these "threats" would matter. Where did you discover the following rules? (a) a hacker is an enlightened creator (b) when focused on creative pursuits, threats do not matter Could you prove them for me? If not, then why do you use them as reasonable premises for your concluding argument? In fact, you might have an easier time arguing that a creator is more highly aware of threat because they don't want to see everything they worked for go to waste. Programmers naturally become skeptics; not because they want to get down on people but because they immediately look for the holes in the logic. Because, um, it's our job!! Are you surprised when you meet a compassionate nurse? How about a sly politician? No? Then maybe you're starting to get it. The lens we see through the world through is different than the nurses's, and so we have our own stance on say, the NSA, or Obama's re-election, or congress shutting down, or any other human event that takes place. It makes sense that we would use this community to talk about that outlook amongst other fellow craftsmen who have the same kinda lens. Some, not all, care what's happening around us. We're not this fantastical creative hacker secluded from society. The idea that we are, coupled with the idea that we shouldn't be concerned with threats, is insulting. It puts us in a box and gives rise to the "us vs them" attitude. Whether you idolize us or demonize us, you miss the underlying fact that we're humans too. >So what's the reason for attributing so much power to these external "forces", none of which have ANY intrinsic power beyond what you give them? Now for the grand-daddy of stupidity. Apparently the NSA and any other big world power is just an external force that doesn't have any intrinsic power besides what we give it! I forgot! You're not stupid enough to believe this, I know this. You're just saying it to give greater power to your already weak argument that hackers are insecure. This is a very intelligent, progressive, and open-minded community. We regularly debate things in a way congress wishes it did. You have the audacity to put us in a box, call us insecure, stamp a cute label "enlightened hacker", and question why we should ever be concerned about politics. Get the hell out of here with that nonsense. I'll say it again: we're humans too. We're allowed to have other interests besides programming (though at times I wish my boss knew that!).