[crazypython]

Finally, news about a hacker on Hacker News!

If you are a hacker, you:

- Mistrust authority

- Promote decentralization

- Share knowledge

- Write open-source software

- Maintain the infrastructure

- Serve humanity

- Are curious

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html

[arp242]

That "hacker HOWTO" is horrible, and infused with ESR's ridiculous political ideas. I can think for myself; I don't need and certainly don't want a document which tells me what I should be like, especially not one written by some guy who is advocating for the literal execution of politicians by armed citizens.

[zozbot234]

> I can think for myself; I don't need and certainly don't want a document which tells me what I should be like

That document is not meant for you; it's meant to give prospective hackers an overview of the field. With respect to politics, the document explicitly says:

> The hacker community has some specific, primarily defensive political interests — two of them are defending free-speech rights and fending off "intellectual-property" power grabs that would make open source illegal. Some of those long-term projects are civil-liberties organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the outward attitude properly includes support of them. But beyond that, most hackers view attempts to systematize the hacker attitude into an explicit political program with suspicion; we've learned, the hard way, that these attempts are divisive and distracting. If someone tries to recruit you to march on your capitol in the name of the hacker attitude, they've missed the point. The right response is probably “Shut up and show them the code.”

(emphasis has been added for ease of reference)

[arp242]

That's even worse; hijacking a community to indoctrinate people on how they Ought To be™.

[CRConrad]

While I largely agree with you on ESR as of nowadays, in his / its defense:

1) That was written before he got quite as alt-right-radicalised as he is now; and

2) It is not all by himself but mostly crowd-sourced.

[Dah00n]

But are you a hacker or just trying to stir up the pot?

[crumbshot]

By her own words, in creating and maintaining Sci-Hub, Elbakyan was driven by communist ideals: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc850001 https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc920674

Interesting to observe how it overlaps with this conception of the hacker spirit.

If only the world had many more Alexandra Elbakyans, and fewer Elseviers. Humanity as a whole would be a lot better off without the capitalists ruining everything with their insatiable greed.

[Rochus]

> interesting to observe how it overlaps with this conception of the hacker spirit

There is quite a difference between giving voluntarily and being expropriated.

> would be a lot better off without the capitalists

That's less capitalism, but rather monopolism and nepotism (actually a "government failure" in the view of public economics). If there were real competition, these publishers could not afford to charge such margins.

[generalizations]

Yeah, like that horrible capitalist company that funded the research lab which invented the transistor, Unix and C. We'd be so much better off without it out its 'capitalist, profit-driven creations'. (AT&T, Bell labs)

/s

[crumbshot]

Despite your unnecessary sarcasm, this is actually a good example, seeing as the company was eventually destroyed by the US government for abusing its monopoly position.

They did indeed fund a highly successful research centre, but - importantly to its success - one that wasn't run with the same ideals as its parent. It wasn't Bell Labs itself that endeavoured to monopolise an entire industry to the point where the government had to intervene.

[argvargc]

Yeah, because unlike everything else ever invented in history, if AT&T and Bell hadn't done it, no one else ever would have, and there's also zero chance another wouldn't have done it any better.

/s

[CamperBob2]

Bell Labs was the beneficiary of a government-enforced monopoly on telephone service, but never mind that.

[alert0]

The counter point to this is DARPA and the dearth of private research going on currently.

[notjes]

I like how the word "truth" is nowhere to be found in this pamphlet.

[o_p]

Lets rename it to Wageslave News

[danuker]

Thank you for linking the classic catb pages!