> Hackers should know the government is never on your side

Never is naive. Hackers should understand governments are complex, dynamic and occasionally chaotic systems. Those systems can be influenced and sometimes controlled by various means. And those levers are generally available to anyone with a modicum of intelligence and motivation.

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argomo 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

In addition, hackers should know government is inevitable. Even in anarchy, governments spontaneously begin to form.

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buildbot 5 hours ago | parent [-]

If I am not mistaken, the anarchist school of thought is okay with governance and even governments, but not with the concept of the state - an entity that exists to enforce governance with violence. For example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchy,_State,_and_Utopia

I’m not 100% sure though.

edit - a (vs. the) school of thought is more accurate.

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xboxnolifes 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That may be one of them, but there isn't a singular anarchist school of thought.

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JumpCrisscross 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> there isn't a singular anarchist school of thought

Would be oxymoronic if there were one.

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mc32 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Isn’t that like saying there must be as many universes as theoretical physicists can think up? Slight maybe but it could also just be one.

	▲	JumpCrisscross an hour ago \| parent [-]
		> Isn’t that like saying there must be as many universes as theoretical physicists can think up? Schools of thought are theories. It’s saying there can be as many theoretical universes as theoretical physicists can think up. This is true for any social construct, of course. But anarchy’s nature means you get less alignment.

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cess11 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The ideal of self-governance as opposed to alienated state or institutional governance is quite common in anarchist thought. Some would probably consider it foundational for the tendency.

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gary_0 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think of anarchy as a theoretical end state, where power is perfectly distributed among each individual, but that this is less of an actually achievable condition and more of a direction to head in (and away from monarchy, where power is completely centralized).

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cholantesh 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Nozick's libertarianism is not really an anarchist school of thought.

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1970-01-01 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yep. The FBI swings from lawful good to lawful evil on a case by case basis. Trusting them is dangerous, but a world where they can be ignored is more dangerous.

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cess11 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

No, the naive position is to assume that the state is on your side because you occasionally gain something from it.

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HardCodedBias 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

"Hackers should understand governments are complex, dynamic and occasionally chaotic systems"

No. Hackers should understand that government is force. This is the definition of government.

And force is the antithesis of the hacker ethos.