Hacking Our Attitudes (The Key to Being a Better Attitude Trumper)

by Dufu

After reading Jeffrey H. MacLachlan's "VR Trumpers" article in 34:2, I realized I finally had to say something about something.  Are you ready for something?

There is a trend in the USA that is troubling to me lately.  By lately, I will betray my age a bit by saying that it has been happening with increasing frequency since at least the Bill Clinton years, although I was less aware of it back then.

I see an increasing ability for people to voice their apparent hatred for a political candidate through means that blatantly disrespect fellow human beings - all without care for the person standing next to them or with remorse if they offend someone else.  I am convinced that there are smart, logical human beings all around me.  Now, to be fair, there is also an abundance of not-so-smart, not-so-logical folks too, but let's just ignore them for the purposes of this write-up.  They self-identify without the need for politics quite often.

Having lived in a suburb of New York City for virtually all my life, I have met highly educated people who lean strongly to the liberal side of politics quite often.  I have also met highly educated people who lean strongly to the conservative side of politics.

Being a low-level, but surprisingly diverse location, world traveler, I have met the same basic groups of people around the world in places like Hawai'i, West Africa, Europe, and Arkansas.  So this trend had me troubled...

Here is why: I have some very strong political opinions.  They are based on my personal logic circuits and life learnings.  Yet, taking an opinion to heart put me squarely at odds with the folks on the other side of the political fence.  The only thing I could identify that the left and right have in common is our distrust of those in powerful positions who lack accountability and transparency.  A strong dislike or hatred of those who act poorly in their dealings on our behalf as supposed public servants.  Ptooey!

So about three or four years ago, I finally sent some time and effort and hacked my own thought processes and response methods.  I took on my mental conflict and processed it until I found a place where I could handle the input and output without finding a conflict or error routine if you will.  I budgeted around 32k of mental bitcoin-ish energy units and would estimate that it likely took closer to 65536k to get comfortably into the routines without errors popping up.

I realized something.  Every time I take an absolute stance on a debatable issue in politics, I am essentially saying I am smarter than the guy or gal next to me who disagrees with me.  I was disrespecting the folks on the other side of the fence by essentially calling them idiots!  It was clear to me that if I came out and took an immovable, closed-minded stance to anything that someone else disagreed with, I was likely sending a message that said, "My logic paths and knowledge is greater than yours!" or "I'm too closed-minded to even consider your ability to process this issue properly."

This realization helped me to share my opinions with more respect for the fellow human beings around me.  It has made me less confrontational and has helped to spur on some great discussions where I learned something from someone else or was able to teach something to someone.  Had I not changed my stance, we would simply have been arguing, rather than discussing and learning.  Hate would have won and the world would be a worse place because of it.

I say all of this for two reasons.  First, 2600 seems to be clearly picking a political side these days.  That is troubling to me since I have been reading the writings of fellow hackers in 2600 since the days of 300 baud communications.  It is also troubling because when a publication clearly picks a side, rather than addressing issues only, it ostracizes an entire group of people.  In this case, 2600 is separating itself slowly from the seasoned, old-school hackers who still follow the publication as they are more likely to lean right.

Second, and this supports the first reason more than anything else, is that I read the "VR Trumpers" article twice looking for true hacker content.  While I did find some keywords and phrases which thinly veiled the author's true motivation for writing the article, it was clear to me that the piece was written simply to bash Trump.  Now that's fine and good if Jeffrey wants to do that, but I cannot believe that 2600 is allowing themselves and their content to be diluted and polarized in such a way!

I have read other anti-Trump posts and been fine with them as clearly labeled opinion pieces, but when an "article" comes across my eyes that is supposed to inject information and knowledge into me and it's clearly designed as a smoke screen for a political bitching session, I'm not a happy subscriber.

I want to encourage 2600 and its readers to stick to the issues and technology.  Opinions can be shared, of course!  When politicians act like idiots, there may be no better way to hold these oxygen thieves accountable than to expose their actions and policies and weaknesses.  But to write an article that read a whole lot more like fiction than anything else simply to bash a candidate, and to do so with no perceivable useful information on the political front... that is just simply a waste of paper (or electrons) in my opinion.

Now here comes the surprise!  I'm not a Trump supporter.  To be fair, I wasn't an Obama supporter either.  Frankly, my political thoughts were not well formed prior to Obama (my head was in the sand, I'm sorry to say).  I can't say I have really supported anyone.  What I support now is clear, though.  If you talk to me, I'll do my best to respectfully discuss the importance of returning to voting for politicians who realize it is an honor to serve in office.  A return to a place where politicians expect less than the average citizen they represent as true public servants.

I'd love to see politicians supported who truly sacrifice to be in office because their heart is in the right place rather than in the next electoral cycle.  A return to a place where more power and influence automatically means more transparency and accountability.  And more than anything else, a return to a place were we can respect our friends and neighbors even if they have a different opinion than ours.

Oh, and maybe 2600 can refrain from publishing articles that are not about making progress, exposing lies, hardening systems through pen-testing, and things such as that.  Jeffrey's article was nothing more than left-wing entertainment and maybe a look into the capabilities of VR units for those unfamiliar with the scene.

In all the years of reading every last issue from the first to the current, I've never been disappointed by such an off focus article.  No offense meant Jeffrey, but your writings were better suited for a different publication, I guess.

Is 2600 lacking articles and writers that badly?  One part of me says "I hope not" while the other part of me says "Hopefully to the degree that they actually publish this article."

You can become a better person by reprogramming your response methods even if you don't change your opinions much.  Hack your attitudes.  Hack your life!  Hack it all!!!

If you are not sure of your weaknesses that need to be hacked, ask some close friends for an honest review of your attitudes and habits - especially your friends who you disagree with politically.

You are wise enough to keep some of those around, right?