356 DEAR HACKER

356 DEAR HACKER

socialist states in the world system, and embracing the accomplish- ments of Revolution wherever it is. I always read your magazine for the technical information and depth of knowledge authors show, but

I am now dismayed at the overtly counterrevolutionary and insult- ing image on the cover, which diminishes the struggle of millions to overthrow bureaucrat-capitalism, Japanese imperialism, and establish

a socialist state. Evan

This is how you build solidarity? By looking for things to get offended by? If we want to insult “Chinese and/or Korean socialism,” we’ll do it in a much more direct fashion. Until then, we suggest becoming acquainted with the concepts of parody and anachronism. Incidentally, we’re pleased as punch that after 20 years we’ve finally been hit with the label of counterrevolutionary. We’ve pretty much been accused of everything now.

Dear 2600:

I have been a long time fan of your magazine. However, I believe that politics needs to be left out. I like to read and be informed of technical issues and I know people from New York loathe Bush because, let’s face it, he is a Republican. New York is not known for their support of Republicans and I understand you are pissed off that he won and need to vent. But please do not do it in this magazine. I know you think it is cute to put Bush on the cover and whatever but I cannot go anywhere without hearing about politics. It is over and I suggest the people get over it. Yes, I agree with rights, I am an anti-federalist, and I believe in state rights. I do not believe Bush is a warmonger and I do not believe that terrorists should be sent into a court like we should.

With that said, I agree that U.S. citizens should not be subjected to random searches of their houses without their knowledge and Americans should not be held without trial, lawyer, and so forth. You have my support 100 percent on that. However, if we capture

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terrorists or someone who we suspect is a terrorist (who is not an American), then I don’t care if they don’t have rights, because they don’t! The Geneva Convention does not grant them this right at all. As far as torturing them, if it saves our troops’ lives, go for it. We did not start this war and our soldiers should not die because we are too afraid to let them go without sleep because a bunch of left wing nut jobs are protesting them to regain their lost power.

I know most “hackers” are really left wing and are almost communist. Granted, I cannot group all of them in the same category since I be- lieve my stance is right wing even though Bush is the first Republican president I have voted for. Making people aware of their rights is one thing, telling them they are losing them is OK, but to blame it on one man is a joke. It is both parties’ fault that we have our rights degraded as far as they are now (Lincoln started this with the back- ing of a strong federal government). But it’s even more the fault of the American people because they have let it slip this far. If you ever watch Jay Leno’s jay-walking or Sean Hannity’s man on the street quiz, the majority of people my age and younger (23) have no clue who the vice president is or what the amendments are. Let alone the Bill of Rights! I know I have turned this into a political rambling and

I am sorry but I beg of you, please, no more. Talk about rights, talk about how they are being taken away, but be as partial as you can. I cannot take anymore “Left hates America, Right are fascists taking our rights away” propaganda.

Rage1605 Nice job keeping politics out. Or did you mean for us to stop talking about these

issues after you talked about them? First off, we discuss a lot of things and the space taken up by this kind of a topic has always been fairly minimal. Second, if it’s something that’s on people’s minds, then why should we deny them the right to express themselves? Like anything else, hackers have interesting perspectives on these issues. Plus, it’s generally a good thing to express yourself and expose your- self to other opinions.

Having been exposed to your opinions, we cannot react with silence. You believe it’s acceptable to abduct people from foreign countries and torture them? We hope you realize that there are many people throughout the world who have the desire