So many people have posted comments that suggest they didn't read the whole article. Towards the end of the article the author explains that many of his peers do not participate in the particular form of the culture that he finds so distasteful.
People do not passively participate in a culture. We collectively create a culture by forming relationships with everyone around us, not just our friends. You have to get along with your coworkers if you want to succeed in any field, and if you are a software engineer, that's probably going to involve geeking out about programming.