[flagged]
I've found that the political bent of HN is much, much more varied than "taken over by commies". In general, I've met many folks here from across political spectrum -- from arch-capitals to libertarians to progressives/socialists/leftists to neoliberals.
When we can be up front about our own beliefs and share our perspectives on them in a non-demonizing way, the discussions can actually be quite enlightening.
I might not agree with a libertarian ethos, but I've met many libertarians here I could have elucidating chats about things with.
And before you ask, "Why bring politics into hacking at all?" I'd argue that hacking is, by it's nature, a political activity (whether that's hacking in the cyber-crime sense or in the 'assembling something from spare parts' sense.) There's something about operating outside of systems, about putting one's mark on the world, about expressing yourself through what you choose to build and how to build it that is inescapably political.
Politics doesn't have to be a team sport. We can disagree and still converse.
I'm happy to listen to others beliefs, challenge them lightly, ask questions, and learn. And in turn share my beliefs, have them challenged lightly, have questions asked of me, and teach.
We can walk away from that thinking, "Wow, I strongly disagree with the way they view the world" and still have those moments of "But I'm glad we chatted, because that's a perspective I wasn't familiar with and I think I understand it better."
But there are other types of communism, in both theory and practice, that do not require authoritarianism. I'm comfortable in asserting that I'm fairly well read on different histories and theories -- from the anarchist writings of Kropotkin and practiced in communes in Europe in the early 20th century, to democratic workers councils, to neoMarxist works.
I'm more than happy to discuss the topic in more depth, and I think it might be interesting to some folks on HN to have a communist who isn't interested in petty sniping or scoring political points, but that conversation has to start with something other than "You are a confused Nazi."