"Hacker" is the fastest, easiest way to communicate the concept of "someone who breaks into computers illegally", if you said "cracker" or anything else, no layperson would know what you're talking about.
This conversation died 20 years ago.
I further explained that my current work visa application had been complicated due to a filing mistake and that I had been waiting on a decision. This fell on deaf ears. They searched my backpack, found my hackathon badge which drew incredible suspicion and asked, “What’s a hackathon? Are you a hacker?” I slowly explained that I’m a social entrepreneur promoting global change through the concept of ‘hackathons’ where attendees work together and find solutions to community issues within a tight time constraint. They were dismissive and didn’t seem to want to hear an explanation.
I don't disagree with you that the conversation relating to the dominant definition of the word "hacker" and related terms is over with the more narrow mainstream definition winning out. I do think however, that the disparate meanings of the word and related terms can lead to some surprisingly unfortunate misunderstandings. Maybe one solution is for people like us to start using a different word for what we typically mean when we use "hacker" in the more general sense. Though I guess if that hasn't happened by now, it's probably not going to.
1. https://medium.com/@aurora/are-we-welcome-entrepreneurs-or-u...
There isn't a large group of stupid people loudly calling themselves "gay". Nor is "gay" the only widely-known English word for stupid.