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Laptops with Stickers

(stickertop.art)
609 points z303 | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.207s | source
1. bArray ◴[] No.45901315[source]
Worth noting is that there is a non-zero number of political stickers on these laptops, and they seem to all tend towards the far-Left. It could make one wonder about the general political leanings of hackers and open source contributors.

Why is it important? A lot of projects took a stance on Russia-Ukraine [1], GitHub blocked the entirety of Iran [2] and I don't doubt that codebases now take a stance on Gaza-Israel.

The top-middle says "NAZI HACKERS FUCK OFF" [3]. They likely mean a new definition of "Nazi", and that could include you. Why point out this sticker particularly? Because it is directly aggressive towards a hacker they perceive to hold that label, and that they have labelled that group with one of the worst possible labels. By doing so, they can justify pretty much any level of aggression through the use of dehumanisation (ironically, a method employed by the Nazis).

The Python Software Foundation refused $1.5mn in funding [5] because they could not agree to be non-political. They would not agree to act without favour. Maybe today this doesn't concern you, but look more closely at the stickers of the people that have infiltrated these institutions. Do you think that you will indefinitely remain on the "good side"?

The Linux Kernel's previous Code of Conflict [6] was quite a rational approach, it was a market place of ideas (contributions) where they did battle. There was no barrier to entry and everybody would be critiqued equally, in the single objective of creating the best possible kernel. Diff this with the current Code of Conduct [7] where there is a barrier to entry, and the focus is on the feelings of the people and not on the quality of the kernel.

We should keep politics out of code entirely, and the quality of the code should speak for itself.

[1] https://github.com/petrussola/help-ukraine-open-source

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/git/comments/ci6ydi/github_banned_a...

[3] https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/IMG_4529-2.jpe...

[5] https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/python-reject...

[6] https://lwn.net/Articles/635999/

[7] https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/code-of-condu...