> Hacker culture has been co-opted by a broad spectrum of folks
Seeing ourselves as better than the unwashed masses and dunking on noobs has been one of the defining characteristics of the hacker culture for as long as I remember. So was holding provocatively strong opinions about one's pet beliefs. Vi or emacs? MIT or GPL? Remember Tanenbaum dunking on Linus about how stupid his pet project was?
Granted, I wasn't around in the 1960s, but it was definitely a thing at least from the early days of Usenet.
I remember few places more toxic, than the informal IT forum of my university.
It went roughly like this, someone asking a noob question about the current course that week - and it was met by 2-5 very hostile toxic answers, variations of how stupid that person is for not knowing and how stupid for asking this way etc. And then a exhaustive, clear and friendly answer, answering exactly, what was asked.
We are literally in Hacker News where the entire spectrum is on display, all for a little up-doot.
Sure, hackers have always been an arrogant lot. But it is only this century, since the finance bro’s joined the party, that its been so, so immensely profitable ..