and, worse, it seems that some of them work with computers.

it's shattering to see this being taken seriously by people who should be trained to work with extremely deterministic systems, demanding the utmost rationality.

Some years ago, someone here on HN was arguing in favor of "magic in the server room" -- as in "blood magic", not hackerdom. They claimed they felt persecuted by skepticism and if they were engaging in some kind of joke, they took it far enough to never accept it was a gag (and HN wouldn't be the place for it anyway).

If I remember correctly, it was someone reacting to one of Aphyr's "magic" articles (which are metaphor), taking them at face value and claiming they also did spells while working with computers.

Again, this was not a metaphor for hacking, but a claim of actual, Harry Potter style magic.