I would say equal rights should be at the top of the list, yes.

Even for a special "hacker community".

Maybe Im just old, but HN seems pervaded with this kind of 'right on' ness, or competitive self righteousness, i don't even know what to call it. Sort of a che guevera hat wearing teenager kind of flavour. Makes my eyes roll.

If you're young you probably don't know what I mean.

No over analysis of this reply please, my eyes might not come down again if I keep doing it. :)

Honestly, it was the only interesting thing I could think of with regards to this news story and it's something I've pondered since the Apple/Beats rumor started. It was an honest question and I just wanted some smart replies–not the top spot.

I'm sorry I made you sad

If this was reddit, that'd be called 'karmawhoring' - posting comments that play to the crowd while being tangentially related to the story, in order to get a big pile of internet points.

I get that juvenile Redditors find pictures of cats amusing - I find it less easy to grasp why a technical hacker/start up community is less interested in the technical/business aspects of a major tech deal than the somewhat unsurprising revelation that a famous rap artist said mean things about women (many years ago from what I [now unfortunately] understand).

Because we are a (generally) well educated, grown-up, empathetic community who realise that hacking/start-ups are great, but not the be-all and end-all of life, and that some things are important to stand up for/against even when only tangentially related to the topic at hand.