Note that this is far larger than the "intelligence community". This would include everyone from janitors who empty the trash in secure facilities to accountants, to mechanical engineers who design pumps for nuclear facilities, to web designers who write database front-ends, etc, etc, etc. And to say all of these folks are "puritanical, paranoid" is a very limited viewpoint.

If you filled out an SF86 it's because the "intelligence community" demanded it. That doesn't mean you're personally puritanical or paranoid; you're just subjected to the requirements of people who are; people who have altogether too much power and influence these days. And now those requirements have come back to bite you.

As more clarification, this is not just relevant for the "intelligence community", i.e. the three-letter-agencies. It would also apply to folks at various National Laboratories, Army bases, NASA, etc. And even for universities doing government-sponsored research. When I worked at Cal-Tech associated Jet Propulsion Laboratory, plenty of people had clearances.

We are using different definitions of the words "intelligence community". To me, if you have a clearance then that makes you part of the "intelligence community" regardless of whether your salary is paid by NSA, NASA, a defense contractor, a national lab, the Army, a university, or whatever.

If your definition of "intelligence community" includes NASA or random low-level soldiers just trying to keep their planned operations out of the hands of their adversaries, then I'd submit that your definition of "intelligence community" is functionally useless. Just say "clearance holders" if that's what you mean... there's already a very precise definition of "intelligence community" as it pertains to the U.S. anyways.

And every officer in the military has to get a Secret clearance.