I thought thigh highs and cat ear headsets are the style of the modern hacktivist?

Wow, I can't believe nobody's even bothered to mention the style from the definitive hacker movie. Just absolutely gobsmacked. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like:

Notably missing from this picture: rollerblades, fingerless gloves, neon dyed hair, tons of fishnets (which I guess you could probably stylize as fish.nets or something), puffy vest, etc.

In my day, being a hacker meant dressing like a weird raver/punk and sending people a GIF of a laughing skull, and that's how we liked it

It's literally part of hacker-ethics to not judge people by their fancy exterior:

Hackers should be judged by their acting, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position.

https://www.ccc.de/en/hackerethics

FFS this comment section is mostly people misunderstanding that John is likely saying this tongue in cheek.

People need to brush up on their cinema.

You're telling me a Doritos-stained shirt isn't an aesthetic?

I think most anti status quo people wouldn’t be interested in the clothing industrial complex

Maybe people are just more comfortable expressing themselves in different and unique ways that don’t conform to one “outfit/style”

Okay, I guess I'll put the cat ears away :/

We're the black hoodie guy, which is the media aesthetic the way Ninjas are decked in Kabuki black.

Real ninjas look like peasants because they're covert operatives. Hacktivists look like lower class tech geeks with a band or brand tee (maybe an overworn prized possession like a 1980s Apple tee). The thing is, we willfully choose to look bland, to be not noticed.

I met Waters once at a viewing of Pecker. The dude is a gem.

If you want to see the modern hacktivist style just look at UnixSocks

Yes please fit into a nice cultural box so you’re easy to profile, entice and hunt

Edit to say you don’t need an age to be an activist. Does hacktivism have an age? Idk I guess younger folks are more likely to do it right now. Maybe hacktivism just needs a democratizing platform. Like enable grandma to ddos

is this resistance or a costume party? either way i think black with bandanas is a boring theme

Personally I think the modern activist should dress like Devo

I just go for punk

Priorities

I do feel kind of simillarly betrayed. Watch Dogs were my forst point of reference into what hacker subcultures look like, and it has shaped a large part of my life - next month i's going to be 5 years I've worked as a Red Teamer in a cybersec company. I'm also mostly a poser, and the aesthetics simply makes it way more fun - making art that's tied into what you do is great, assuming you dont take it too seriously, of course. Not that I do it, but the way Watch Dogs portraied it, it was fun.

Is it neccessary? Of course not. Is it a shame there aren't many hackerspaces with cool street art, and hacktivists making over the top manifests ajd cool streetart around our town? A little bit.

Some dude in the fucking WSJ is complaining about how hackers look ? What the hell is this?