Comment by caeril

It wasn't fanboism, it was something else entirely: solidarity of the ingroup.

Hard to believe for the younger folks around here, who grew up in a culture that praised and valued technical skills, but Slashdot was a place for the prior generation, for whom technical skills were mocked and ridiculed.

Hans was "one of us", and it's a very human thing to believe that a member of your specific outcast group would ever be one of the baddies.