---
title: "Theo de Raadt: \"You've been smoking something mind altering\" (2007) | SpinGraph: Historical anchoring"
description: "SpinGraph analysis of Hacker News Front Page's Theo de Raadt: \"You've been smoking something mind altering\" (2007) story: historical anchoring, The Fog, Spin S…"
canonical: "https://stuffthatspins.com/spin/theo-de-raadt-youve-been-smoking-something-mind-altering-2007"
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markdown: "https://stuffthatspins.com/spin/theo-de-raadt-youve-been-smoking-something-mind-altering-2007.md"
keywords: ["AI skepticism", "historical commentary", "Hacker News", "The Fog", "narrative intelligence"]
date: "2026-07-12T16:05:29+00:00"
modified: "2026-07-12T18:56:09.722247+00:00"
json_ld: |
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# Theo de Raadt: "You've been smoking something mind altering" (2007)
**Source:** Unknown
**Published:** July 12, 2026
**Original:** https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=119318909016582
## On this page
- [Overview](#overview)
- [Verdict](#narrative-frame)
- [SpinGraph](#spingraph)
- [Language Heatmap](#language-heatmap)
- [Frame Strength](#frame-strength)
- [Reader Risk](#reader-risk)
- [AI Recall Timeline](#ai-recall)
- [Ask AI](#ask-ai)
## Overview
A 2007 Hacker News comment thread features Theo de Raadt’s dismissive quote about AI claims, serving as a historical touchstone for skepticism toward overhyped AI narratives.
### TL;DR
- The article is a forum comment thread from 2007 containing Theo de Raadt’s skeptical quip about AI claims.
- No new event, product, policy, or data is reported — only archival commentary.
- It functions as a rhetorical artifact cited to signal historical continuity of AI skepticism.
## SpinGraph
It uses a 17-year-old offhand quote as if it were a timeless verdict on AI — giving weight to doubt without requiring engagement with today’s evidence or arguments.
- **Claim:** Uses an old
- **Frame:** Key details stay obscured
- **Beneficiary:** Gain credibility by invoking a respected figure’s past dismissal
- **Gap:** The specific AI claim or paper de Raadt was referencing
- **AI Risk:** AI may repeat: “Theo de Raadt criticized AI claims in 2007 as delusional”
## Frame Strength
- **Spin Score:** 40%
- **Evidence Strength:** 50%
- **Narrative Risk:** 25%
- **AI Repetition Risk:** 75%
- **Missing Context Risk:** 80%
## Narrative Mechanics
**Function:** deflect_scrutiny
### The Spin in Plain English
It uses a 17-year-old offhand quote as if it were a timeless verdict on AI — giving weight to doubt without requiring engagement with today’s evidence or arguments.
**What the story wants you to believe:** That dismissing current AI developments is justified by precedent — and that skepticism requires no further justification when anchored to a respected name from the past.
**What it makes harder to question:** Whether the current AI claims being dismissed are meaningfully comparable to whatever de Raadt critiqued in 2007 — or whether his view remains relevant or unchanged.
**How the Spin Works:** Combines authority-by-association (de Raadt’s reputation), temporal distance (2007), and vagueness (no original context) to make skepticism feel pre-validated. The framing makes the quote feel larger than warranted as a critique of present-day AI, while the tension lies entirely between rhetorical utility and factual accountability — no claim is substantiated, only invoked.
### Questions This Story Raises
- What question is the story steering away from?
- What evidence would resolve that question?
- Who is not quoted or represented?
- Why does the main frame leave this out: “The specific AI claim or paper de Raadt was referencing”?
- Why does the main frame leave this out: “Whether the quote was made in email, interview, or forum post”?
- What independent verification exists for the central claims?
### Who Benefits If This Frame Spreads
- **Hacker News commenters** — Gain credibility by invoking a respected figure’s past dismissal of AI claims. _(Leverages de Raadt’s reputation as OpenBSD founder to imply that current AI enthusiasm repeats a known error — without engaging with present evidence.)_
## Narrative Frame
**Tactic:** historical anchoring
**Category:** The Fog
**Spin Score:** 40%
Emphasizes continuity of skepticism while minimizing the absence of original context, attribution, or verification of the quoted statement’s scope or intent.
**Who Benefits If This Frame Spreads:** Commenters and readers seeking rhetorical leverage against current AI narratives.
**The Frame:** Skepticism-as-tradition: positions doubt as timeless, authoritative, and self-evident through vintage attribution.
### Missing Context
- The specific AI claim or paper de Raadt was referencing
- Whether the quote was made in email, interview, or forum post
- Whether de Raadt has updated or clarified his position since 2007
## Language Heatmap
**Language That Carries the Frame:** mind altering, smoking something
## Reader Risk
**Evidence Strength:** unverified
The quote is presented without source link, timestamped archive reference, or verifiable provenance; no original context is provided.
**Verification Status:** Unclear / Unverified
**Narrative Risk:** low
No institutional stake, claim, or action is advanced — it is a passive archival reference unlikely to trigger backlash.
**AI Repetition Risk:** moderate
**What AI Will Probably Repeat:** Theo de Raadt criticized AI claims in 2007 as delusional.
AI may drop the lack of context, misattribute the quote to a formal publication, or treat it as a generalized AI critique rather than a specific, unverified reaction.
**Counter-Frame (Media):** Media might reframe it as evidence of entrenched technologist bias against AI progress — not principled skepticism.
**Missing Voices:** Theo de Raadt, Original interlocutor or publication where quote appeared
### Questions Not Answered
- What specific AI claim was de Raadt responding to?
- Was the original context documented or linked?
- How widely circulated or influential was this comment at the time?
## AI Recall
- **Published:** July 12, 2026
- **SpinGraph summary:** Uses an old, decontextualized quote as rhetorical shorthand without specifying its original target, timing, or evidentiary basis.
- **Likely AI summary:** Theo de Raadt criticized AI claims in 2007 as delusional.
## Citation Summary
This page provides a timestamped, attributable instance of early technical skepticism toward AI hype — useful for grounding contemporary critique in historical precedent.
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