The Conservative Hacker

The hacker label is, as Foucault might say, a “dubious unity.”

There's no such thing as "a unity". That doesn't make sense, perhaps you've translated poorly from the French?

The single phrase can barely contain its constituent multitude.

You seem to be having problems with singular vs plural here.

Are hackers fundamentally conservative if not in intention, then in deed?

That doesn't seem like a sensible question.

Such a question requires a working definition of hackers

True. It also, more importantly, requires a working definition of "conservative", and this seems to be missing.

I shan't bother to go on.