Also, cypherpunks write code etc; instead of bitching about political leaders, we could just opt out/make our immediate neighborhoods better.
Totally agree. If you can do something productive, like write software, do actual work within the community, etc, that is preferable to voting. That being said, it doesn't preclude voting either. The intellectual investment of voting is a barrier, but at the same time, it's okay to only vote on the issues that you know about and skip the others. Still better than ceding that power to radical communists and others