It is sad indeed. USENET is it's own dystopia now, and IRC has fallen
the same way, most servers only serving as sex servers or support
servers for the various *nixes out there.
I do not have an answer of where you can find intelligent conversation or
a meeting place for 'real' cypherpunks, it seems that intelligent
conversation is no longer popular on the internet. Silly memes stand in
place of the Internet built and envisioned by the Universities and
hackers that made it possible. I hear there is a nice forum hidden in the
Tor network for cypherpunks, but I do not know where to get the onion
link for it. I hope you find what you are looking for.
Good Luck,
Cyber Trekker.