Oh god no, I wouldn’t write a piece about programming. I might write a piece about the shifts in a society which makes programming its central employment structure and what that might do to the way we choose to interact. I might write about how we have shifted towards a model of framing ourselves and our psychology as computers - but I wouldn’t write about programmers.

Everyone can have an opinion, that’s the point. You don’t have to be a programmer to write about an opinion piece about programming. You simply have to have an interesting take and have thought deeply about it. Programmers should write about programming but opinion pieces also have merit too. And if, in the cut and thrust of your piece, you get something wrong about programming, a programmer will tell you. They’re all bastards like that. ;o)