I can take an argument of not buying a Tesla in order to avoid supporting Elons financial empire, but not using Rails because DHH made it is really hard to comprehend.
I need to go look up the CEO of my refrigerator, dishwasher, couch, car, cell phone, TV, shirt and jeans, and oat milk to see if they said anything I disagree with on social media so I can boycott them.
Like, if you have something you regularly spend a lot of money on, it might be worth spending 2min on the Wikipedia article about it’s manufacturer to verify that it’s not made by child slaves or someone who sends all their profits to the KKK or whatever.
Doing that seems like basic prudence for an interconnected world, and a far cry from like … digging around Reddit threads looking for reasons to be outraged.
I have no opinion on DHH. I do think it’s good, actually, that lots of people are incorporating politics into their product use/purchase choices these days. Those decisions always had political consequences, so it’s good that people are now considering that.
Some people definitely have rubrics for making those decisions that I think are stupid, and some people do it dishonestly (e.g. performative public outrage over a random OSS contributor’s transphobic tweet while spending money on Harry Potter shit). But the fact that people are increasingly considering the social context of product use is still good, dumbasses would find other ways to be dumb regardless.
I read the original post DHH links to. I don’t think it warrants the kind of hate he gets.
DHH has always been very outspoken in his opinions. That’s why he bashed Heroku so badly when he introduced Kamal. It’s what makes Rails such a clear minded framework.
In his political blog, he’s raising an issue that’s occupying all of western politics. And he’s very aggressive about it - just how he was very aggressive when he said “stop paying ridiculous amounts for stupid managed clouds”.
Instead of arguing where he’s wrong, people - including the blog post you cite - write “that’s hateful and racist” and refuse to engage beyond that. That is the very shut-up mentality he writes about.
It frustrates me so much to see this here on HN. HN is supposed to be a place to discuss, not blame others. This resistance to engage in a constructive discussion, even if the person with the differing opinion isn’t articulating them well, or has errors in their reasoning that upset you, is super harmful. It’s what gives all these far right parties their rise to power. They occupy the subjects then that their voters have on their mind, because everyone else doesn’t dare to talk about it.
We could have constructive discussions around such topics. But if we don’t, all that happens is that those who don’t feel heard - in this case rightfully so, because we chose not to hear them - will develop more and more extreme ideas.
> Instead of arguing where he’s wrong, people - including the blog post you cite - write “that’s hateful and racist” and refuse to engage beyond that. That is the very shut-up mentality he writes about.
What a weird statement. He has a platform, people that think his content is hateful and racist don't have a platform. He writes about kicking out normal people living their lives from places that he is not even from. Antagonizing people in position of power with this kind of mentality is what every sane person should do.
I did not really knew why DHH was controversial until a few month ago. He was heavily promoting the en translation of an old super far right french book. It is from the 70's and it is absurdly far right when you look up who wrote it and who promoted it in France at that time.
I don't hate the guy (I don't know him personally so I cannot hate him), I just disagree with his opinions and I personally don't want to use anything that he makes or endorses. Easy as that.
I know that there are other people contributing to Rails, and that's their choice. Other people stopped contributing once DHH showed his true nature.
Actually I didn't know he was a prick. I'm not sure he is either - I haven't checked. I just really really don't like Ruby or Rails.
Ruby is like someone mashed up python and perl whilst on cocaine one day.
And great bunch of other, awesome people.
I can take an argument of not buying a Tesla in order to avoid supporting Elons financial empire, but not using Rails because DHH made it is really hard to comprehend.
Why is it hard? Elon got all the power he wanted. Not giving DHH the same free passes Elon got is a very reasonable take.
And boycotting open source project is the way to go?
why not? there are so many available.
Some people are just looking to be offended. You don’t have to read or agree with his drivel to use his software.
(Do you also check out the blogs/social media of every dev involved in every library you use?)
The DHH hate is absolutely crazy on HN.
I don't understand how people can be so out of touch.
It's not hate, it's not wanted to be associated with:
see https://victorwynne.com/dhh/
I need to go look up the CEO of my refrigerator, dishwasher, couch, car, cell phone, TV, shirt and jeans, and oat milk to see if they said anything I disagree with on social media so I can boycott them.
Do they have prominent blogs that are good to read to keep up in the industry you work in?
Unironically, AI could automate the boycott.
I mean, that might not be the worst thing?
Like, if you have something you regularly spend a lot of money on, it might be worth spending 2min on the Wikipedia article about it’s manufacturer to verify that it’s not made by child slaves or someone who sends all their profits to the KKK or whatever.
Doing that seems like basic prudence for an interconnected world, and a far cry from like … digging around Reddit threads looking for reasons to be outraged.
I have no opinion on DHH. I do think it’s good, actually, that lots of people are incorporating politics into their product use/purchase choices these days. Those decisions always had political consequences, so it’s good that people are now considering that.
Some people definitely have rubrics for making those decisions that I think are stupid, and some people do it dishonestly (e.g. performative public outrage over a random OSS contributor’s transphobic tweet while spending money on Harry Potter shit). But the fact that people are increasingly considering the social context of product use is still good, dumbasses would find other ways to be dumb regardless.
I read the original post DHH links to. I don’t think it warrants the kind of hate he gets.
DHH has always been very outspoken in his opinions. That’s why he bashed Heroku so badly when he introduced Kamal. It’s what makes Rails such a clear minded framework.
In his political blog, he’s raising an issue that’s occupying all of western politics. And he’s very aggressive about it - just how he was very aggressive when he said “stop paying ridiculous amounts for stupid managed clouds”.
Instead of arguing where he’s wrong, people - including the blog post you cite - write “that’s hateful and racist” and refuse to engage beyond that. That is the very shut-up mentality he writes about.
It frustrates me so much to see this here on HN. HN is supposed to be a place to discuss, not blame others. This resistance to engage in a constructive discussion, even if the person with the differing opinion isn’t articulating them well, or has errors in their reasoning that upset you, is super harmful. It’s what gives all these far right parties their rise to power. They occupy the subjects then that their voters have on their mind, because everyone else doesn’t dare to talk about it.
We could have constructive discussions around such topics. But if we don’t, all that happens is that those who don’t feel heard - in this case rightfully so, because we chose not to hear them - will develop more and more extreme ideas.
There is no "constructive discussion" to have with racists
> Instead of arguing where he’s wrong, people - including the blog post you cite - write “that’s hateful and racist” and refuse to engage beyond that. That is the very shut-up mentality he writes about.
What a weird statement. He has a platform, people that think his content is hateful and racist don't have a platform. He writes about kicking out normal people living their lives from places that he is not even from. Antagonizing people in position of power with this kind of mentality is what every sane person should do.
I did not really knew why DHH was controversial until a few month ago. He was heavily promoting the en translation of an old super far right french book. It is from the 70's and it is absurdly far right when you look up who wrote it and who promoted it in France at that time.
He is probably at a KKK level of racism.
I don't hate the guy (I don't know him personally so I cannot hate him), I just disagree with his opinions and I personally don't want to use anything that he makes or endorses. Easy as that.
I know that there are other people contributing to Rails, and that's their choice. Other people stopped contributing once DHH showed his true nature.
I presume, that you're not shopping anything on shopify?
Good question, I don't know. I usually buy stuff online from a few big websites that are specific to my country.
Do you think DHH is out of touch too?