He makes it difficult to trust that, were he in charge of Ruby, he wouldn't just take the reigns and stubbornly do whatever he thinks is technically right for "aesthetics" at the cost of all else.
https://jakelazaroff.com/words/dhh-is-way-worse-than-i-thoug...
Can you read through that and still tell me that you want to see DHH be a part of the community?
First off, calling out the decline in "native Brits" isn't code for "white supremacy"—it's about maintaining the cultural and historical fabric of a nation. London has changed dramatically, and if Copenhagen swapped out two-thirds of its Danes for people from vastly different backgrounds without proper integration, it'd feel alien too. That's not hating on diversity; it's acknowledging that unchecked immigration can erode social cohesion, increase crime (like those grooming gangs he mentions, which were real scandals swept under the rug for fear of "racism" accusations), and strain resources. Data backs this up: the UK has seen spikes in street thefts and integration failures, as even left-leaning figures like the Danish PM admit. Framing this as "demographic replacement" isn't a conspiracy—it's observable reality when birth rates plummet and borders are porous.
As for Tommy Robinson's march, sure, some speakers went overboard, but dismissing the whole thing as "far-right extremism" ignores the thousands of ordinary Brits there waving flags out of patriotism, not hate. They're frustrated with elites who label any pushback against radical Islam or failed multiculturalism as bigotry. DHH calling it "heartwarming" highlights national pride, not endorsement of every wild statement. We've seen this playbook before: smear anyone questioning the status quo as a Nazi to avoid debating the merits.
On the paradox of tolerance—yeah, Popper's idea is that we shouldn't tolerate the intolerant if they threaten open society. But who's really intolerant here? DHH isn't calling for violence or suppression; he's blogging his opinions. The article's author, on the other hand, wants to exile him from the tech community over thought crimes. That's the real danger: canceling people for wrongthink, which chills free speech and innovation. Tech thrives on diverse ideas, not echo chambers.
Absolutely I want DHH in the community. He's the guy who gave us Ruby on Rails, revolutionizing web development and empowering countless creators. His politics don't diminish that legacy, and separating the art from the artist (or coder from the commentator) is how we avoid purity spirals. If we start gatekeeping based on views, half the industry—including plenty of left-leaning folks with their own controversial takes—would be out. Let's debate ideas vigorously, but not purge over them. Tech should be apolitical, not contain ideological litmus tests. But this is my opinion, which I think the majority of the population would likely align with.
- https://lobste.rs/s/fpri94/dhh_problem_2014
Maybe they're right, there would be an exodus, I just wonder if other languages' communities will want the trouble. The Japanese Rubyists don't care for a second, a nice by-product of Japanese insularity. Ruby would continue in Japan just fine without westerners, don't worry.
Fun fact: Jeremy won the Ruby Prize 2019: https://rubyprize.jp/19_iv-nominees01-2-en.html
Regardless of that, anyone who doesn't discriminate against others for their politics would be an improvement.
Edit: a improvement on the other westerners in the core team who might be touted as the next benevolent dictator, as I doubt that benevolence would maintain.
Heh, do you have a link to the PR?
What would you need it for?
Should we not include the negative ones for one person and the positive ones for another?
If Evans were to purge the politics from contributions to the community, then he would be a fine benevolent dictator, and would manage something Matz has failed with (amongst English speaking contributors, at least). That would probably require purging some of the people (as far as possible), as happened recently. Could he do that?
Of course we will never know the outcome of this, it's just my two cents.
1. Working for someone, even through a large company, is a much more directly supportive relationship, than using someone's free project. Especially since the project has a lot of large contributors.
2. A company is interchangeable, a skill is much less so. You can do the same, or very similar thing at the next company, but moving to a different language involves a lot of learning, even though both are programming languages.
For these reasons, if talking about a lot of people, I can see many of them leaving a problematic company, and only some of them changing their primary language. I'm sure there's someone out there throwing away two decades of experience for an ideal, but I don't think it's realistic, especially not for 1 problematic blog entry.