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Comment by gjsman-1000 | Hacker News Reader

"DHH is a racist!"

Dude, it's not 2021 anymore. You can't just yell a big, bold, name like racist and expect it to stick or cause any impact. Everyone got burned out in 2021 of the million -ists, and the 2024 election showed among other things that the name calling has zero effect.

The world belongs to those who can actually explain why any particular opinion is a bad thing, or conflicts with values that the reader may otherwise hold, not those who can accuse with a cheap label.

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Don’t try to shout people down. If you think someone is wrong, go read DHH’s writings on race and come back and defend them.

I think anyone reading DHH’s blog would come to the same conclusions — particularly the posts on wolves and Roma, or the post on London

I don't care whether or not DHH is a racist. He can't stop his project from being forked or exert authority over anyone.

I care about people who think that just yelling "he's a racist" somehow scores them brownie points or does something about it. It doesn't. You're not brave, you're not noble, you're not accomplishing anything.

You seem to be ignoring the possibility that the author genuinely believes this.

Why do you care so much?

Not gp, but my take on this is op is being overly dramatic about stuff, and it activates the mirror neurons on the reader, I don't remember the name of this phenomenon

I’ve read about body language mirroring, as a subconscious way humans build rapport, is it similar in concept?

I am close to a free speech absolutist (i.e., I don't believe that DHH should suffer legal consequences for those posts, unless he were directly inciting violence). I also believe that those who openly promulgate racist beliefs should suffer social opprobrium. That is what makes government censorship unnecessary.

You either don't think he's a racist or you don't care he's a racist. You can't have it both ways expressing an opinion while also being above it all.

Why is all of your personal opinion on if people are doing it for "brownie points" important and not just being pompous?

I was skeptical so I actually read those posts and concluded that yes, they are indeed unequivocally racist (in the traditionally accepted sense of the term).

I just read the London article and I'm not sure that everyone would come to the same conclusion. If you've ever traveled to Japan, I'm sure it's no surprise that almost everyone there is Japanese. If, over the course of 25 years, it went from 98% Japanese to say 60%, I hope that we can both agree that it would be noticeable, and that the added diversity wouldn't necessarily mean that Japan is a better and stronger country, especially if native Japanese people were getting arrested for opposing the changes. I think that's the core argument being made, even if it makes for a nuanced and uncomfortable topic to discuss. Not all immigration is created equal either. Large scale immigration (legal or not) can be a financial burden for countries as opposed to selecting letting through competitive talent.

Yeah, I'm personally also unsure of what's so problematic about his London article. I think it's perfectly reasonable for a country to want to protect its native population, especially if said native population have lived there for an extremely long period of time.

I think it's only viewed as racist because the native population of England are white.

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