Ignoring DHH's politics (which are enough to make me look for alternatives), he makes breaking technical decisions to tooling with little to no community involvement. E.g., https://github.com/hotwired/turbo/pull/971
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.
I just looked up his political views. Because I never cared about them before, to say the least. He's right wing in general which for half of us, probably the majority at this point but we're just less vocal about it, is a good thing. I generally don't just outright disassociate from people with opposing political views to mine though as you suggested there. But I have seen that and it's most often a behavior I see on the left. For whatever reason. Perhaps intolerance of diversity of thought.
He's not just right wing. He's an outspoken racist. I hope that's not half of us, but just more vocal. What you call intolerance of opinion is also known as the paradox of tolerance.
I appreciate you sharing that article—I've read it, and while it makes some strong accusations, I think it fundamentally misrepresents DHH's points and slaps on the "racist" label way too liberally, which is a common tactic to shut down uncomfortable discussions about immigration and cultural preservation. From my perspective, DHH isn't pushing racism; he's voicing legitimate concerns about rapid demographic shifts and their impact on national identity, which many on the right (myself included) see as a rational response to policies that prioritize mass immigration over assimilation.
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.
A mantra in the Ruby community is "Matz is nice so we are nice". By contrast, DHH is the type of person who would use the hey.com domain[0] to post rants about London being only 1/3rd white, "Pakistani rape gangs", etc. His racist tirades used to be limited to his twitter, but he's shown he's very willing to use business resources to push his racist politics. More discussions here:
The Ruby "community" has long been dogged by politics and culture war stuff. This comment[0] on a flagged submission has lots of links for getting up to speed.
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.
Anyone who won't discriminate against others for their politics would be an improvement, because that's not what's been happening in many core projects.
I am not suggesting Jeremy Evans simply because of politics. I think he's very underrated in the community and the work he does is incredible. Having interacted with him a number of times, he's been really helpful and pleasant. I think those qualities make him a good candidate.
I agree. He has scolded me before though, for submitting code he didn't like the look of. Felt a tad harsh at the time, that's the kind of thing that puts people off contributing. However, he's a better programmer than me so if he didn't like it he's probably right. Could improve his bedside manner a bit though. I'm sure others have said that about me too, perhaps I'm a hypocrite.
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.
Of course. He actually completely rewrote the code and still merged it in, so I got what I wanted. We've all had such experiences, I'm sure, but I was making the point that different people can have different experiences - I've had straightforward chats with Evan too. I'm sure people have had super nice and welcoming experiences with DHH too.
Should we not include the negative ones for one person and the positive ones for another?
I did not include any negative or positive about DHH since I have never interacted with him. He is unimportant to Ruby compared to Evans other than for historical reasons. Evans is a guy who has done a ton and still does a ton in the Ruby community.
I use Sequel far more than Rails, but their relative importance is entirely different, and I suspect Ruby would be still be a minority language if Rails had not happened. Even if we take into account the numerous other contributions anyone could make, could they make up for or match Rails' impact? Doubtful. Hence, I find your claims a stretch.
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?
If programming is just my hobby, then maybe. But would you, for example, quit your current job and look for another, just to change the programming language? I know I'm not that sort of person.
I think it's not as much "if this guy becomes the lead I'm immediately quitting my Ruby job to return to PHP" as much as "if this guy becomes the lead I'm probably going to return to PHP for my next job."
I have my doubts, even for this softer version. These are things where one might feel very strongly in a moment, or even for a longer time, but facing a real life decision, there are so many other factors.
Of course we will never know the outcome of this, it's just my two cents.
Commendable action! If feel like it's a different case though. Two points:
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.
