[LRUG] DHH, Rails, and London

Thu Sep 25 08:26:10 PDT 2025

Hey Sam,

> "Let's not be political" is inevitably a political statement.  It's just
one that says "I got mine; why are you bothering me by talking about yours?"

That's what a lot of Russian say about the war - "I'm not involved in
politics". But there is a reason to create a blogpost like the one that
sparked this conversation and also post a screenshot of an article "Charlie
Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way"
https://x.com/dhh/status/1968400716361355524.  Which is in my opinion
brillinatly reviewed in
https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/how-can-we-live-together/.

In my opinion if a person is truly not affected by this situation - he
wouldn't engage in this thread.  But if the person says "let's focus on
building"  like @Greg Molnar did above  he's actively steering attention
for the very issue that is being discussed and that's political behaviour.
He's engaged and he's taking an action to steer the conversation around the
conflict.

I got involved because what David wrote affects me personally - it causes a
great deal of pain. Instead of focusing on what I love - building software
I have to think if I'm brown enough to be a target of "Operation Restore
Justice" or a part of the  "demographic nightmare" and is a part of the
reason for "Brits being pissed".

That is despite the fact that I consider David to be a great inspiration
and person who did a lot of good to the world. He definitely made it a
better place  and keeps doing that. improving itat. But he also now is
doing something that I can't ignore, again just because of the paint it
causes.

So, yeah - if a person is not affected it's great because there is less
pain in the world. But when people are showing up and saying "I'm not
political" or let's not mix it then it doesn't add up. David posted that
message with intent and posted the X message above with intent.

And  suggestion to look another way is,  in my opinion, contradicts with
that intent.

Best,
Yevhenii

On Thu, 25 Sept 2025 at 15:54, Sam Livingston-Gray via Chat <
chat at lists.lrug.org> wrote:

> "Let's not be political" is inevitably a political statement.  It's just
> one that says "I got mine; why are you bothering me by talking about yours?"
>
> > A tide lift [sic] all the boats.
>
> All the boats *whose owners could afford to keep them seaworthy*.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias
>
> Seriously, we were having conversations in the Ruby community 10-15 years
> ago about how having one loud jerk[1] in the room will cause others—usually
> the most vulnerable ones, with perspectives we need—to quietly move toward
> the exits and never come back.  When that happens, is your response "let's
> cheer for the success of the people who are still here," or "let's follow
> those folks out and see what we could've done better?"
>
> -Sam
>
>
> [1] DHH in 2006: https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dhh-says-f-you/57797
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 25, 2025 at 3:44 AM Greg Molnar via Chat <chat at lists.lrug.org>
> wrote:
>
>> Just to give a counterpoint, I don't really care about others' political
>> view. I go to conferences and share the love of Ruby and Rails with folks
>> of various ethnicity, religion, gender, politics, etc and we have a great
>> time and great conversations together.
>> Whatever views DHH holds, he is good for the community in my opinion.
>> Under his stewardship Rails moves forward, we have a Rails renaissance, and
>> the bigger the community gets, the more opportunities arise for all of us.
>> A tide lift all the boats.
>> So I say let's keep building, let's keep helping each other and cheer for
>> the success of others.
>>
>> Peace,
>>
>> Greg
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 25, 2025, at 9:46 AM, James Smith via Chat wrote:
>>
>> Hi folks,
>>
>> I recently read DHH’s take on London, how it’s “no longer British” and
>> his support for Tommy Robinson and the far right, and quite frankly it made
>> me sick, having been a Rails dev since 1.2, and a Brit since 1976.
>>
>> If it did the same for you, you might want to co-sign this open letter
>> I’ve started calling for the Rails Core team to cut ties with him and
>> remove his influence: https://github.com/Plan-Vert/open-letter.
>>
>> If this doesn't bother you, or you just don’t want to mix politics and
>> code, then fine, please just delete this email and move on. Rest assured
>> I’ve had all the standard abuse already, there’s no need to repeat it.
>>
>> Yes, forking Rails it would be almost impossible. Yes, the attempt will
>> probably fail, I knew that on day one. But I had to try something, I love
>> this language, framework and place too much to let them be tarnished like
>> this.
>>
>> cheers,
>> James Smith
>>
>> PS I did check with the organisers before posting “political” content to
>> the list.
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