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> Sidekiq withdrew its $250,000/year sponsorship for Ruby Central because they platformed DHH at RailsConf 2025. Honest question: What's the issue with DHH her
by _fat_santa 1y ago
> Sidekiq withdrew its $250,000/year sponsorship for Ruby Central because they platformed DHH at RailsConf 2025.
Honest question: What's the issue with DHH here? What did he do that caused them to pull support because he was platformed at RailsConf?
- aduty 1y agoHe has been adopting a more conservative slant and that makes some people irrationally angry.
- lavela 1y ago"The Ruby community has a DHH problem": https://tekin.co.uk/2025/09/the-ruby-community-has-a-dhh-problem https://tekin.co.uk/2025/09/the-ruby-community-has-a-dhh-pro...
- tbrownaw 1y agoIs he known to, like, reference his politics in his conference talks or something?
- mplewis 1y agoIs it ok to put Goebbels on a stage if he isn't talking politics?
- brigandish 1y agoI couldn't care less if Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot or even Bob Monkhouse[2] were pushing open source patches and contributing talks, as long as they: - do not turn away from debate - do not turn to or espouse violence[1] - and their contributions were of merit Since DHH has done none of that then the answer is "yes, it's okay to put him on a stage to talk about tech". [1] I thank Karl Popper for showing the way here with his Paradox of tolerance. [2] Bob was the master of self-deprecating jokes, I hope he would appreciate that one.
- Klonoar 1y ago[flagged]
- zchrykng 1y agoIs it okay to smear pretty normal people as Nazis for no good reason?
- prh8 1y agoHe is a consistent pot stirrer, whether it's his politics or his vendettas, and he never really stops talking about them
- dismalaf 1y agoProbably the fact that DHH introduced Solid Queue to Rails which can replace Sidekiq. Of course they're not going to say that, it'll be some excuse about his lukewarm European politics...
- danudey 1y agoAlso the fact that DHH complained about not wanting to live in London because of how many non-whites there are, praising violent far-right agitators, and repeating debunked racist claims.
- christophilus 1y agoSource? That’s hard for me to believe.
- aslatter 1y ago"As I remember London": https://world.hey.com/dhh/as-i-remember-london-e7d38e64 https://world.hey.com/dhh/as-i-remember-london-e7d38e64
- christophilus 1y agoI can see how you'd read it that way, but I read it like this, "I went to Lisbon and it was basically a bunch of California programmer bros. The culture there has been lost, and that loss is regrettable." In other words, it can be read more charitably as a lamentation about the loss / changing of a culture.
- yawaramin 1y agoNah, it's pretty clearly dog-whistling for racists. Talking about 'native Brits' vs 'mass immigration' changing the 'culture and makeup'? People don't say 'makeup' to refer to California programmer bro culture, they are talking about racial makeup. Then he goes on about 'Pakistani rape gangs' and 'abuse of British girls'–oh look, the classic trope of the nasty browns and blacks preying on our precious white children. Then take this: 'There's absolutely nothing racist or xenophobic in saying that Denmark is primarily a country for the Danes, Britain primarily a united kingdom for the Brits, and Japan primarily a set of islands for the Japanese.' These words would not be out of place in 1066 Britain ie 'this is a country of the Saxons, not the Normans'. Britain has seen this exact brand of xenophobia for millennia, in fact they even had periods of bigotry against Danes! If dhh had gone to London at the wrong point in history, he might have experienced racial prejudice. Interesting, right?
- draw_down 1y agoFrom what I can tell, he was insufficiently enthusiastic about immigration. And, you know. You can't be saying that stuff.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- vinceguidry 1y agoThe Ruby community has long had a rift between two types of members, the really nice folks that take after Matz, and techbro assholes like DHH. The former have mostly tolerated the latter creating an ugly toxicity that the community has become known for, and is why I use Ruby, but have not involved myself with it. Zed Shaw, a well-known asshole himself, described it in this piece: https://harmful.cat-v.org/software/ruby/rails/is-a-ghetto https://harmful.cat-v.org/software/ruby/rails/is-a-ghetto DHH has been going off the deep end with his rhetoric for years, the current political environment has made it so that he can't be ignored anymore.
- bhouston 1y ago> HH has been going off the deep end with his rhetoric for years, the current political environment has made it so that he can't be ignored anymore. But Shopify is also right wing in its executive team, and via these move they appear to be support DHH: https://pressprogress.ca/shopify-executives-right-wing-media-website-rails-against-immigrants-while-defending-a-legally-designated-terrorist-group/ https://pressprogress.ca/shopify-executives-right-wing-media... https://disconnect.blog/the-conservative-tech-alliance-is-coming-to-canada/ https://disconnect.blog/the-conservative-tech-alliance-is-co... And yeah, Shopify is going to protect DHH because DHH is on Shopify's board: https://www.shopify.com/news/david-heinemeier-hansson-board https://www.shopify.com/news/david-heinemeier-hansson-board
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- vinceguidry 1y ago[flagged]
- bradly 1y agoJust to add a bit of context here... DHH was added to the Shopify board last year. Shopify also brought in a CTO with very questionable actions and statements during multiple company townhalls and all-hands. He would be making wild statements on stream while VPs would be in the Slack channel trying to defuse and reframe. This was a big reason why I left Shopify last spring.
- ZhadruOmjar 1y ago[flagged]
- tennis_80 1y agoHe used to, but is now stepping into politics, in a conservative / reactionary way. See: https://world.hey.com/dhh/as-i-remember-london-e7d38e64 https://world.hey.com/dhh/as-i-remember-london-e7d38e64
- tootie 1y agoThat post is just plain racism.
- AlexandrB 1y agoWhile it's trendy to think so, it's really not. At no point does that post imply that other ethnicities or cultures are inferior in any way - just that London is no longer majority native British and maybe that's bad.
- leosanchez 1y agoBut why does a Dane care about the ethnic makeup of London ?
- AlexandrB 1y agoSame reason I might care about the ethnic makeup of Japan. I like some aspects of Japanese culture and I would hate to see it disappear due to cultural homogenization. I don't want to guess too wildly, but I suspect you also support the rights of indigenous peoples to practice their culture in the former British colonies like Canada or Australia? Why is the idea of wiping out British culture in 2025 OK, but the historical destruction of indigenous cultures - as in Canada's residential schools - treated as a grave injustice similar to genocide?
- jmcgough 1y agoTom Stuart gave a really good lightning talk about this a decade ago, which is very respectful and has aged well https://tomstu.art/the-dhh-problem https://tomstu.art/the-dhh-problem It's not just about his politics. DHH is reactionary, mean, dismissive of others' opinions. He acts more like a high school bully than a leader. Since then, DHH has gone off the deep end with xenophobic, racist, and transphobic comments. I was drawn to the Ruby community because of its kindness and creativity, with people like why the lucky stiff and Jim Weirich. It is a lot less welcoming when DHH repeatedly uses his platform to say that I shouldn't exist or have equal rights.
- leosanchez 1y ago> It is a lot less welcoming when DHH repeatedly uses his platform to say that I shouldn't exist or have equal rights. Can you point to any of his blog posts that says this ?
- disiplus 1y agoHe is not stupid enough to say that directly bit it's one google away to find stuff like. I follow him on Twitter and guy is a bully and has opinions about stuff he has 0 knowledge about. https://world.hey.com/dhh/the-social-media-censorship-era-is-over-for-now-c28c82f2?utm_source=chatgpt.com https://world.hey.com/dhh/the-social-media-censorship-era-is...
- ecshafer 1y ago[flagged]
- disiplus 1y agoThere are more Like this one. You don't even have to read between the lines to see what is his attitude. https://world.hey.com/dhh/gender-and-sexuality-alliances-in-primary-school-at-cis-97f66c06?utm_source=chatgpt.com https://world.hey.com/dhh/gender-and-sexuality-alliances-in-...
- insane_dreamer 1y agoSure, they don't like DHH. I never much liked him either (too opinionated for my taste), though Rails is a really good thing and honestly put Ruby on the map, and DHH deserves credit for that. But seriously, pull all their funding because of being platformed at RailsConf (_Rails_Conf, not _Ruby_Conf). Seems over-reactionary, and ultimately hurtful to the Ruby community (making them more dependent on Shopify). Update: To be fair, I haven't followed DHH/Rails/Ruby community for the past decade (was very involved ~15 yrs ago), so my views may be outdated. Still I think pulling the funding doesn't help Ruby.
- madeofpalk 1y agoI don't like DHH (for whatever reason), and I would never want to spend my own money on 'platforming' him. It seems pretty reasonable that someone/company applies discretion to which community events they sponsor.
- baobabKoodaa 1y agoSure it feels good to pull money as a kneejerk reaction and virtue signalling, but it's still generally a good idea to think through the consequences of your actions.
- makeitdouble 1y agoWe should be thankful a project like Sidekiq sponsored so much money over such a long period. Whatever reason they had to pull out, the blame should lie on the lack of other companies stepping in and keeping some power balance.
- 827a 1y agoIts especially wild given how their action in pulling funding seems to have been a prime motivator for this power grab: in their attempt to boycott DHH, they quite literally handed him the keys to the kingdom.
- evolve2k 1y ago
- tmarsden 1y ago[flagged]
- theptip 1y agoHuh, apparently he is a “white supremacist” for posts like this? https://world.hey.com/dhh/the-waning-days-of-dei-s-dominance-9a5b656c https://world.hey.com/dhh/the-waning-days-of-dei-s-dominance... I missed all this drama, it does seem like there is an echo chamber forming over on Bluesky…
- riffraff 1y agoHe's voicedly MAGA-adjacent, has often written against the evils of multiculturalism and how happy he was about Trump winning the elections. I don't think he's a white supremacist, but it is understandable that some people don't like his ideas.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- ihsw 1y agoThere are valid criticisms of multiculturalism and there are valid merits to Trump winning the elections.
- arresin 1y agoThe totalitarian mindset will not even tolerate you “platforming” people who don’t sufficiently agree with it (even if you agree on 90% of things).
- pfych 1y agoSomeone linked an article above that is worth a read - He's said some pretty horrific stuff about minority groups & is echoing discredited sentiment on immigrants and other minorities. It's worth a read. https://tekin.co.uk/2025/09/the-ruby-community-has-a-dhh-problem https://tekin.co.uk/2025/09/the-ruby-community-has-a-dhh-pro...