Evan Leibovitch via Talk wrote on 2025-09-27 23:57:
*6. The politics I can do without.*
Two of the first comments received about Omarchy were not about the quality of the software, but the character of the project founder.
I guess that's me. My comments touched on both. Without experience with Omarchy, there wasn't much I could add on that front. As for DHH, people should have such information on the founder when making decisions - what they do with it is their choice.
If I was going to shun every every software project led by an arrogant, self-righteous asshole with politics I found abhorrent I probably would never have started using Linux because I wouldn't be able to use gcc way back when. Richard Stallman has repeatedly repulsed me in-person
Picks his toes / nose and eats it is in a whole different class than White Replacement Theory in 2025. I'm unfamiliar with Stallman's politics other than "free as in speech" software. Who is he targeting based on ethnicity?
I find this quite disturbing and to the detriment of the open source movement.
What I find disturbing is that merely pointing out someone holding such opinions, in 2025, would be "disturbing" to anyone. Not caring about his White Replacement politics doesn't mean those political opinions won't care about us.
Building inclusive communities does not just mean diversity of geographies, skin tones and various forms of self-identification; it also means including people with whose views outside the git repository you don't share.
The "Paradox of tolerance" is extending tolerance to those who are themselves intolerant; it's a one-way courtesy. In such cases, it is not obligatory and has led to a dangerous rightward ratcheting of policy. No one said Omarchy should be shunned based on DHH's views. But many may find it relevant information to feed into the calculations on whether a given non-essential software is worth pursuing.
The only thing that should matter among coders is the quality of the work
I wonder if a non-white, London-based coder who writes high quality code, are they still seen as a blight on London by the likes of DHH? He made no distinction about "quality of $x" in his blog post. To him, it seems, what matters is about skin colour / ethnicity.
and the ability to work with others civilly.
Is being a civil racist okay?
So long as one doesn't actually force their politics within their peer group or on their users I see no reason to exclude them, let alone boycott their code.
If they force (or advocate) their odious politics outside the project, is one not allowed to boycott them on principle?
I get it. The FOSS community, from its inception, leans left
I maintain that being in opposition to the creeping fascism in the West is not "leaning left". I reject repositioning the Overton Window like that.
consider that projects such as Omarchy now have communities of contributors, in the dozens if not hundreds. Are they all to be tarred with the sins of the founder? Is heavy-handed guilt-by- association really a useful tactic?
That feels a bit hyperbolic - if one chooses to not use a piece of software due to the views of the founder, that's their right and what is up with low-grade shaming them for it? There's no "tarring" nor "guilt-by-association" happening.
For heaven's sake; if recent events in the US have taught us anything it's that /the heat must come down/. Everywhere.
This "Both-Sides" BS pandering is one of the reasons we're in this mess. Today's example:
Arizona *lawmaker* calls for WA congresswoman to be executed for urging Trump protests
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/arizona-lawmaker-calls-wa- congresswoman-003640893.html etc ad nauseam
Comments welcome.
I meant to focus on the utilities like ghostty but turns out, more had to be said on off-topic stuff, so I said it. No intention to derail the technical merits of Omarchy.