--- title: "Don't be nice" date: 2026-09-19 tags: ["open source", "values", "community"] description: "Sometimes, it's more important to be good than it is to be nice." url: https://roe.dev/blog/dont-be-nice --- Don't be nice. Not many people know that the word 'nice' comes from the Latin 'nescius,' meaning 'unaware.' Words don't necessarily mean the same thing they did originally, but somehow, I think that _is_ a little bit of what it is to be nice. You pull your own opinion back – to make space for other people. But sometimes you shouldn't be nice. Yesterday, I kicked someone from the Nuxt Discord who had chosen an avatar (for the second time!) of a man in a Nazi uniform. I was not nice. They accused me of being 'political' – the very thing an open source project _shouldn't_ be, I'm told. It only divides people. Let's just focus on the technology. Surely we can all get behind building amazing, fast, cool websites! **No.** To be perfectly candid, I picked the Nazi example because I think we'll all agree on that – whatever your political persuasion.1 Sometimes a political party or a person decides to oppose shared human values like the importance of care, kindness, inclusion, or the simple value of welcoming people who are different from you. Maybe they oppose the equality of all people. Maybe they think some people do not deserve human rights. When that happens, please, don't be nice. There's no 'both sides have a point.' So I'm not going to be nice. Let me say something else, seemingly more controversial. > DHH, you're not welcome in the Nuxt community, because you say that [Black people aren't 'native Brits'](https://world.hey.com/dhh/as-i-remember-london-e7d38e64) and [call for the mass deportation of 'gypsies'](https://world.hey.com/dhh/wolves-sheep-and-gypsies-ba44af6a). Now, I doubt he cares what I think. I'm not very important, and he doesn't really want to join. But I mention it because the kinds of things that he's saying are being normalised. If you hear enough people say something it somehow becomes 'just another opinion.' And, because he's built a cool-looking Linux distribution (I _love_ Arch, and those Omarchy screenshots are beautiful, by the way!) a lot of people seem to be thinking that the man himself (and his opinions) must be okay. Or at least, not worth making a fuss over. I'm sorry. I'm not willing to be nice about this. Check out this helpful article, [DHH Is Way Worse Than I Thought](https://jakelazaroff.com/words/dhh-is-way-worse-than-i-thought/). Jake said it better than I can: > **DHH’s politics are not normal.** Maybe they used to be, I don’t know, but as of right now the dude is way the fuck outside of what most people would consider moral or acceptable. I would also like to see [1Password](https://omarchy.org/news/2026/08/1password-and-37signals-become-distinguished-corporate-patrons/), [DigitalOcean](https://www.digitalocean.com/blog/digitalocean-joins-omacom-foundation) and others retract their support of DHH's pet project. I wouldn't judge someone who simply _uses_ Omarchy. But can I ask you to think about it? It leaves a pretty bad taste in my mouth even to imagine using the product of someone who's suggested that Black and Asian Londoners make Britain _worse_. Nice? It's better to be good.
::small 1. An aside: I _don't_ talk about party politics online. I [talk about my values](https://roe.dev/blog/diversity.md) instead. And honestly, if someone positions themselves _against_ those values I really feel that's on them – in much the same way as a scientist doesn't become 'political' just because a political party chooses to deny accepted science. ::