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I used to admire that guy. I don't understand why anyone still works at Basecamp with posts like this to be honest. How do people justify it to themselves? Mayb

I used to admire that guy. I don't understand why anyone still works at Basecamp with posts like this to be honest. How do people justify it to themselves? Maybe it's just harder to switch jobs now with AI, I don't know.

mcsniff 2mo ago
Perhaps they agree with his opinion or they don't care about it?
ribelo 2mo ago
Maybe it's simply because his opinion is shared by many people and I would even say that he is pretty mild in expressing it?
- maleldil 2mo ago
  Equalling the Roma (and insisting on using a slur to refer to them) to wolves that need to be shot is mild?
  - deleted 2mo ago
    [deleted]
  - JeremyNT 2mo ago
    To empathize a bit with the Basecamp employees, DHH has sort of slowly worked his way into the gutter racism that he displays openly now. Like a lot of his peers, the first Trump administration seemed to unlock a permission structure to be increasingly reactionary in public, facilitated by the overt political bias of Musk's X. We've now reached a point where this sort of "vice signaling" is a great way to gain clout in the overtly nativist tech bro niche in the US. Which is to say, he wasn't always like this, and it feels like each new blog post is getting worse in a way that, if I were at Basecamp, I might have initially overlooked as the frog was slowly boiled.
xp84 2mo ago
Maybe a lot of people actually agree with him, and would rather we expect more of people, rather than simply defining criminal activity as an unconscious effect of one's being somehow oppressed, or one's great-great-grandparents being oppressed, or whatever. The culture in question have been infamous for centuries for their value system which is incompatible with most others. Just as it's okay for devout Islamists to find the whole American value system disgusting and want nothing to do with it, it's okay for DHH and other Westerners to find the Roma value system disgusting. It's a belief system they choose, it's not something like skin that people cannot change. In America there's a lot of ethical ambiguity given how recently most current residents' ancestors arrived. But in Denmark? Did the Roma build that society? (Possible) EU citizenship aside, I find it hard to judge Danes who feel that ethically, they don't have a right to degrade that society with crime and vagrancy. Same as I don't blame English people who don't like certain things going on there. The article being referred to says "When gypsies take over public spaces, you deport them" - it doesn't say "you deport everyone of that race," it's about the people causing problems. If you allow literally any behavior, no matter how antisocial, bad actors will ruin everything for everyone. Only the most obtuse person doesn't recognize the truth of that, deep down.
- dash2 2mo ago
  > okay for DHH and other Westerners to find the Roma value system disgusting. The Nazis murdered about a million gypsies so “finding a whole value system disgusting” can lead to some quite dark places.
  - xp84 2mo ago
    By that logic, how can we even justify finding Nazi ideology disgusting? "Sure, a lot of Nazis committed a ton of heinous crimes, and their value system told them it was good and proper to do so, but some of them are probably nice people who didn't commit murder!" To be clear my point is that not all cultures are equally good - due to their different value systems. Pretending they are always leads to the most harmful, unfair, and cruel ones taking advantage of the most trusting ones. Again, nobody here is arguing for harming anyone, nor for taking any action at all towards those of that ancestry that aren't doing the crimes. But I'd be all for deporting those that do.
classified 2mo ago
> How do people justify it to themselves? Just read the comments in this thread. There are plenty of examples right here.
- red-iron-pine 2mo ago
  HN is full, absolutely rampant, with bots. Lotta reasons, e.g. hyping the latest YC unicorn, etc. influencing wealthy and influential tech folks is very much a serious concern, since they're often online and high extra hard with regards to the 1-9-90 rule

mcsniff 2mo ago

Perhaps they agree with his opinion or they don't care about it?

ribelo 2mo ago

Maybe it's simply because his opinion is shared by many people and I would even say that he is pretty mild in expressing it?

maleldil 2mo ago
Equalling the Roma (and insisting on using a slur to refer to them) to wolves that need to be shot is mild?
- deleted 2mo ago
  [deleted]
- JeremyNT 2mo ago
  To empathize a bit with the Basecamp employees, DHH has sort of slowly worked his way into the gutter racism that he displays openly now. Like a lot of his peers, the first Trump administration seemed to unlock a permission structure to be increasingly reactionary in public, facilitated by the overt political bias of Musk's X. We've now reached a point where this sort of "vice signaling" is a great way to gain clout in the overtly nativist tech bro niche in the US. Which is to say, he wasn't always like this, and it feels like each new blog post is getting worse in a way that, if I were at Basecamp, I might have initially overlooked as the frog was slowly boiled.

xp84 2mo ago

Maybe a lot of people actually agree with him, and would rather we expect more of people, rather than simply defining criminal activity as an unconscious effect of one's being somehow oppressed, or one's great-great-grandparents being oppressed, or whatever. The culture in question have been infamous for centuries for their value system which is incompatible with most others. Just as it's okay for devout Islamists to find the whole American value system disgusting and want nothing to do with it, it's okay for DHH and other Westerners to find the Roma value system disgusting. It's a belief system they choose, it's not something like skin that people cannot change. In America there's a lot of ethical ambiguity given how recently most current residents' ancestors arrived. But in Denmark? Did the Roma build that society? (Possible) EU citizenship aside, I find it hard to judge Danes who feel that ethically, they don't have a right to degrade that society with crime and vagrancy. Same as I don't blame English people who don't like certain things going on there. The article being referred to says "When gypsies take over public spaces, you deport them" - it doesn't say "you deport everyone of that race," it's about the people causing problems. If you allow literally any behavior, no matter how antisocial, bad actors will ruin everything for everyone. Only the most obtuse person doesn't recognize the truth of that, deep down.

dash2 2mo ago
> okay for DHH and other Westerners to find the Roma value system disgusting. The Nazis murdered about a million gypsies so “finding a whole value system disgusting” can lead to some quite dark places.
- xp84 2mo ago
  By that logic, how can we even justify finding Nazi ideology disgusting? "Sure, a lot of Nazis committed a ton of heinous crimes, and their value system told them it was good and proper to do so, but some of them are probably nice people who didn't commit murder!" To be clear my point is that not all cultures are equally good - due to their different value systems. Pretending they are always leads to the most harmful, unfair, and cruel ones taking advantage of the most trusting ones. Again, nobody here is arguing for harming anyone, nor for taking any action at all towards those of that ancestry that aren't doing the crimes. But I'd be all for deporting those that do.

classified 2mo ago

> How do people justify it to themselves? Just read the comments in this thread. There are plenty of examples right here.

red-iron-pine 2mo ago
HN is full, absolutely rampant, with bots. Lotta reasons, e.g. hyping the latest YC unicorn, etc. influencing wealthy and influential tech folks is very much a serious concern, since they're often online and high extra hard with regards to the 1-9-90 rule