// HACKER NEWS — CYBERSECURITY
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.
Yesterday, I kicked someone from the Nuxt Discord who had chosen an avatar (for the second time!) of a man in a Nazi uniform.
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!
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.'
Let me say something else, seemingly more controversial.
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.
Check out this helpful article, DHH Is Way Worse Than I Thought. Jake said it better than I can: