hn.today

Don't Be Nice

roe.dev41 points41 comments
Screenshot of Don't Be Nice

The author argues that being "nice" often means silencing one's own judgment to avoid conflict, but some things demand refusal rather than polite neutrality. Using the etymology of "nice" (from Latin nescius, unaware), a concrete incident is recounted: removing a user from a Nuxt community chat for repeatedly using a Nazi-uniform avatar. When hateful or exclusionary beliefs surface, the author rejects the idea that open source must remain apolitical and insists that protecting shared human values - care, inclusion, equal rights - trumps a false neutrality that lets harmful views stand unchallenged.

Specific targets of that refusal include a tech figure whose public statements deny Black Britons' belonging and advocate mass deportations of Roma people; the author warns that acclaim for technical work can normalize and obscure such views. Readers are asked to consider whether companies should support projects tied to that figure, and to favor being morally good over being merely pleasant. The piece treats this stance as values-driven rather than partisan, arguing that opposing clear violations of human dignity is not "political" in the trivial sense but necessary.

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