Have you ever known someone who seemed nice enough and perfectly normal, until you saw one of their social media accounts and realized they were insane? Like, you became Facebook friends with your uncle, or followed that friend-of-a-friend who’s fun at parties on Instagram, and it turns out they constantly post about weird shit like the deep state and demographic replacement and the pedophile ring that Hillary Clinton definitely runs from the basement of a pizza parlor?

Over the past couple weeks, the tech community has been slowly coming to terms with a prominent person like that. He seems congenial — started a successful open source project, co-founded a reputable company — until you come across his blog filled with unhinged political diatribes. I’m speaking, of course, of DHH: Ruby on Rails creator David Heinemeier Hansson.

If you, like me, don’t pay much attention to this person, the last thing you might remember him from is the fracas a few years ago over his company Basecamp banning political discussions at work. While I had my opinions about that What Counts as Politics in the Workplace? | jakelazaroff.com Basecamp says that "work is not an appropriate place to debate political issues". The problem is that the people on the other side aren’’t actually calling for debate. So let’s see if we can bridge the gap. What, exactly, counts as politics in the workplace? jakelazaroff.com/words/what-counts-as-politics-in-the-workplace/ , it seemed to fit within the general range of politics you can expect from most people. I assumed David was just a normal guy with whom I had some political differences, and went on with my life.

That all changed when I heard about the recent hostile takeover of the RubyGems package manager Shopify, pulling strings at Ruby Central, forces Bundler and RubyGems takeover Ruby Central recently took over a collection of open source projects from their maintainers without their consent. joel.drapper.me/p/rubygems-takeover/ , which appears to have started over a lost sponsorship for giving David a conference speaking slot. My interest was piqued, so I checked out his recent post “As I remember London”. By the time I finished reading, my jaw was on the floor.

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.

But don’t take my word for it. We can get it straight from the horse’s mouth. Let’s go through David’s “As I remember London As I remember London As soon as I was old enough to travel on my own, London was where I wanted to go. Compared to Copenhagen at the time, there was something so majestic about Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, and even the Tube around the turn of the millenium. Not just because their capital is twice as old as ours, but because it endured twice as much, through ... web.archive.org/web/20250925050154/https://world.hey.com/dhh/as-i-remember-london-e7d38e64 ”¹ post and see exactly what he’s all about.

Native Brits

David’s post starts off fairly anodyne:

As soon as I was old enough to travel on my own, London was where I wanted to go. Compared to Copenhagen at the time, there was something so majestic about Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, and even the Tube around the turn of the millenium. Not just because their capital is twice as old as ours, but because it endured twice as much, through the Blitz and the rest of it, yet never lost its nerve. I thought I might move there one day.

Yeah, man. I have cousins not too far away from there, so even though I live across the pond I’ve been lucky enough to visit a few times. London is great!

That was then. Now, I wouldn’t dream of it. London is no longer the city I was infatuated with in the late ’90s and early 2000s. Chiefly because it’s no longer full of native Brits. In 2000, more than sixty percent of the city were native Brits. By 2024, that had dropped to about a third. A statistic as evident as day when you walk the streets of London now.

The honeymoon is over: Big Ben and Trafalgar Square are only majestic if enough passersby are “native Brits”.

That’s a little vague, but he links “native Brits” to a Wikipedia article called “Ethnic groups in London Ethnic groups in London - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_London ” so we can see exactly whom he’s talking about:

Greater London had a population of 8,899,375 at the 2021 census. Around 41% of its population were born outside the UK, and over 300 languages are spoken in the region.

59% of Londoners were born in the UK! How could it possibly be that only a third of them are native Brits?

The article’s first section breaks down the demographic data in a table. The first ethnicity listed? “White British” at 36.8% as of the 2021 census.

Ah.

As for other ethnic groups: the table rolls up “Asian or Asian British” at 20.8%, “Black or Black British” at 13.5%, “Mixed or British Mixed” at 5.7% and “Other” at 6.3%.² No other group is even remotely close to a third.

It turns out that when DHH says “native Brits”, he’s specifically referring to white Brits. That’s why it’s “a statistic as clear as day when you walk the streets of London”: it’s his coy way of saying that too many of the 59% of Londoners born and raised in the UK are not white.

So if David means “white Brits”, why doesn’t he just say that? Why bother with the innuendo?

Because complaining that there aren’t enough white people sounds weird and racist! David bristles at that label, but there’s a reason he’s hiding behind euphemisms rather than just saying what he means. Most people don’t go around thinking “boy, all these Black and Asian people make this city so much worse.”

Most people, that is, except for David:

But I think, what would Copenhagen feel like, if only a third of it was Danish, like London? It would feel completely foreign, of course. Alien, even. So I get the frustration that many Brits have with the way mass immigration has changed the culture and makeup of not just London, but their whole country.

He thinks that a city that has too many Black people feels “completely foreign”. That it’s “alien” to see too many Asian people as he walks the streets. David tries to throw “mass immigration” in there — but as we know, his problem with the “culture and makeup” is how many people are not white, whether or not they’re immigrants.

Unite the Kingdom

David continues:

That frustration was on wide display in Tommy Robinson’s march yesterday. British and English flags flying high and proud, like they would in Copenhagen on the day of a national soccer match. Which was both odd to see but also heartwarming. You can sometimes be forgiven for thinking that all of Britain is lost in self-loathing, shame, and suicidal empathy. But of course it’s not.

Who’s Tommy Robinson? According to his Wikipedia entry Tommy Robinson - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Robinson , he’s an “anti-Islam campaigner and one of the UK’s most prominent far-right activists with a history of criminal convictions”.

Not a great start! But maybe Wikipedia just has a left wing bias?³

Well…

• He’s described himself — verbatim — as opposed to Islam PEGIDA U.K.: What Does The 'Anti-Islam' Group Want? The German protest movement is expanding across Europe www.newsweek.com/tommy-robinson-edl-pegida-uk-423623 .
• He promised to retaliate against — also verbatim — every single Muslim in response to a terrorist attack Tommy Robinson is a far-right, Islamophobic extremist. Here’s why. — HOPE not hate In the last few weeks, former English Defence League (EDL) leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (alias Tommy Robinson), has started a crusade to confront journalists and bloggers... hopenothate.org.uk/2017/05/22/tommy-robinson-far-right-islamophobic-extremist/ .
• He called for the blanket deportation of — you guessed it, verbatim! — every adult male Muslim who recently immigrated to the entire EU Tommy Robinson: Five Things to Know www.adl.org/resources/article/tommy-robinson-five-things-know .

How about the march he organized? HOPE not hate reported on what the speakers he invited had to say Britain’s Biggest Far-Right Protest: More than 100,000 attend Tommy Robinson’s Unite The Kingdom Rally  — HOPE not hate Today saw Britain’s largest ever far-right protest with police estimating 150,000 people in attendance for the “Unite the Kingdom” rally. Organised by Stephen Lennon —... hopenothate.org.uk/2025/09/13/britains-biggest-far-right-protest-more-than-100000-attend-tommy-robinsons-unite-the-kingdom-rally/ .

“It’s not just Britain that is being invaded, it’s not just Britain that is being raped. Every single Western nation faces the same problem: an orchestrated, organised invasion and replacement of European citizens is happening.”

That one’s Tommy Robinson himself.

The Dutch far-right commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek delivered one of the day’s most incendiary speeches, appearing in a t-shirt emblazoned with the words “Generation Remigration”. She said:

“They are demanding the sacrifice of our children on the altar of mass migration. Let’s not beat about the bush — this is the rape, replacement, and murder of our people… Remigration is possible, and it’s up to us to make it happen. We are Generation Remigration.”

I had to look up the word “remigration”. It means “ethnic cleansing via the mass deportation of non-white immigrants and their descendants, sometimes including those born in Europe, to their place of racial ancestry” Remigration - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remigration .

“This is a religious war,” said Brian Tamaki, leader of New Zealand’s Destiny Church. “Islam, Hinduism, Baháʼí, Buddhism — whatever else you’re into — they’re all false. We’ve got to clean our countries up. Get rid of everything that doesn’t receive Jesus Christ. Ban any public expression of other religions in our Christian nations. Ban halal. Ban burqas. Ban mosques, temples, shrines — we don’t want those in our countries.”

I mean… these people are clearly deranged, right? You’d think any of this would warrant at least a passing mention, but for some reason David doesn’t include a single quote about what the people at this “heartwarming” march actually said.

David is well aware that these people are extremists. That’s why he tries to preempt that accusation:

The easy way out of this uncomfortably large gathering of perfectly normal, peaceful Brits who’ve had enough is to tar them all as “far right”. That’s not just a British tactic, but one used across Europe, and previously in the US as well. It used to work very well, because the historical stigma was so strong, but, like hurling “nazi” and “fascist” at the most middle-of-the-road political figures and positions, it’s finally lost its power.

Note that David never actually addresses the “far right” label on its merits — he just pivots to calling it overused, trying to direct your attention elsewhere like a magician distracting the audience as he performs a trick. We are meant to believe him that because people sometimes use “far right” and “nazi” and “fascist” too liberally, that must be happening here as well.

But of course, that’s not what’s happening here. Calling these people far right is “easy” for the same reason it’s “easy” to say Joe Biden is liberal: it’s obviously true! These are not “middle-of-the-road” positions — they’re literally calling to ban non-Christian religions and to ethnically cleanse non-white citizens. It takes no stretch of the imagination to figure out why these people are far right.

Demographic Replacement

Let’s say you wanted to trick me into believing a conspiracy theory.

You’d have to start with a grain of truth, right? You can’t come out of the gate with the COVID vaccine nano-chips that Bill Gates uses to track us through the 5G cell towers.⁴ That’d scare me off!

No, the first step is to find some common ground. Something we can both agree on. Then you can slowly mix in the crazy stuff.

That in mind, let’s continue with David’s post:

I really feel for the Brits because it’s not obvious how they get themselves out of this pickle. They’re still reeling from the Pakistani rape gangs that were left free to terrorize cities like Rotherham and Rochdale for years on end with horror-movie-like scenes of the most despicable, depraved abuse of British girls.

The child sexual abuse scandals were real and horrible. The perpetrators were mostly British-Pakistani, and the victims were largely white. No one is disputing that; it’s the grain of truth.

But like any good con artist, David has mixed in some other not-quite-so-true things he wants you to believe as well.

For one: David really wants to make sure you know that the perpetrators were largely Pakistani: scary brown foreigners. He’s insinuating that there’s some connection between their ethnicity and sexually abusing children. It’s not just that many of these abusers happened to be Pakistani; David’s implying they did it because they were Pakistani. (Many of them were also British — but as we know by now, in David’s eyes that only counts if you’re white.)

When it comes to the victims, though, David brings out the dog whistles. He describes them as “British girls” (read: white). “Barbaric outsiders preying upon innocent white women” is a classic racist trope that would be perfectly at home in the Jim Crow South The Brute Caricature - Jim Crow Museum jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/brute/homepage.htm or Nazi Germany The Jewish Man and the Aryan Woman in Nazi Propaganda It is well-established that Nazi propaganda was rife with anti-Jewish racism. Propagandists projected racial differences onto the Jewish man www.epoch-magazine.com/post/the-jewish-man-and-the-aryan-woman-in-nazi-propaganda .

I don’t know. But I’m glad that there clearly are many Brits who are determined to find out. Unwilling to just let their society wither away while their bobbies chase bad tweets instead of the rampant street thefts or those barbaric rape gangs. Unwilling to resign the rest of the country to the kind of demographic replacement that befell London over the last two decades.

On top of the “barbaric rape gangs”, David also brings up “rampant street thefts” — suggesting that the same scary brown foreigners are responsible. The problem is that his implication is only backed up by bigotry. The source he links to about the street thefts London sees record 116,000 phone thefts in 2024 - equivalent to 13 an HOUR Campaigners say ‘we are in the midst of a phone theft epidemic’ www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/mobile-phone-theft-london-met-police-b1244212.html , for example, never mentions race or ethnicity. And in spite of the salacious rape gangs story, data show that non-white people in the UK are ever-so-slightly less likely to commit child sexual abuse Trends in official data | CSA Centre Our 2023/24 report providing new analysis of the latest data from statutory services on the identification and response to child sexual abuse in England & Wales. www.csacentre.org.uk/research-resources/research-evidence/scale-nature-of-abuse/trends-in-official-data/ .

After planting the grain of truth and making lurid insinuations, David finally gets to the crazy stuff. “Demographic replacement”: a reference to a debunked conspiracy theory that there’s a plot to replace white people in Western society What is ‘great replacement theory’ and how does it fuel racist violence? Investigators are still piecing together the motives of the mass shooter who killed 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, this weekend. But authorities aren't hesitating to call it a racially motivated attack. www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-is-great-replacement-theory-and-how-does-it-fuel-racist-violence . It’s the same thing that motivated the deadly Charlottesville Unite the Right⁵ march’s infamous chant: “you will not replace us! Unite the Right Rallies August 12, 2017 marks the deadly Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, VA, an event that brought the threat of domestic extremism into sharp focus. www.adl.org/unite-right-rallies ”

“Far Right”

David ends with a quote from Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of the Social Democrats. Someone, he says, that “nobody could credibly charge with being ‘far right’”:

There are really a lot of us Danes who believed that when people came to this ‘world’s best country’ and were given such good opportunities, they would integrate. They would become Danish, and they would never, ever harm our society. All of us who thought that way have been wrong.

Notice how moderate her words are compared to what David says and supports! Frederiksen is not saying that her country is being “invaded” or “raped”, for example. She’s not calling for it to be ethnically cleansed, or accusing of foreign men of being predators.

This is a running theme for David. He is desperately trying to convince you that he is not “far right”, his people are not “far right”, his politics are not “far right”. Probably because – for all his bluster about how the label has lost its power — David knows that it’s actually a huge red flag.

Personally, I don’t think the label matters. I’ve been calling these people “far right” because it’s convenient and accurate, not because I’m invested in that particular term. Shit by any other name would smell as foul, and David and his friends are extremely pungent.

Let’s ditch the superlatives and review David’s post objectively:

• He thinks that even if you were born in the UK, you only count as British if you’re white.
• He wouldn’t consider living in London specifically because it has too many people of color.
• He uses racist tropes to accuse Asian men of being dangerous predators who attack white women.
• He pushes debunked conspiracy theories about immigrants replacing white people.
• He finds a march where speakers called for banning all non-Christian religions and ethnically cleansing immigrants “heartwarming”.
• Finally — and maybe most alarmingly — he argues that all of the above is normal and not extreme.

You can use whatever word you want to describe all that. But if you, like me, didn’t realize that this is who DHH is, we can probably agree that he’s way worse than we thought.