The Great Disappointment · Jens Oliver Meiert

The Great Disappointment

Published on Aug 3, 2025, filed under development, misc, advocacy (feed). (Share this on Mastodon or Bluesky?)

For Frontend Dogma alone, I visit dozens of web development websites every week. This includes sites I visit regularly, as well as sites I haven’t seen in a while—and at all.

For some time now, I don’t notice or recall even one developer clearly taking a political stance.

Nothing on the Israeli genocide on the Palestinians and the destruction of Palestine.

Nothing on the Russian war on Ukraine.

Nothing on the suffering of the Sudanese, the Rohingya, or the Uyghurs.

Nothing on racism. Nothing on minorities. Nothing on social justice. Nothing on corruption. Nothing on animal welfare. Nothing on pollution. Nothing on climate change.

Nothing even on U.S. American web dev blogs on the U.S. war on migrants and foreigners, U.S. pressuring and bullying of other nations, or even the subversion of their own political and justice systems.

Nothing. ^*

And that is different from the past: You, too, remember how people did protest against racism, and stood with Black Lives Matter. We could see this, on our peers’ websites. But there’s essentially nothing on BLM anymore, either.

The web development part of Tech, sometimes touted political, couldn’t be more depressingly apolitical.

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I don’t think this indifference is real though. People care. Caring—loving—is being human.

There’s something else going on. In the case of Israel, for example, it may be fear, over decades of Israel aggressively branding any kind of criticism as “anti-semitic,” effectively, in the words of some, “zionizing us.” ^†

Yet the silence of our field is deafening.

Web developers don’t give a damn about conformance, baseline quality that would benefit their careers and our field. They have for 20 years. Nothing new here.

But with a sizable, vocal number of web developers being based in the U.S., nothing goes out about selfish, hateful, destructive U.S. politics?

With a sizable, vocal number of web developers being digital nomads, nothing about wars and genocides, wars and genocides in places they visited or wanted to visit?

With a sizable, vocal number of web developers who themselves may be part of a minority, who may live in places with significant social injustice, who may well be affected by climate change, there’s nothing to take a stand on?

Now, maybe this is all taking place on social media, and the most prominent of our peers endlessly campaign for peace and human rights and equal opportunities there. I might just be expecting political statements in the wrong places.

But if not—it’s one hell of a disappointment to see our field, of web development, in 2025. Tech influencers without a cause, speaking out only for themselves.

I missed something, I exaggerate, I err, right? Please attribute peers and the causes they promote on their websites in a response to this post, on Mastodon, Bluesky, or LinkedIn! That will make my ignorance their benefit. But also, join in—use your reach to stop destruction and promote positive change. This is all this is about.

^* This hasn’t been an academic study—I haven’t looked at “everything” our peers publish, and I’m making an empirical point. There are developers out there who feature constructive political content and who make constructive political statements on their websites. It seems just not terribly many, and not terribly visibly so. If that’s easier to work with, take “nothing” as “too little.” And yes, I believe we do not only have an opportunity, but also responsibility to use our platforms to take a stand, against anyone who harms people, animals, or the environment. What else would our influence be good for.

^† This branding of criticism as some form of a crime has been both astonishing and scary to watch. It’s astonishing because we need criticism to grow—that’s one reason why we are so keen to have a strong feedback culture in our businesses. It’s scary because so many people have felt intimidated, to an extent that it has taken destroying the livelihoods of two million people and starving them to death (!)—the Gaza genocide—for people to realize that “criticism of Israelis is anti-semitism” is bullshit. (At least, some people have begun to realize that there must be some limit to not being allowed to criticize.)

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m a web developer, manager, and author. I’ve been working as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies you’ve never heard of and companies you use every day, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.

I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my experiences and views. (I value you being critical, interpreting charitably, and giving feedback.)