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This thread resonates with me. I've seen the whole arc of frontend development. I was exiting college in the mid-2000s when "AJAX" revitalized the web software industry. It's the same fucking dudes talking about what's "real programming" and what's not. Only the context changes.
I remember when dudes were getting so much praise for XHTML when it was gonna be the thing that saved the web. But that failed and now HTML is in the garbage again. Those same people push web frameworks that wrap everything in half a dozen divs.
We talk a lot about how meritocracy isn't real. But I know some of y'all don't really understand the mechanisms of power. At some point, you realize that men can take anything they want to do and turn it into something they get praised as geniuses for. That's the whole game.
When building clean semantic websites was the thing dudes wanted to get praised for, then "simplicity" and "elegance" became the watch words of web development. If you were "overcomplicating" things you were clearly incompetent. It wasn't that long ago. I haven't forgotten.
Fast forward to today where you can't build shit without 200 node modules and a 30 second webpack build. Now complex abstractions are "the only way to move the web forward". Now it's "of course we need build steps! That's where the 'real' problems are solved".
My point is not to bash any particular paradigm. My point is that white patriarchy can build a monument to it's genius in whatever paradigm you bring to the table. And people from marginalized groups will always be sold the idea that they're doing it wrong.
5 years or so from now, it'll start again. We'll start to see articles like "I built my site without React and Wow!" 😒😒😒
