Do you think we are stupid?

If there's a positive side to some of the anti-Ruby negativity, it's that new voices are joining the fray. In the must-read If Rails Is A Ghetto, Please, Let Me Be Ghetto, John Munsch sums up the current anti-Ruby sentiment pretty well:

Everybody who has seen the explosive growth of Ruby and Rails over the last couple of years eclipse their favorite language/framework (e.g. Python, Groovy, PHP, etc.) seems to be blogging or commenting this idea that Ruby and Rails isn't really that great, it's just hype. It's only a committed few who have something to gain from you adopting Rails (i.e. a book to sell, consultant hours, etc.) who are promoting something that is snake oil.

Seriously, how stupid do you think we all are? I've been doing professional development since 1985 and doing it full time since '87. Do you really think that I and thousands of others can't tell when something works and it doesn't? I did HTML when the only browser was NCSA Mosaic and ASP websites to build DevGames.com and then later GameDev.net in 1999. That was painful. I can tell the freaking difference people. This works and it works well. I might not pick it for building the next version of eBay because it wouldn't stand up to the load, but I would pick it for building the early versions of the next site that will become as big as eBay because it will offer that site lots of fast growth and flexibility.