Custom name server removes the ability of visiting websites with 'dev' in the url
I have been passively looking for this for over a year now.
thanks to @nohillside I found that the .dev redirect were resolvers and looked into my /etc/ and found a folder called resolver.
(get to /etc/resolver/ on mac using CMD-SHIFT-G in finder)
This folder contained the file named dev with the contents:
# Lovingly generated by Pow
nameserver 127.0.0.1
port 20560

from the pow website:

And Pow eliminates the need to edit /etc/hosts.

I am now wondering if I used some other application that used Pow internally and didn't clean up after itself.