The times are such that urging moderation in anything but vague terms means that I'm now painting a target on my own back. I personally think that President Trump is a crook and worse, but that's just really very separate to whether or not I should ostracize people who voted for him (I shouldn't).
Western civil society doesn't have many strictly saintly people even among our most popular role models. In the United States where I live, we're constantly jammed up between trying to admire legitimate, world-changing accomplishments by our founders/framers and the fact that many/most of them were unapologetic slave owners. I imagine it's similar in a lot of the world.
Even in software anyone who cares has to try to navigate a set of opinions about key figures that range from "Luke Skywalker" to "pedophilia apologist" on the same person while trying to remain somewhat balanced about the whole thing.
Im my travels I've never met a person who isn't a monster judged by their worst act, and who isn't a saint judged by their best.
That's all very platitudinous and PC, so to grind out something actionable: I think every person should be vigorous in determining their own allegiances to and admiration for and condemnation of public figures, and very conservative in judging others for differing opinions. So basically Postel's Law: "be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others".
Western civil society doesn't have many strictly saintly people even among our most popular role models. In the United States where I live, we're constantly jammed up between trying to admire legitimate, world-changing accomplishments by our founders/framers and the fact that many/most of them were unapologetic slave owners. I imagine it's similar in a lot of the world.
Even in software anyone who cares has to try to navigate a set of opinions about key figures that range from "Luke Skywalker" to "pedophilia apologist" on the same person while trying to remain somewhat balanced about the whole thing.
Im my travels I've never met a person who isn't a monster judged by their worst act, and who isn't a saint judged by their best.
That's all very platitudinous and PC, so to grind out something actionable: I think every person should be vigorous in determining their own allegiances to and admiration for and condemnation of public figures, and very conservative in judging others for differing opinions. So basically Postel's Law: "be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others".
I'm bad at this myself, but I'm working on it.