7 ms·
TBH if it was me I think I'd prefer it if not every single mention of me in the future brought up what is ultimately a rather personal and unpleasant thing. Yes
by wlll 7y ago
TBH if it was me I think I'd prefer it if not every single mention of me in the future brought up what is ultimately a rather personal and unpleasant thing. Yes, it was an appalling thing to have been done to him, but if I were successful I think I'd rather my successes were celebrated standing alone.
- robert_foss 7y agoI think there's value to not sweeping these things under the rug. In the shockingly recent past we've committed atrocious things, and there's nothing stopping us from doing it again apart from us learning from our past. As for a society honouring it's heroes, it rings a bit hollow when it through persecution killed said heroes. Being honoured when you're dead does you very little good.
- robert_foss 7y agoAs for current atrocities, look no further than the American border, the Chinese surveillance state (and the western hemisphere's complicity & avoiding the issue) or corporate monstrosities like FB enabling the persecution of minorities like the Rohingya.
- GarrisonPrime 7y agoNot beating a dead horse about something isn’t the same as sweeping it under a rug. I’d rather not have every single bit of communication contain a reminder of some past horror.
- SolaceQuantum 7y agoI tend to assume when a past horror is reiterated that it might be new information for someone else. I'd much rather new historical nuance be introduced to a new person over the unpleasant information being privately mine and others left ignorant.
- mywittyname 7y agoUnderstanding his fate allows him to be an icon for disenfranchised minorities as well.
- criddell 7y agoDoes his end makes him more of an icon for disenfranchised minorities than the immense contributions this genius made over his life. If history were different and he were hit by a bus or lived a long life, he would still be an icon, no?
- iamnotacrook 7y ago"Does his end makes him more of an icon for disenfranchised minorities than the immense contributions this genius made over his life". Yes. "If history were different and he were hit by a bus or lived a long life, he would still be an icon, no?" Yes, but in that situation he would not be such an icon for disenfranchised minorities because the nonsense gay people had to deal with back then wouldn't have been so visible. Are there any other people from that particular point in time and location who are remembered for suffering and dying as he did?
- criddell 7y ago> in that situation he would not be such an icon for disenfranchised minorities In other words, he's an icon to different people for different reasons? That makes sense.
- mywittyname 7y agoWe shouldn't discount the value of having important people in history who were minorities, outcasts, or otherwise disenfranchised. To most young people, he's probably seen in the same light as Newton, Plato, or any of the other Smart People in History. But to an LGBTQ person, he can be looked to as a person who did great things while suffering from a social stigma that they too encounter on a daily basis. Young people want to learn about heroes that are like them.
- imtringued 7y ago
- matthewbauer 7y agoGoing from convicted criminal to celebrated on bank notes by the SAME government in less than 100 years is pretty notable!