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There’s nothing racist in the article so it doesn’t matter. A bad person can create good things. No need to focus on the bad.
by brutusborn 3y ago
There’s nothing racist in the article so it doesn’t matter. A bad person can create good things. No need to focus on the bad.
- velcrovan 3y agoNo one actually believes this in practice. Everyone has a threshold of gross, spiteful or violent behavior in others beyond which everything they do becomes tainted. If ESR didn’t consistently use his platform to promote hatred, maybe he’d still be on the near side of that threshold for me and most other people.
- brutusborn 3y agoI do. My threshold for judging content is: is the content valuable to me. This is a function of the content, not the personal history of the author or their associates.
- scaramanga 3y agoAn excellent argument for unbanning Al-Qaeda's magazine, "inspire", which contains a lot of useful information.
- petee 3y agoSo attending a KKK food drive would be acceptable if they aren't actively being racist at it? Pretending they haven't said abhorrent things is arguably just as dangerous.
- brutusborn 3y agoA more relevant example would be: a scientist creates an algorithm and a paper that explains it. This scientist was also a serial killer. The algo and paper retain their value regardless of how many murders the author commits. Their past deeds might be an interesting bit of trivia, but has no bearing on the value of their work.
- zzo38computer 3y agoI believe you, even though some people do not. Some people can make up many things, which can be good and bad regardless of what else they may have done. The article can be judged by itself rather than according to whatever else the author did. (I am one who does not believe that "everyone has a threshold of gross, spiteful or violent behavior in others beyond which everything they do becomes tainted"; or, at least, it does not apply to myself.)