Let's be charitable and steelman your parent comment, and Tank Man too (quite literally). Character is important. As you say we don't know much about Tank Man

Let's be charitable and steelman your parent comment, and Tank Man too (quite literally). Character is important. As you say we don't know much about Tank Man. It was probably more than the defining moment of his life, it was the last day of it. Isn't it fair to assume that whatever led up to that moment was a life lived in good character? He may not have lived as an exemplar of "authenticity", and if it was only a moment in an otherwise selfish and wasted life, like those "city businessmen" who spontaneously jump onto a subway track to save a child, we agree it doesn't that subtract from the authenticity of the act? As we say around here "carefully pick your hill to die on". But there's more to the picking than a rash decision in a single moment. There's everything that built that character too, no?