For example, in The Shield, the cop character Shane is super racist and says the N-word, but when a Black girl is killed, Shane gets really mad and wants to find and kill the killer or bring him to justice. Some CEOs who are straight-up classist would still help their employees, and if their employee dies, they would start funds for their kids. But why? Why would people like this do something ‘good,’ especially when there isn’t anything in it for them?
And why do good people do “shitty” things? MLK Jr. was having affairs with white women while protesting for civil rights and Gahndi used to sleep next to naked teenagers.
The answer is humans are nuanced.
people also justify and re-interpret their actions in real time. cheaters often think their cheating is justified rather than thinking of it making them terrible in the eyes of their spouse or family.
on the outside looking at the past, we have hindsight and context and oftentimes a different cultural and historical set of standards than other societies and other times had.
I find it particularly baffling when people like go back and read 18th century books and think they are bad people because they were racist or something. At that time, not being racist would have made you the moral outlier, just like being atheistic would.
Ghandi used to sleep next to naked teenagers, what?
To test his will. It’s fucked up.
Whaaaat???