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Comment by soulofmischief | Hacker News Reader

I'm sorry, but your comment has no place here.

I was discussing a dead soul with reverence and respect. That is not the time to jump in with "oh but actually he was terrible". That is incredibly rude and poor taste and disrespectful to the dead.

Terry Davis suffered greatly from mental illness, specifically schizophrenia. He suffered from confusion. It's quite disgusting that you try to cite some of the ridiculous things he's said as reasons he is terrible. He did not have full autonomy over his thoughts and words.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

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Right after someone dies, there may be people mourning them, so it's terribly disrespectful to criticize the dead person. That concern about disrespect is largely about respecting the mourning process.

But, after some time has passed, we should be able to discuss and evaluate a person's impact (good and bad). Otherwise history would be impossible to write.

It's been eight months. I think it's okay to acknowledge the full range of what Davis said.

Grandparent comment didn't say Davis was terrible, as you claim; the words were "He said some terrible stuff".

Please don't attack another user like you did here and below, regardless of how wrong or bad a comment is. The site guidelines ask us all to Be kind. That's always important, but surely even more so when you're arguing for treating someone better.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Sorry, dang. I didn't mean to attack them. I got really offended at their hateful comment but next time I'll just flag and move on.

I take strong exception to your characterization of my comment as "hateful". I don't hate Terry Davis. He was brilliant. Fostering a diverse, inclusive, and welcoming environment is really important to me. Some of the things that Mr. Davis said did the opposite of encouraging that goal. And that may not have been his fault. But, he did say those things and if we venerate his abilities while not also acknowledging his faults, I think that sends a negative message about what the community is willing to tolerate.

Please stop.

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