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Comment by ethbro | Hacker News Reader

Public figures are still human, with families...

This is a popular excuse when horrible people are called out for what they are. "Won't someone please think of the children".

Well, it's they themselves that should have thought of their families. It's not our fault when we say exactly what they were.

Calling out, in my book, requires an intelligent, thoughtful treatment of the behavior and subject.

GP took a cheap quip at a dead man, for laughs and karma.

And just because he was (by all accounts) an asshole, that flies? And doesn't just fly, but inspires righteous indignation that anyone would feel it's disrespectful?

Be the change you want in the world.

I'll grant you the families part.

Yeah, I have a hard time dancing on a persons grave. Unless they've done something totally evil, they should be afforded some respect. That said, hearing about Limbaugh's condition tested my ability to live by that principle.

> Unless they've done something totally evil

Well, according to a comment upthread:

> In upstate New York he held back for over a decade any effort to mitigate legacy PCB pollution from GE’s mostly closed factories there. He funded AstroTurf organizations and downplayed research showing connections between PCB pollution and health problems.

Yeah. That qualifies as evil in my book.

A la David Cameron feeling merely "privileged pain" upon the death of his son

If you want nice things to be said when you pass then do good things for people in your life.

It’s important to be kind to all, but it’s also important to give people space to grieve.

This is exactly GP's point.

So what?

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