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Comment by southernplaces7 | Hacker News Reader

blah blah blah. Speak for yourself. I'll miss him, probably along with many others, as a cultural piece of my childhood, adolescence and for years still there as a curious part of a changing adult world. If we judged every human being in history by these nebulously stupid standards, there'd be nobody left to like.

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> nebulously stupid standards

You should listen to the racist recording. It wasn't nebulous, it was clearly and explicitly racist. Most people think he went way too far. This isn’t a case of subtle racism where people might be overreaching; what he said was awful.

Sorry you can't outgrow your childhood, but you should come to terms that the man you idolized was a shitty person.

> nebulously stupid standards

Here's the quote, talking about his daughter: “I mean, I’d rather if she was going to fck some ngger, I’d rather have her marry an 8-foot-tall ngger worth a hundred million dollars! Like a basketball player! I guess we’re all a little racist. Fcking n*gger.”

Feels fucking gross to even read this out loud.

Meh. Shitty words, sure, but I've read and heard worse from all kinds of people, enough not to completely dismiss the possible better, and more interesting aspects of someone because they didn't speak nicely or intelligently in every context.

There are plenty of people left to like who aren't racist and misogynist. It's okay to update your worldview of your heroes when they behave badly.

Look at this user's comments in other threads. They won't update their worldview.

On the contrary. My worldview has been and still is shaped by an ever changing learning curve of the world's nature. That includes being flexible enough to show some affection even for that which doesn't fit rigorous dogmas of conduct. Can you say the same about your labels?

And there are plenty of people who can still be liked, or appreciated at least, who also were racist and misogynist, or whatever other moral defect you like. It's okay to show affection for someone who didn't perfectly fit the strictures of what a specific type of virtue signalling labels as correct.

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