So, this is an irritating behavior I've noticed over the past few years, but progressives seem to have a habit of purity testing EVERYONE. Even worse, they tend to demonize people from history who were pretty good people for their time because they don't fit into the 2022 standards of what progressivism is, and tend to fall short of the crazy standards of wokeness today. It's like, come on guys, just take the W.
This actually started because I saw people discussing Henry Ford starting the 40 hour work week at his company like 100 years ago or something. And instead of recognizing it for the progress it was, they started going on about how he hated Jews and did business with nazis or something. Like, yeah, maybe he did. But, still, this has nothing to do with the topic. What Ford is generally remembered for was being a rather progressive entrepreneur at the time because he did crap like realize "hey you need to pay your employees for them to buy your products" and "hey maybe the 40 hour work week is a good idea." And I admit, a lot of these ideas are rather UNcontroversial today (unless you're a far right conservative or libertarian still fighting to repeal the 20th century regulatory state because your faith in the "free market" trumps all), but 100 years ago? These were BASED ideas. People were fighting for this crap since like the 1870s or 1880s in America, and with it finally being implemented in the 1920s unofficially and the 1930s officially, we were making major progress. But instead of recognizing it the conversation shifted to "but racism bad." Yes, racism bad, but virtually everyone before say 1970 was probably some form of racist by modern standards, can we just let it drop? No, not according to this version of the left.
The same thing happens whenever FDR is brought up. OMG INTERNMENT CAMPS. Yes, internment camps bad. But this dude gave us the new deal, took on big monied interests in a way no president has since in the last 80 years or so, and he also helped win us WWII. This dude is one of the most decorated presidents. But a lot of progressives see fit to just focus on the fact that some things he did were, once again, racist. Sure, they kind of were. And he did have his questionable moments. All presidents do. But once again, I feel like the good largely outweighs the bad and it does a disservice to try to "cancel" the person because he made racist decisions in much more racist times.
And let's not forget Abraham Lincoln. Okay? This is the dude who FREED THE FREAKING SLAVES. What does the modern left remember him for? That one idea he had about sending freed slaves back to Africa. Once again, since it apparently needs to be said, yes, racism bad. But are we really gonna crap on the guy's legacy because he happened to fail the purity standards of the modern woke left? This dude was progressive as fudge for the time. He is rightly remembered as a hero. But...again, gotta focus on the one bad thing for some reason.
Like, okay. You wanna take down confederate monuments? Sure. I can see that. I think it's weird how much stuff in the south is named after Jefferson Davis and how we seem to just seem to openly support and even state sanction the use of confederate imagery and claim it's "southern pride" or "heritage", I mean, the confederates were a bunch traitors whose main gripe with being in the US was about slavery (and no, don't say "states rights", "states rights" to do WHAT?). Ya know? In those cases, the bad definitely outweighs the good. But in cases that the good outweighs the bad, I mean, why do we need to demonize these people? I'm not saying we can't discuss their flaws, but for these guys to start every conversation with "you know this dude was a totally racist POS right?" is just...no. Like really, this crap is obnoxious. I'm getting sick and tired of the woke left screaming that anything and everything is racist all the time. And yeah. Again.
I really dont understand why nuance can't be had here. Sure. When you really come down to it, virtually everyone before 1970 was racist in some way shape or form. And no one fits the modern woke left. But we gotta recognize people for the historical times they live in, even if those times were less enlightened than current times. To be fair, the modern left tends to crap on recent figures too with almost no one being spared their scorn if they fail to meet their standards of purity. it's frustrating.
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