We should have a designated shit talker on everyone's wake. Someone who only purpose is to bring every bad word said, bad deeds, remember the unreturned books or any item.

Fun fact: that’s what the Devil’s Advocate actually was - a person appointed by the church to argue against canonizing someone by digging up any negative things about them that can be found:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_advocate

Ah yes! Unreturned book and racism are in same league of shit-talking. Just another art of down-playing the severity of actions/words by comparing it with something mundane.

> every bad word said, bad deeds

I suggest reading the whole comment before replying.

It's pretty blindingly obvious from the whole context that "unreturned books" is meant to be sarcastic.

I think that's the point of the person you replied to. An exceedingly minor issue such as "unreturned books" is used for sarcastic effect, but that implication that we should treat library loan violators in this way seems to indicate that our view of library loans should somehow be tied to or maintain consistency with our view of publicly espousing racism and/or sexism.

Well he was born in the 1920s. Nearly everyone born in that time would be considered racist or sexist since those terms were basically unheard of before the 1960s. I don’t really see what’s the use of condemning him given that, you ought to recognize that his generation intentionally cultivated your generation of anti-racists and anti-sexists.

lol, chill out. everyone has said regrettable things.

Not everyone had the same opportunities to know better afforded by a world-class education and extensive travel abroad. Not everyone continued to say these "regrettable" things well into the 21st century. Not everyone was aware that they had a platform by which their words might have an amplified effect.

Judging the past by contemporary politics doesn't make much sense. The present and the past are separate contexts.

I agree.

> Not everyone continued to say these "regrettable" things well into the 21st century.

Just a short sampling, mostly from before 2000 although more can be found in other articles: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/04/prince-phili...

However, judging recent history by contemporary politics absolutely makes sense