[AtLast]

Originally Posted by TheBellyBionic

This, exactly. Refusing to condemn actions which are clearly wrong in every way denotes nothing so much as a complete *lack* of any kind of ethics. I feel that I have a very strong sense of ethics, and those ethics mean that I absolutely will stand up and say "No, there is definitely a difference between right and wrong. Slavery was wrong. Jim Crow laws were wrong. Apartheid is wrong. There is nothing redeeming or debatable about any of these things. They're just wrong. Always, in any era, at any time, always wrong." Kobi, you say "who am I to judge?" I don't. I, as a person with ethics, am an excellent judge of right and wrong. I, a person with ethics, am absolutely *obligated* to judge right from wrong. I find it incredibly disturbing that anyone could claim otherwise. I'm horrified that anyone could actually say that they can't judge the actions of the past. If you can't judge the past, then why should any of us trust you to make good decisions in the future? If you can't say whether or not slavery was wrong, why should any of us think that you'd stand against it happening again?

SHIT! Hell yes, one can determine if something in the past is right or wrong. And one would have to rather moronic to not be able to see what those wrongs have produced that we deal with today. Unless one just wants to keep themselves under a rock. Which is the choice of many, unfortunately.

You are right on here, Aj. I often look around at some of the wing-nut garbage today and wonder.... Would these people stand up against forms of the past transgressions today? My gut fear is they would not. and cry that they didn't know it was happening just as so many did while Jews (and others) were being gased in concentration camps (just one example).

In fact, examples of this kind of thinking (and in-action) are with us today! How many turn the other way with environmental hazards, domestic abuse and violence right next door, hate crimes against people, crimes against women, child labor infractions, blatant racism and the long term effects of structural racism... on and on..... fill in more blanks....

You bet the sins of the past are on me if I don't recognize exactly what they are and how they continue in various forms!