| Oh, I wasn't implying that I think he or any figure should be "absolved" of anything. If we're all guilty of hypocrisy in some form or another, and we all struggle with it, and the person your describing is dead and can do nothing to change that fact, what is actually the point? I mean, there are times hypocrisy is overt and blatant, and times when it's subtle and we don't see it in ourselves. In those times, I think it should be called out on, and even historically, it can be useful to make the distinction between outright deceit and phoniness to cognitive dissonance to just being unaware. With Thomas Jefferson, or most people from the past, I can't know which part of the spectrum of hypocrisy they fell on. I think it's fair for you to be honest and point it out, but it's so often used as a pejorative statement without any nuance into the relative ways in which we could easily be talking about ourselves. But again, I don't say any of this to try to defend or deny the sins of those in the past, those should be discussed frankly and out in the open. |