Sometimes I think about how much trouble I have fully re-contextualizing the past. For example, I know now that Reagan was a bad person who said and did bad things, but he was also the first political figure I ever looked up to. As a result, even though I can list for you (in person, never online) many, many, many bad things about him, it's still hard for me to think of him as bad. Rather, my *initial* response when I hear his name is positive, then replaced by a more negative and reality-based assessment based on what I know and understand today.
This makes me wonder: assuming I live long enough and continue to be open to re-evaluating things in the future, who today am I going to have the same trouble with? I'm not sure I have positive feelings about any political figure today as much as I did about Reagan. Maybe Obama.
I think my previous re-evaluations have made me less likely to support anyone quite as ardently today. I'm in awe of Pelosi's effectiveness as a politician while still being very aware of her eerie effectiveness as an investor, the latter of which would seem to require unethical dealings. The caveats are there currently, rather than being layered on later.
In fact, having seen so many people brought low by additional information, I think I'm less surprised when new information is released about people I like now. I mean, I guess the Channel 5 is (allegedly) a serial harasser of women. Okay. I learned some crazy stuff about Bill Cosby some years back, hearing similar things about people now just doesn't hit the same way.
Having learned to see the racism and sexism clearly present in the world today, it can't shock me to find that heroic figures are guilty of perpetuating racism and sexism.
Maybe this is why I couldn't get very excited about Bernie Sanders.
Maybe this is what it's like to be old.
