Just Like Bad People Can Make Good Art, Bad People Can Also Have Good Politics And The Insistence That

Just like bad people can make good art, bad people can also have good politics and the insistence that they were faking it and secretly fascist all along is just as irrational as retroactively deciding their entire body of work was always bad and you never liked it anyway.

I think Neil Gaiman genuinely believed he was a good and progressive person and was perfectly sincere in his support of trans rights and representation. I think Joss Whedon genuinely believed he was a feminist ally. I think JK Rowling was very sincere about the anti-fascist themes she wrote into Harry Potter, and thought she was a good queer ally when she clapped back at homophobes on Twitter. I think Marion Zimmer Bradley genuinely believed she was a good feminist.

We aren't reliable judges of our own character, and we all see ourselves as good people, even when we're hurting others. Anyone can justify their intentions to themselves, no matter how vile their actions are, and that's a scary thought. There's a perverse comfort in believing that people who do terrible things are pure evil demons in human skin with no capacity for good, but its just a fantasy. A comforting fantasy. The uncomfortable truth is that bad people are PEOPLE who do good as well as bad things just like you.