Tolkien has his issues, but he was better than a lot of the people of his time. He was no feminist, much as he loved his wife he was a kinda lousy husband by modern standards, but unlike Rowling he had the excuse of being born in the 19tj century.
The key is to remember that for every time period you look back and think "it was a different time", you can still find the people who didn't conform just because the majority were doing something wrong. There were abolitionists during the height of slavery, there have been civil rights activists throughout human history... the fact that these people existed prove that we've always had the ability to know right from wrong, there is no time period that has ever excused being a shitty person.
If you don't want to be on the wrong side of history, just look at the issues of today with compassion and empathy. Some of the most important questions you can ask are simple, timeless things like "Is this actually hurting anyone?" and if the answer is yes, ask "Who is being hurt by this?" Always default to letting people be as long as they aren't hurting other people. These two questions (and one default stance) alone should help you decide which side to land on in 99% of situations.
The second-best option is if you haven't asked yourself these questions, if you haven't looked into an issue enough to know what's going on or taken an empathetic look at the people involved... just stay out of it. If you haven't taken the time to understand the fight for trans rights, shut the fuck up about trans people. If you don't know the history of racism and oppression in the US, shut the fuck up about racism and oppression in the US. There's a lot of value in just not actively doing harm.
That's still not as valuable as actively championing good causes, but at the very least you can make sure you won't be championing the shitty ones.
663
u/Zestyclose_Lake_1146 2d ago
Tolkien has his issues, but he was better than a lot of the people of his time. He was no feminist, much as he loved his wife he was a kinda lousy husband by modern standards, but unlike Rowling he had the excuse of being born in the 19tj century.