Let's Persecute People for Bad Behavior for the Rest of Their Lives!

This is a response to this article written in 2003:
http://noisey.vice.com/blog/ace-of-bases-secret-nazi-past

For a brief summary, it turns out one of the members of Ace of Base was a neo-Nazi for several of his teenage years.  He was in a band that performed racist and bigoted songs spouting neo-Nazi propaganda (and someone he knew did some illegal things during that time, though I am not sure how the author justifies acting like this should reflect on Uffe).  Then he joined Ace of Base, performed songs that are not in any way promoting neo-Nazi views.  He started at least one company, and he does some kind of consulting for some very large companies and at least one politically influential organization (which the author suggests is both damning and dangerous, despite the lack of any evidence that Uffe has used this position for anything but good).  The author of the article ends by saying that a dismissal of Uffe's neo-Nazi past that happened in a 1997 interview, saying that he would rather forget the poor decisions related to this time of his life, was not enough, and that he (the author) would never listen to Ace of Base songs the same again.

(I did not post the following as a comment on the page with the article, because commenting requires a Facebook account, which is something I am not prepared to sacrifice large portions of my time to.)



Yeah, I figure if you are so hard headed that you cannot get over a bad past, you are no better than the person you persecute.

Most human beings won't consider any viewpoint other than their own.  It is true that many people have a very difficult time changing their opinions and view points.  I am not one of these.  I am in my 30s, and for the first 25 years of my life, I took the views of those around me, and I made them my own.  When someone told me I was wrong about something, instead of being the typical hard headed human who would rather "prove" my own opinion right, rather than actually being right, I researched the issue.  Many times, those people were wrong, but other times, I found they were right.  Almost 10 years later, I still hold a lot of the same political views, but now I have actual facts and evidence to back up my reasons.  At the same time, many of my views have changed considerably, because the evidence showed me that my views were wrong.  I am currently a conservative, but I can agree with neither the Republican party nor the Democratic party.  I am not a moderate, and I would not align myself entirely with any other packaged political ideology.  All of them have good things (for the most part, and some more than others), but not one is entirely correct (and this is just on verifiable facts and claims; I also cannot agree with any one of them 100% on opinion).  This  is because I don't subscribe to other people's political ideals.  Instead, I shape my own based on research, deep thought, and a real desire to actually be right.

It is clear to me that the author of this article is one of those typical humans who would prefer to live in ignorance, ignoring truth and fact, rather than actually being right.  It is possible that Uffe still has neo-Nazi political views, but when I look at the evidence, it tells a different story.  Yes, it sucks that he did all of this bad stuff, but just because you are a typical bigoted human who won't change his opinion even when presented with evidence and facts does not mean that Uffe is so self absorbed and bull headed to be the same.

You can keep your bigotry based opinion (though, I acknowledge your God given right to believe and share it).  I will take the facts and base my opinion on them.  Uffe acted like a neo-Nazi for less than 10 years of his life.  Since then, he has acted like a much more kind, humane, and tolerant person for much longer.  Teens do a lot of stupid things.  Why don't we just permanently revoke the drivers licenses of all teens who ever drink and drive for their entire lives?  Because that would a horrible, stupid, unfeeling thing to do to someone who's brain has still not matured to the level of clear, rational thought!  (You are a journalist.  If you don't believe that teens brains are still not fully developed, you do the research.)  Based on my observations, I would say that the research cuts out a little short.  It seems to me that you, and many other humans, either lack, or refuse to use, clear, rational thought whenever it is even mildly inconvenient or uncomfortable.