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> High-strung, antisocial, egotistical, domineering, rage-filled. I think you are doing the man a disservice summarising him in such a way. His interest in unorthodox/heretical religion was at least since he was at university. He spent a significant amount of time on alchemy. Newton was the President of the Royal Society for over two decades, an MP for a similar amount of time which I would think required a lot of in…
On the other hand, excusing, downplaying, or erasing those harms, should not be acceptable, because who decides who's worthy of having their history erased? Should we erase Stalin's past because he helped us win the war? Should we erase Churchill's starvation of millions of Indians because he helped us win the war? The point is not to obsess over good or bad, or call someone a "good person" or a "bad person". The point is to have a realistic perspective on real people, and not let hero-worship distort history or reality. We need realism and accountability now more than ever.