Churchill - antisemitic racist or war hero?

[SimonMac]

I mean the dead one not ours.

It seems people are coming to the realisation that people are not black or white, good men can do bad things, and its very difficult to paint a person as one or the other

[rootsnall]

I mean the dead one not ours

A man of his time who finally found something he was good at ( apart from writing ) courtesy of WW2.

[ladymuck]

Both. He did questionable things that raised an eyebrow even in those times, and also did some great things.

People are never binary good or bad. They are a blend of good intentions, bias, misguided aspirations, and self interest. This is not an exhaustive list.

Slave owners often used their profits to philanthropic ends. The slaves had a crap life but the poor back home had a slightly less bad time of it. Good intentions paid for by questionable means. You could argue they were buying a veneer of respectability (the Sacklers of today), or that it wasn't 'really' slavery in such nasty terms (hmmm) but the good deeds done justified the methods.

[LondonManc]

There are also things that are good or bad from a certain point of view.

A lapdancer to a feminist is being abused and sexualised by men.
A lapdancer to the lapdancer is paying for a lifestyle that would be beyond her means if she were to do any other job available to her. She's comfortable with her body and a bit of an exhibitionist.

Dictators to their followers are inspirational leaders.
To their opponents, they're the epitome of evil.

[DimPrawn]

White privileged racist, who will soon be at the bottom of the Thames.

[scooterscot]

He was also a drunk.

[DimPrawn]

He was also a drunk.

And a chauvinist, and probably a kiddie fiddler and peeping tom.

[malvolio]

Churchill was many things, some good some bad, but racist wasn't one of them. He was a major supporter of the Jewish community both in business and government, for example back into Edwardian times. And lest we forget, ( ) WW2 was about stopping a country intent on racial cleansing and white supremacy.

Also, has anyone noticed that recorded incidents of deaths in police custody (about 1700 since 1990 apparently - although I rather hope most of those are not down to the police themselves...) split between white and BAME follow almost exactly the same ratio as those numbers in the general population...

[DimPrawn]

Probably a tax dodger and secret Nazi sympathiser too.

[Old Greg]

I mean the dead one not ours.

It seems people are coming to the realisation that people are not black or white, good men can do bad things, and its very difficult to paint a person as one or the other

He was probably no more antisemitic than men of his class and era.