[canadaduane]

"Don't look him up, he's not exactly role model material." I don't admire the ethos of putting people in bad boxes.

[nilamo]

On the otherhand, I greatly appreciate that we don't pretend everyone is 100% awesome all the time. We shouldn't hold people up as role models that we don't want to emulate, and whatnot.

[philipallstar]

If we're not pretending everyone is awesome then why permanently deselect certain people as role models?

[Brian_K_White]

One of them is legit a saint and the other almost as much. They absolutely are role models, and the way they are talked about now is exactly a lesson in the problem. If more people emulated them, the world would be a much better place.

[gwbas1c]

I think enough of us have imperfections that we can appreciate that people who've done wonderful things have also done some very $#!tty things. Someone doesn't need to be a saint to still have a wide, positive influence.

[tptacek]

Which wonderful things are you referring to?

[jwrallie]

It also instigates people to look at the worst in others. Don't think about pink elephants!

[rbanffy]

> you may be worried about which box you belong in. ;)

There’s also the risk someone very loud decides to put you in a box you don’t belong in. Eventually you are able to demonstrate it, but, in the meantime, you need to deal with the consequences.

[einpoklum]

Your post may be insinuating that you put ESR and RMS in such boxes, although you did not actually say that. You might want to clarify that point. (And I say that as someone who has neither upvoted or downvoted you.)

I'll also say that there are enough aspects of our personality and behavior that you might use to justify placing someone in the "bad box" that almost everyone would be in one; and if you were to relax the criteria so that you "average badness" along multiple axes, that comes with its own problems.