Audubon owned slaves. Muir was racist. Webb was discriminatory. These are all teachable moments: the evils in our past were not solely the fault of the worst people in society; even the best people were responsible.
Audubon owned slaves. Muir was racist. Webb was discriminatory. These are all teachable moments: the evils in our past were not solely the fault of the worst people in society; even the best people were responsible.
Just because very few people are totally devoid of moral failures doesn't mean some people aren't better than others. And it shouldn't mean that we can't judge those before us for their failures as well as their successes.
I would certainly not use this as cause for renaming the many things we have named after Turing.
*Alan Turing: The Enigma, page 132:
"They were ordinary people, who made Alan feel more at home than did the grand Princeton figures. In their old-fashioned country way, they put Alan and Maurice in the same double bed. The compartments of life were fractured. Maurice was amazed - he had not had the slightest suspicion. Alan apologised and withdrew at once. Then he blazed out"
There were plenty of people who opposed slavery. Those were the best people, even if they're not remembered in a culture that worships slavemasters.
It’s the same as going all the way back to the beginning of someone’s Twitter account to find a rap lyric quote to get them fired.
Even the most cautious careful views today may look terrible 100 years from now.