As soon as someone dies we have to pretend the deceased was a venerable saint or we are bad people. I don’t mean we should rejoice in their death, we can have sympathy with them for being human and with their family, but criticising them for views and actions is seen as horrible. So we must pretend they were great people.
It happened with Widdecome, now it’s happening with Rod Liddle. The guy was a sexist boor and punched his pregnant girlfriend once, but any mention of this apparently makes you the bad guy for some, while glossing over it for a biased and rosy view is good. I am sure, like everyone, he had his good points, but the bad needs mentioning while many eulogise him as some great person.
There is something ironic in how he used to glory in offending others and his fans liked that, telling critics to not be so politically correct, and now they’re pearl clutching because critics think he might have been nasty.
