A World That No Longer Exists
I was born in 1966. That means I grew up in a world that no longer exists.
The language was different. The humor was different. The assumptions people made were different. Some of that was crude. Some of it was unfair. Some of it deserved to be left behind.
Fine.
People learn. Societies change. I’ve changed with them more than some might assume.
But what I reject is this strange modern habit of acting as though people shaped by a different era were inherently defective for having lived in it.
We are all products of our time, whether we like it or not.
I cannot retroactively become a person raised in 2026 any more than someone born in 2000 can fully understand what it meant to grow up without the internet, without social media, without every stray thought being publicly litigated.
Adapting is one thing. Pretending the past never existed is another.
I don’t need absolution for having lived the life that was in front of me.
Judge my willingness to learn. Judge how I treat people now.
But don’t ask me to apologize for having a biography.