it's okay to not know
i don't know who needs to hear this, but i swear: it's okay to not know. it really is.
it's okay that you didn't know your favorite musician treats others like shit, or has a ghastly political belief, or thinks the earth is flat.
it's okay that you didn't know that, because how were you supposed to?
how is anyone supposed to know and preempt these things?
how was i supposed to know my favorite author when i was twelve would turn out to be a fully right-wing, trans-exclusive radical feminist years later?
how was the guy who likes computers and cars supposed to know that the dorky rich man people dubbed the "real-life tony stark" would go on to throw nazi salutes on tv?
how is anyone supposed to know these things until the ugly truth comes out?
you can't. you really can't. even when it's stuff you were supposed to know, you were supposed to have seen, red flags, warning signs, suspicious behavior, whatever. even when you're supposed to know these things and you don't because maybe you were busy or aren't online enough or don't watch tv, it's okay that you didn't know.
it's okay to not know things sometimes. we can't know everything all the time. there's work, and school, and family affairs, and social lives, and hobbies. there's so much to do.
it's okay to not know that someone you thought was a good person or that you looked up to turned out to be a bad person. that doesn't make you a bad person. that doesn't mean you're stupid and it certainly doesn't mean you actively sought out a terrible person to like or look up to.
i think a lot of people need to hear and understand that. it's okay to not know — it really is.
even the person who ran the infamous yourfaveisproblematic tumblr page back in the day eventually stopped trying to know everything bad everyone has done.
it just is an impossible task.
you can't know that a seemingly good person would end up doing not-so-great things in the future. you just can't.
it's okay to not know these things, i swear.
but now that you do know, what are you gonna do?
i think that's what should count.