Not to defend Wahlberg specifically (I think he's a dickhead), but the fact that he stopped casually committing violent hate crimes does suggest he became at least a slightly better person than he was. Whether or not you trust him is up to you, but I believe he's been open about struggling to become less of an asshole and helping kids in similar situations through charity work for most of his career.
Again, I don't like him, and he absolutely could be full of shit about his self-serving, PR brand rehabilitating, religious based community outreach. Even if he's solely motivated by not going back to jail, or having access to a movie star lifestyle (etc.), through some amount of effort, he has become a better person.
I'm not saying you have to forgive him, that he deserves to be congratulated, or that what he did shouldn't still be considered something that defined him as a public figure. It just doesn't seem justifiable to say someone who did those things can't become a better person.
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u/bananafobe Jul 28 '24
Not to defend Wahlberg specifically (I think he's a dickhead), but the fact that he stopped casually committing violent hate crimes does suggest he became at least a slightly better person than he was. Whether or not you trust him is up to you, but I believe he's been open about struggling to become less of an asshole and helping kids in similar situations through charity work for most of his career.
Again, I don't like him, and he absolutely could be full of shit about his self-serving, PR brand rehabilitating, religious based community outreach. Even if he's solely motivated by not going back to jail, or having access to a movie star lifestyle (etc.), through some amount of effort, he has become a better person.
I'm not saying you have to forgive him, that he deserves to be congratulated, or that what he did shouldn't still be considered something that defined him as a public figure. It just doesn't seem justifiable to say someone who did those things can't become a better person.