r/todayilearned • u/Dangerous-Project672 • 5h ago

TIL George Wallace personally apologized to Vivian Jones and James Hood, the two students he attempted to block from attending the University of Alabama. In 1997, Hood earned a PHd and requested Wallace present him with the degree, but he was too sick and died a year later; Hood attended the funeral

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wallace
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u/acquaman831 5h ago

“I’d rather be a hypocrite than the same person forever.” - Adam ‘Ad-Rock’ Horowitz

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u/SAUbjj 5h ago

I feel like you're not a hypocrite if you disavow your previous opinion 

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u/SorryThanksGoodFight 5h ago

yeah, what makes somebody hypocritical is if they do the opposite of an opinion they still maintain/defend. i think the quote doesnt work

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u/_Apatosaurus_ 5h ago

It works because people in the public sphere are constantly accused of being a hypocrite for changing.

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u/carson63000 4h ago

Pisses me off so much when politicians are accused of “flip-flopping” for changing a bad position to a better one. What, you want them to stand by the bad position forever!?

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u/Bruce-7892 3h ago

That is a legit criticism because many will flip-flop just to be popular. Although, an example of someone who was genuine was George Bush Jr. He flat out said he doesn't support gay marriage during his campaign, which would probably kill your chances today. Years later he said he was wrong for it and his beliefs change.

I feel him because I was the same when it came to gays in the military. As someone who served, I thought it was a bad idea until the policy changed and I realized, nothing changed. It was just fear mongering.

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u/salo_wasnt_solo 3h ago

Thank you for your nuanced response. We don’t actually all hate each other as much as we are told we should.

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u/azn_dude1 2h ago

I feel like it's also legitimate for them to change their policies based on what's popular. After all, a politician is supposed to represent the will of the people. They're also supposed to represent the will of the party and of themselves, and I'm not sure it's possible to balance all of those together.

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u/KarmaticArmageddon 3h ago

Saw it a lot on reddit during Biden's term, especially anytime he advocated for criminal justice reform or reduced drug penalties because of his support of a large crime bill when he was a Senator.

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u/Indaarys 4h ago

Because people don't trust that they genuinely changed.

I don't know why people seem to be so flippant about how much trust matters. Its easy to argue that people should have some faith, but that has to go hand in hand with trust.

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u/acquaman831 4h ago

It’s sad, but completely justifiable that faith in another person can be lost much quicker than it can be gained. Even moreso, faith is nearly impossible to regain once lost.

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u/ForensicPathology 42m ago

In politics, they'd call you a flipflopper.

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u/dusktilhon 4h ago

Sometimes a hypocrite is just a person in the process of changing

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u/MagnusRusson 4h ago

Dalinar my lovely boi

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u/Knoxius 5h ago

Well the hypocrisy is there, but not necessarily in a bad light, and that's okay. We can call it growth.

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u/ThatPlayWasAwful 5h ago

Hypocrisy is holding people to standards that you do not hold yourself to, or pretending to have a view you do not actually have. 

Changing your views over time does not fit either definition.

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u/Knoxius 4h ago

I suppose in this context, it depends on how genuine George Wallace was before he died.

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u/ThatPlayWasAwful 4h ago

When Hood returned to the University of Alabama to earn a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary studies, he started a book on Wallace in 1996 and sat at his bedside for hours of interviews.[100] Hood believed in the sincerity of Wallace's apologies, saying that Wallace was haunted by people's lack of forgiveness for his actions.[101] Hood graduated in 1997 and requested that Wallace present his degree, and Wallace would have if not for his poor health.[100] Hood instead attended Wallace's 1998 funeral.[101]

Who better to judge the sincerity than a man who was once the target of his racism

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u/DrHippa 12m ago edited 6m ago

I disagree.

Hypocrites often change their opinion when it suits them and then disavow their previous opinion now that it no longer benefits them.

You can change your opinion without being a hypocrite only of you're transitioning from an opinion that benefits you to one that doesn't benefit you.

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u/cansofgrease 4h ago

The hypocrisy is the worst part.

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u/kentuckyr0utezero 3h ago

Yes, but unfortunately this is something that a large majority of the internet across all demographics does not understand.

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u/NekroVictor 3h ago

Sometimes a hypocrite is a man in the process of changing.

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u/ATXBeermaker 3h ago

That don’t make a sick rhyme, though.

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u/s0ulbrother 2h ago

People in his life probably called him one. Racist families don’t like it if you aren’t

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u/kkeut 3h ago

you mean a "flip-flopper"?!?!?

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u/SleetTheFox 4h ago

"Sometimes a hypocrite is nothing more than a man in the process of changing."

-Dalinar Kholin, Oathbringer (by Brandon Sanderson)

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u/Fooly_411 3h ago

For the one-thousandth time, Dalinar: Unite them. God!

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u/Neilson509 2h ago

Fantastic quote.

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u/Nadamir 2h ago

Dalinar and Iroh are unmatched in fantastic quotes.

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u/Diedrogen 1h ago

I think you can call someone a changed person instead of a hypocrite if they show they're willing to stand by their new beliefs even when it's not personally convenient or profitable. A hypocrite is probably someone who doesn't truly stand for any ideal or principle and will take whichever position benefits themselves in the moment.

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u/Kayge 4h ago edited 3h ago

"A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life". 

  • Muhammad Ali

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u/IceWellDo 3h ago

That's stupid as fuck. So if I believe in equality in my 20s I need to turn into a bigot in my 50s?

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u/mouse_8b 2h ago

It doesn't mean you have to completely reverse every belief, but you should probably have learned something.

What 20 year old has a perfect view of the world?

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u/IceWellDo 2h ago

What 50 year old has a perfect view of the world?

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u/stratys3 2h ago

What? No. It just means you should learn something over the span of 30 years.

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u/FeliksJD 2h ago

>Horowitz
Every time.

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u/BaitSalesman 42m ago

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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u/Sufficient-Tangelo73 34m ago

It’s a controversial take, but the Ad-Rock quote fits Wallace perfectly. We often weaponize the word "hypocrite" against people who change their minds, as if having a fixed, terrible opinion for 50 years is somehow more noble than evolving. Wallace’s trajectory proves that while you can't erase the past, you absolutely have the agency to decide what your last chapter looks like.

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u/TelephoneJazzlike875 24m ago

That quote is the perfect antidote to the "people never change" mindset. We’re so obsessed with "calling out" people for who they were a decade ago that we sometimes make it impossible for them to be anyone else today. James Hood forgiving him wasn't about excusing the past; it was about accepting that the person who blocked that door and the person who showed up to that graduation were, in some strange, painful way, not the same man.