I see straight lines connecting the overt racism of my childhood when John Wayne was a living cultural icon with Trump-style white supremacy today.

As far as not judging people by the standards of the present, let me say only this. The racist adults I knew when I was a child knew enough to keep their mouth shut around the wrong people. Maybe I should say the right people. The racist adults I knew when I was a child were on some level ashamed of themselves. That didn't stop them, but it taught me they understood what they were doing was wrong.

The fact that they did it anyway brought us Trump and the Proud Boys and white nationalism and all the rest.