On Sunday night, someone posted screenshots of offensive comments that John Wayne made in a 1971 Playboy interview. People who had previously been going about their lives not caring about retrogressive ideas expressed decades ago were suddenly outraged, and the material was shared and liked more than 20,000 times.

Liberals and conservatives all reacted predictably. Some on the Left called Wayne racist, the “worst human,” and “rotten.” On the Right, people excused Wayne as simply reflecting the prejudices of his time.