Completely "canceling" and purging culture of controversial works and the people behind them is a direct distortion of reality for future generations. Of course, it is essential to draw a line between the present and the past. When it comes to contemporary authors who promote unacceptable ideas or have committed crimes, a commercial boycott makes complete sense: society has every right not to give these individuals fame or financial support. Yet even in these cases, their archival presence must be preserved for the historical record.

When dealing with the past, however, the excuse that "it was just the time back then and it was the norm" is equally weak. We must not justify or ignore racism, xenophobia, or slavery, thereby erasing the millions of victims of these atrocities from history. At the same time, we have to remember how much knowledge and history has already been stolen from us in the past through book burnings, censorship, and denying women and marginalized groups the right to speak. Therefore, our task today is not to repeat those same practices in reverse—not to "burn" books or ignore their existence. On the contrary, our goal must be to expand archives and human knowledge. The texts of problematic historical authors should be treated not merely as personal opinions, but as historical evidence of how past societies operated.

Sometimes, a work itself does not even contain the toxic views or crimes of its creator and holds immense cultural value. A striking example is Eric Gill, a renowned sculptor and typeface designer who contributed greatly to the development of typography and created the iconic Gill Sans font. After his death, his personal diaries revealed horrific crimes: he had sexually abused his own daughters and engaged in bestiality. Knowing this, should we chisel his sculptures off buildings and delete his typeface from digital databases? Do those lines and geometric shapes carry the sins of their creator?

The same applies to schools and algorithms: we are not obliged to promote racist or controversial authors in recommendations or force children to read them without explanation. But instead of hiding these texts from search results or editing the past, they should be accompanied by critical context. We should always approach texts and authors critically, without accepting everything written as absolute truth. People should be able to think, analyze, and make their own choices — and, in my opinion, depriving them of the opportunity to access all available knowledge is wrong.