Last year in 2025, I was scrolling facebook and had the idea of searching my old account. After so long I got the chance to see my younger version. In a while as I scrolled down, something felt off. The post's from past five years ago didn’t sit right with who I am today. Even though I'm not the same person but now I could clearly see how immature I was.
Anyway, after that I questioned myself "Is it right if people are judged and punished for their past deeds or beliefs?" Because I was not a forgiver.
Recently I have seen many posts and comments from celebrities, which was made years ago and suddenly in present time they are facing backlashes for it now. Also their careers are disrupted, fans turned into haters even it's damaging the good image they had in the industry. Even if it's not a celebrity, normal people in real life also are getting bullied for their past deeds.
In my opinion I believe that personal growth is true and it's a real thing. I can 100% guaranty because I have personally experienced it. The real example is myself, in present time I do not think the same way as I did five years ago.
Because my experience, my education, my conversations with different kind of people, and the mistakes I made all of these has left a big impact on me, helped me to shape my life and become the new version of myself. If I were judged only by my past, it won't matter to me that much. Because that's not who I am, people who are my close they know me pretty well that how much I have developed my personality and the ethics I follow now.
I believe that I haven't done anything wrong in the past except having wrong opinions. But the real fact is words have impacts and I don't think that it's okay to ignore it. Like if something was said years ago, it might have hurt someone right? Which could have led the other person to have harmful ideas. As you know even if time has passed and it's not gonna change the effect those words may have had on the other person. So, I'm being neutral, as I think that it depends on the situation and varies from person to person, and I dislike the idea of everything being forgiven and forgotten. Because I find this entirely unfair.
Accountability matters a lot so does growth. If someone’s past deeds gets exposed then I believe prople should be more concerned about "If they are a changed person now? Have they acknowledged their mistake? Have they repeated the same thing over and over again? Have they changed at all?"
There’s a big difference between someone who keeps repeating harmful beliefs and someone who genuinely learns their mistake and evolves. In my own case, when I saw those old posts of mine it didn’t make me defensive but it made me realize that how I have outgrown of that person I was before. It made me feel awkward and discomfort and these feelings are important. It means I have realized my mistake and change has happened inside me.
But the truth which is difficult to swallow that not everyone changes.
That’s something I’ve accepted long ago. I know it would be comforting to believe that everyone will try to change themselves but when you come out of that fairy tale of yours, then you can see in reality these people hold on to the same harmful beliefs even if they were given opportunities to learn.
There are plenty of people who would pretend to change only because they have faced blacklashes and there's negative consequences. They act in a certain way to escape the backlashes and they do not have any real shift in mindset.
So it will turn more complicated if we pursue the approach of “forgive everything because within time people change,” and that's a risk because that excusing behavior hasn’t actually changed. But even if we should always punish someone for wrongdoings then we are gonna end up creating a world where growth isn’t encouraged or acknowledged. So, neither extreme feels right.
In my point of view, I think context matters a lot. That includes ones age or time and the intention also the reason behind the actions, everything should be considered.
To me accountability doesn't mean losing everything. It should mean that the person can acknowledge their behaviour, their mistake, the harm they have caused, also apologizing sincerely not just words, they should demonstrate the changes through actions.
Actually it was never about erasing the past—it’s about learning from it. In conclusion, I would consider for their present form. But there are certain things which can't be forgiven so, I would rather ignore that person forever and let bygones be bygones.
The images are created with Gemini and edited with Canva