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TheVenerableCain  ·  3163 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: "This Book Does Not Promote X"

In a similar vein, Dan Carlin talks about this in regards to "great" historical figures in his podcast Harcdore History - Wrath of the Khans. Basically he says that we tend to look past the actual personal motivations of the perpetrator of an event (or creator of a piece of art) if enough time has passed for there to be a significant cultural shift. His initial example is Alexander the Great, who waged war and killed a shitload of people, but ended up spreading Hellenism which lead to artwork that we enjoy today. People today would say that it was worth the sacrifice of those lives and credit Alexander with doing this great thing, but ignore the idea that it wasn't his actual intention to spread a great artistic and cultural movement.

To apply the idea to your question, people tend to view things more closely that they have (or believe they have) a more intimate understanding of. Since these issues are at the forefront of modern day culture, people are more apt to apply their personal beliefs and biases to a piece, whereas art created hundreds or thousands of years ago can be viewed without that filter.

TL;DR: People see what they want to see.