he is quite upfront about his prior felonies.

Here’s my hot take on this. As a society, we are pretty bad about showing grace to others. We expect people to grovel and trip over themselves to apologize for past misdeeds, but we haven’t any intention of forgiving them and/or providing a path to redemption. Add to this that the internet has given us a permanent record of everyone’s SNAFUs. This has created an atmosphere where no one wants to be honest about messing up. They want to lie, deflect criticism, play the victim, or pass the blame.

Let’s face it. We’ve all done something fucked up at one point or another. It may not be making a school shooting threat level of fucked, but we’ve all done something we’re deeply ashamed of and regret. If someone knows that people will never forgive them and they certainly won’t let them forget that bad thing, but is still willing to be honest, it speaks volumes. Candor in the face of consequence shows greater moral fiber than a lifetime of a sanctimonious play-acting ever will.