Many normie NPCs think it seems wise and nuanced to say "You shouldn't use current standards to judge the merits and morality of people and systems from another time."

It has a certain plausible applicability stemming from the incommensurability of one situation with another without a defined and appropriate standard where comparison is useful or valid. In light of the many various value systems, strategies for attaining goals, and extant or relevant needs which are all in a sense subjective, it could very well be the case that a standard cannot be applied or at least that we should be careful not to naively apply it. However, normies are wayyy too quick to presume that we are in one of these situations wherein application is impossible or not worth out time, and discard any intellectual endeavors this direction out of hand.

When normies do this and assert the aforementioned assertion as a given, it implicitly presumes a number of things that are not always true or applicable to the inspection at hand. To begin with, it presumes that the standards in question are not universal and constant, that we are speaking only in terms of relative merits and demerits by some arbitrary, subjective standard. Next, it presumes that the particulars relevant to understanding the merit or morality of the person or thing in question are either (A) unknowable for all cases or (B) decidedly, systematically and for all cases, known to be of such a nature as to render the thing or person in question immune from the methods of inspection and of imputing values which are in use today, which is not immediately apparent and is lacking any logical justification of pragmatic use as a heuristic, let alone as a true and appropriate assertion, epistemological rule, or rule to supplement a value system.

This is made far, far worse when we are clearly talking about universal facts such as "to seek to enslave a man is bad," and that is met with the same old "well we shouldn't judge old cases with today's standard." Indeed if that is your way of thinking, your standard, we shouldn't judge anything at all by your standard! Your philosophy is shit! The very notion of (and efficacy of carrying out) objective morality itself is under attack by this bland, useless NPC script propagating about. Through its utterance, rule by fiat is quietly, sneakily affirmed, and the masses keep themselves from reasoning out any relevant truths.

So no, fuck you and fuck your different times different standards bullshit. Lysander Spooner will always be a motherfuckin' badass, Abraham Lincoln will always be a racist tyrant, and Alexander Hamilton will always be a central banker, "necessary and proper" grifter. These things are just true. If this rings true to you, tell a normie to shut the fuck up and try thinking for himself about it next time he utters this nonsense.