> People change over time and normal human communications have a natural sunset built in as people forget exactly who said what.
It's true, but I'm not sure it's as good thing as you believe. I was born in communism, and then later I lived through the transition and have seen many people use this exact mechanism that you mention to whitewash their biographies. People just don't remember long, and thanks to that all of the sudden everyone was a victim of the regime who fought for democracy, while in fact they were exactly the opposite. Many bad people not just got away, but also gain significant benefits thanks to "people forget exactly who said what" and it did a lot of damage to my country and the society. So, while people do change over time, and we all sometimes have said something stupid that we didn't really mean, IMHO as adults we all should stand behind the things that we say and hold accountable to at least some level for it.
And to protect people from other's misusing their past, perhaps it would be more beneficial to educate the crowd not to be overly judgmental and not to jump to conclusions like everyone on soc. medias just loves to do - rather than forcing individuals to lie about their past to defend of blackmailers.
This isn't likely very viable, though. In particular because most emails won't contain full context. You can't even really tell from digitalized text if a person in an oppressive society believes in what they're writing or are just trying to avoid suspicion, and so on.
It's true, but I'm not sure it's as good thing as you believe. I was born in communism, and then later I lived through the transition and have seen many people use this exact mechanism that you mention to whitewash their biographies. People just don't remember long, and thanks to that all of the sudden everyone was a victim of the regime who fought for democracy, while in fact they were exactly the opposite. Many bad people not just got away, but also gain significant benefits thanks to "people forget exactly who said what" and it did a lot of damage to my country and the society. So, while people do change over time, and we all sometimes have said something stupid that we didn't really mean, IMHO as adults we all should stand behind the things that we say and hold accountable to at least some level for it.
And to protect people from other's misusing their past, perhaps it would be more beneficial to educate the crowd not to be overly judgmental and not to jump to conclusions like everyone on soc. medias just loves to do - rather than forcing individuals to lie about their past to defend of blackmailers.