I hate that phrase “product of his time”.

People like to use it to defend this sort of shit going back centuries, but I know about Benjamin Lay, the badass 1700’s-era hobbit (no really, he lived in a cave) who was friends with Benjamin Franklin and told him to his face what a motherfucker he was for being a slaver. He also walked from city to city spreading his views, because he was a vegan before his time and felt it was wrong to ride horses.

There are always people who know something’s wrong, and generally plenty of people willing to say it.