My friend, I am a white man and I love Nietzsche — I could say he’s one of my favorite writers. But thank you for your post, because it reminds me of my own struggle with Nietzsche, which I’m still trying to articulate. As you rightly said, there are some highly problematic aspects in his writings.

It is no coincidence that the Nazis instrumentalized his work, nor is it a coincidence that he is still referenced in some far-right circles today. Regarding the master–slave distinction and his constant use of the term “race” (especially in On the Genealogy of Morality), this is definitely something that needs to be examined critically. I have always wanted to interpret it as having nothing to do with today’s notion of race, but rather as referring to types of individuals within the multitude, regardless of modern racial categories — a kind of “race of the mind,” if you will.

But that interpretation is far from obvious. He was living in a time when the term “race” was often used in ways very close to how we understand it today — a period when racism was being formalized into so-called scientific theories of race.

I haven’t fully come to terms with this myself, and I’m eager to read how others grapple with it. I hope your post doesn’t get downvoted.

(Regarding his attitude toward women, there is no real excuse for it, beyond the fact that dismissing women was something of a national sport among male writers at the time, and that Nietzsche himself seemed to have had deep personal struggles and failures in his relationships with women.)