Remember the launch website domain
"Let me borrow a Muggle saying I once heard from you during a chat: one step ahead of the times is a genius; two steps ahead is a madman." Vaughn, tell me—were Slytherin's two closest friends geniuses or madmen in his eyes?
Uh—
Vaughn was speechless.
Dumbledore gave him no time to consider it and continued without pause. "Even if we take a step back and assume Slytherin truly was a narrow-minded, evil racist, if he opposed Muggle-borns attending school, why didn't he simply kill them all back then? Was it because he lacked the ability, or because the thought never even crossed his mind?"
"Judging from the records in ancient wizards' notes, the notion that he lacked the ability does not hold water. Slytherin was proficient in most Dark Arts, including ancient magic. If he had truly wanted to purge the Muggle-borns, neither Gryffindor nor Ravenclaw could have stopped him—destruction and ruin are always easier than protection and creation."
"But if we look at it another way—if Slytherin was not a narrow-minded wizard, but merely a man constrained by the limitations of his era—then everything becomes understandable. He was enraged by the mad ravings of his two friends, so he fought them bitterly and even broke with them. Yet he bore no malice toward Hogwarts or Muggle-borns."
"There was no right or wrong in this conflict. It was merely a disagreement caused by differing perspectives and ways of viewing things. So although Slytherin opposed Muggle-borns enrolling, he took no action until his death—because eliminating Muggle-borns was never truly his intention, and because the situation he feared never arose before he died!"
"In fact, over the years, quite a few wizards studying the history of magic have proposed similar views. But because of the destruction