I embrace it because it's fun. I'd embrace Talk Like a Scot or Talk Like a Hillbilly day with the same enthusiasm.
However I will comment that rogues have always been lovable. Have you ever wandered down the romance aisle? These are a sampling of the "heroes" Vikings Pirates Slave Owners (popular in the 70s and 80s...not as much today) Sheiks (still every bit as popular) Vampires Werewolves Thieves Rakes (men with more money than sense and a ferocious sense of entitlement)
The point is, it's fantasy. And if we want to romanticize a pirate or privateer (pirate with a country), we can do it because they're no longer a threat. I don't see it as a glorification of a bloody profession; anymore than I assume that because I daydream about masterful men, I secretly want to be raped. You're drawing a line between reality and fantasy and that line was never meant to exist.
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However I will comment that rogues have always been lovable. Have you ever wandered down the romance aisle? These are a sampling of the "heroes"
Vikings
Pirates
Slave Owners (popular in the 70s and 80s...not as much today)
Sheiks (still every bit as popular)
Vampires
Werewolves
Thieves
Rakes (men with more money than sense and a ferocious sense of entitlement)
The point is, it's fantasy. And if we want to romanticize a pirate or privateer (pirate with a country), we can do it because they're no longer a threat. I don't see it as a glorification of a bloody profession; anymore than I assume that because I daydream about masterful men, I secretly want to be raped. You're drawing a line between reality and fantasy and that line was never meant to exist.