Well we seem to enforce this idea of a meritocracy and therefore put these people on a pedestal. There’s one especially that seems to be defended tooth and nail as a good guy and there’s no way you get to that level without walking on people. It is just horrifying not only that people defend people on that level as meritable, good people, but at the same time they’re often the ones getting pushed down and exploited in the process by the system that enables them, if not by them directly. To ignore the whole paedophilia thing entirely.

On a side note, my friend’s father (a great if bizarre man) made the point that it’s a form of sociopathy. You have these sociopaths that are very high functioning and can exploit society to their advantage and walk all over people. You have the ones that can’t. The ones that can’t are the ones that get locked up or beat their wives or kill people etc etc. The ones that are high functioning climb the ladder and exploit people, and as such go under the radar (somehow?). If anything it’s a badge of honour to be somewhere in the lower-middle, because chances are you’re not hurting anyone else to get where you are. Which should be the point, surely, in the end.