The Cult of the Bully⁠↗

if we want to live in good societies—where most games are positive-sum and decency is the norm—there is no substitute for having a sufficient number of people who are actually good, or struggling to be so.

In different ways, Trump and Musk prove that it is okay to be terribly flawed—and to aspire to no ethical standards whatsoever—because you can always be washed clean by the attention of others. In this way, each man has become a kind of savior for people who don’t want to be judged. It is a mutual absolution and intoxication.