I don’t think (1) is a problem, if anything I think the world is far too skewed in its tendency to judge powerful people based on personal virtues and foibles, and not enough on judging them based on their impact (in either direction).
E.g. all the comments about Zuckerberg sounding robotic and very few about him donating money to random charities, far more comments about Elon’s various Twitter spats and few about either space or OpenAI, various public figures lambasted for breaking lockdowns (rather than utterly poor pandemic preparedness and response), the whole Andrew Cuomo thing, etc.
Well, I disagree on that one. In my view it’s harmful to “give a free pass” to obviously bad behaviours by powerful people because of other things they do, both in terms of justice in general and of sending a message to society that morality is optional.
E.g. many people fetishizing Musk over his space ideas or Twitter personae, and ignoring his awful labour practices or his sexual harassment and what appears to me to be predatory behaviour.
Edit to add: I wouldn’t put “Zuckerberg sounding robotic” in this category, but I would “various public figures breaking lockdowns”. I think you greatly underestimate the importance of leading by example.
I can see some, although I admit I too am skeptical of the harm here:
People become aware of good things about [powerful person] without realising that person is also a douchebag in many ways
People want to bring about a world without billionaires slightly less (or more, depending on which of these you think is bad)
I don’t think (1) is a problem, if anything I think the world is far too skewed in its tendency to judge powerful people based on personal virtues and foibles, and not enough on judging them based on their impact (in either direction).
E.g. all the comments about Zuckerberg sounding robotic and very few about him donating money to random charities, far more comments about Elon’s various Twitter spats and few about either space or OpenAI, various public figures lambasted for breaking lockdowns (rather than utterly poor pandemic preparedness and response), the whole Andrew Cuomo thing, etc.
Well, I disagree on that one. In my view it’s harmful to “give a free pass” to obviously bad behaviours by powerful people because of other things they do, both in terms of justice in general and of sending a message to society that morality is optional.
E.g. many people fetishizing Musk over his space ideas or Twitter personae, and ignoring his awful labour practices or his sexual harassment and what appears to me to be predatory behaviour.
Edit to add: I wouldn’t put “Zuckerberg sounding robotic” in this category, but I would “various public figures breaking lockdowns”. I think you greatly underestimate the importance of leading by example.
I don’t understand why “we should hold powerful figures accountable for the impact of their actions” translates to “morality is optional.”