What Cory points out here is one of the things that leads to what I call the “glass floor” effect: individuals (usually privileged ones) whose reputations have been touted and burnished and invested in so much by the powers-that-be to the degree that when the person screws up or get caught in shady behaviour they’re not allowed to fail (at least for a while). Instead of ending up in well-deserved poverty and obscurity, if not prison, they’re given chance after chance after chance by their patrons and champions.
Examples include Stephen Glass, Jonah Lehrer, Elizabeth Holmes, the Affluenza Kid dirtbag murderer, and convicted rapist Brock Turner. You may have one of these annointed ones in your workplace or family, but it’s also the actor or musician who makes you ask yourself “how does this person keep getting gigs?”
