There are numerous examples of people who appear to be intelligent, witty. Maybe they hid their darker sides (be it some authoritarian, populist, racist or otherwise objectively bad tendency). But they did hide them. But then something seems to change and they quite quickly descend into being very unlikeable. And it's not just always "ideas". It seems to permeate their entire being. The transformation includes going from being "likeable" in a broad sense, to very abrasive personalities even when you factor out their views. It's really scary and depressing. We only notice this in some really high profile cases (Musk, Notch, a few politicians...), but I'm sure there are thousands of less visible people who have done this transformation without anyone noticing but their close friends and family. While I might sound like RFK Jr: I'd really like for someone to go to the bottom of what causes it.
> We only notice this in some really high profile cases (Musk, Notch, a few politicians...)
I attribute this to the amplification effect of social media has on the output from these famous people.
But at the same time I blame their slide into madness on social media because for both Notch and Musk (and I would also add JK Rowling to this list) it all started with disproportionate amount of genuine hate from well meaning individuals for stating opinions slightly outside the Overton window. I think the "twitter mob" is frankly more to blame than the people themselves, because without it, all three of them would still censor their public outbursts more than they do now after the dams of hate against them have already broken and there's no lower depths they can sink to.
That's why I think it's important to be polite even to the assholes.
