Zuckerberg has spent nearly half his life inside a company of his own making, handpicking his lieutenants, and sculpting his environment to suit him.

The admissions case reminded me of the rationale I kept hearing for looking past Trump’s behavior toward women, minorities, immigrants, war heroes, the FBI, democracy, and the truth, not to mention his request that Ukraine “do us a favor” by investigating his political opponents: a conviction that, ultimately, nothing matters more than cutting

What had changed, though, was what he called the “psychological distance” between perpetrators and their victims: “Business is done with individuals at greater length now, which reduces the feeling that managers are harming others.”

As early as May 2016, exit polls and other data showed that Trump supporters earned an average of $72,000 a year, while supporters of Hillary Clinton earned $11,000 less.

‘The boat is the last vestige of what real wealth can do.’

For the one in five American households that receive any family money at all, it can fortify a sense of identity and solidarity.

Patrick Caddell to investigate why conventional Republican candidates were underperforming. Caddell had made his name advising Jimmy Carter, but he had broken with Democrats and begun appearing frequently on Fox News.

“The underlying massive change is that wealth no longer needs to justify itself—it is self-justifying,” Harrington said. “I look back, and I think, That’s when we gave up on being a ‘we.’ ”

But these shrines to excess capital operate, as vast fortunes do, on a principle of controlled visibility—radiant to the right audience, but veiled from the wider world.