The other thing that I think trips us up when it comes to recognizing bad people is that not only do the bad guys NOT look like bad guys, often – but they often look exactly like the good guys.

They have good jobs. They are respected members of the community. They have families. They help old ladies across the street. The offer to mow your lawn and shovel your driveway when it snows.

Some of them wear the badges of authority – some literally have badges, but other times they wear a white coat or have lots of degree certificates on their walls. They are on our TVs, playing in the big game, or up on the silver screen, all white teeth and good hair. They are our heroes, and our leaders within industry and politics and religion.

They are in charge. Some of them have lots of power and money – and they don’t give a shit if people lose everything or get hurt or sick or die. They don’t care if children are being horribly abused. They don’t care at all because they are terrible, terrible psychopathic people.

And I truly think that it is really hard to truly wrap your head around this reality…to truly realize and accept that so many of our good guys – or at least the people we hope and pray are good – are the worst of them all.

And so we go into collective denial. We defend certain things, we bury our heads in the sand. Because to fully acknowledge the reality is both terrifying and depressing.

But we have to be brave. We have to stand up against the bad ones and call them out as such whenever we can. Sometimes all we can do is look them in the eye and let them we know what they are – that we are not fooled by their sheep’s clothing. (And to try to value and reward those who are actually good people.)