[avaer]

What about the "circus freaks" that get funding, influencers that maintain audience support, or those who get elected to office?

I don't understand how to tell the difference, other than what society and the media collectively judges to be genius versus disordered, and where the money accrues.

The people and their personalities are not all that different, other than how palatable/sellable they are.

That's not to say this isn't a real problem; I think the scale of it is much larger than people realize, because society often sees these same personality disorders as something to be rewarded.

[ndsipa_pomu]

The difference is the person's wealth or the wealth of the people who want to push that agenda.

I like to compare the treatment of the extremely wealthy with extreme hoarders. Someone who fills their house with piles of e.g. magazines/newspapers, will be recognised as having mental problems. Meanwhile if someone keeps pursuing the gain of more wealth after they have far more money than can ever be spent, then typically society will fawn over them and respect their opinions, no matter how distasteful or outright wrong they are.