For a long time, our culture was willing to forgive the probable crimes of those who were simultaneously doing “good” in other areas or succeeding in their industries. Epstein gave hundreds of thousands to AIDS research. Weinstein created a media empire that amassed incredible power both with critics and at the box office. (He also gave plenty to charity.) Trump himself, who so far has yet to experience the repercussions of the #MeToo movement, was fond of boasting of the “millions” he’d given away — even when it wasn’t true. (The Epstein story has already had reverberations within Trump’s administration, with the resignation of his Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who was responsible for Epstein’s lenient plea deal.)

But that benefit of the doubt is in shorter and shorter supply.

We are living in a time of radical transparency, especially on social media. There is overreach to be sure. But in significant ways, this exposing the emperor’s lack of clothes is an apolitical groundswell. It is tearing down the broken and rotten institutions and pushing bad actors previously shielded by their ivory towers into the spotlight. What happens when that spotlight dims, of course, is yet to be seen.