Why do we cling to the myth of the evil genius? Because the alternative is worse | Nesrine Malik
From Steve Bannon to Dominic Cummings, we like the idea that someone’s pulling the strings, even if they’re awful
At the peak of the media’s fascination with Steve Bannon, and before it became clear that his route to the White House was less the application of evil genius and more a question of a peripatetic opportunist striking it lucky, one issue dominated – why does he wear two shirts at the same time? The speculation reached fever pitch towards the end of 2017 when this minor sartorial deviation became yet another marker of his special talents. He had “baffled” DC fashionistas. “There is something hideously irresistible about Bannon,” the Financial Times commented as recently as July. “Is it the blend of a dishevelled public image – he wears two shirts simultaneously and looks as if he cuts his hair with a combine harvester – with scandalising political views?”
Related: Steve Bannon: I want to drive a stake through the Brussels vampire