I've seen this exact argument made numerous times in defense of some heinous people, or generally against "cancel culture" within tech, in favor of what they consider the political neutrality of "pure meritocracy."

If Jeffrey Epstein were a startup founder or if he had written a really important compiler or something that linked him to tech more directly, more people here would be defending him.

>in favor of what they consider the political neutrality of "pure meritocracy."

Meanwhile these people often got where they were explicitly through nepotism