I always regarded moral relativism as a lens to judge modern culture against historical cultures and norms. It turns out that it’s much, much worse to be a ‘good’ person committing a moderately bad act as compared to a ‘bad’ person who regularly commits much worse acts. That’s a bit depressing.
Edit to clarify my point:
It was a major scandal when Tim Geithner had to pay $20k in back taxes that he owed from his time at the IMF, similarly when one of Clinton’s nominees for the AJ position withdrew when it turned out that she owed taxes on the salary she was paying her housekeeper, similarly again Spiro Agnew resigned from the office of the Vice President of the US over something like $8k in taxes on income he didn’t report (as well as some other corruption involving bribes and kickbacks). But millions of dollars of illegally shielded income depriving the treasury of hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax revenue during the campaign merits a shrug because there are so many other scandals.
Similar mechanisms are at work when a popular athlete is caught doing something, or priests, etc. Once someone’s ego becomes invested in you, you can more easily take advantage of them and that’s an important thing to learn (and wield for yourself).