Overtly mean doesn’t work very well, but that’s the stupid form of mean. Covertly Machiavellian seems to work, as does the kind of initially ingratiating gradually controlling personality of a cult leader.

The best kind of mean for todays environment seems to be Machiavellian coated in a superficial gloss of magnanimity via stuff like effective altruism, longtermism, or wokewashing.