You’re right, and I’m not excusing or overlooking that.
More subtle, but maybe just as damaging, is the mental and emotional abuse that happens among the poor. Nietzsche wrote, “when it rains, the poor stay inside and provoke one another’s grievances and make one another miserable. This is the true poverty of the poor.”
I think our supposed elites should act as moral exemplars instead of trashy celebrities. The fact that they don’t excuses hurtful and immoral behavior among the poor and the middle class.
JMHO (note: I’m not religious, but not an atheist or agnostic either)
Well yes, of course, but...
Very few "celebrities" of the past were really suitable as "moral exemplars," even going way back.
To give just one example, JFK was a horrible philanderer, as were all the other males in his family, and maybe the women too. But he launched us to the moon, and that project created much of the technology we enjoy today. The Apollo project was a benefit to humanity in countless ways.
It's hard to think of a celebrity of our time who didn't have feet of clay. The best one can hope for in a celebrity is a lack of hypocrisy; in that respect, it is possible to think of a few.
Of course, the MSM hides and glosses over the character flaws of the celebrities it likes (mostly left-wingers) and goes out of its way to promote the flaws of those it doesn't like, even going to the extent of making up character flaws out of whole cloth, as we saw during the Trump campaign and administration.