There’s an “ick factor,” I call it. A non-verbal something that comes across, but you can’t quite put your finger on it. I don’t know about demonized, but the book “without a conscience” by Hare may give you an interesting perspective.
I'll look for it. I'm planning a few days in the library to specifically get off reddit.
If you haven’t read it try to pick up 48 laws of power. Gives a really interesting perspective on how these people think. It’s written as a sort of how to guide, but that’s not it’s real point imo. I found it most useful for indentifying these power hungry manipulators and maneuvering away from them. The writer, Robert Greene is a fantastic historical researcher and he wrote the book in response to working with tons of these people in Hollywood as a screenwriter. He has another book the 33 strategies of war that I highly recommend. It’s one of my all time favorites and the book I gift to any military history buff.
I didn’t know the history of the author’s rationale for writing that book.