Why do you keep saying she 'idolized' him? She didn't, she idealized him, which is different. She's drawn to the case because she really liked his statement, 'I

Why do you keep saying she 'idolized' him? She didn't, she idealized him, which is different. She's drawn to the case because she really liked his statement, 'I'm like the state, what's good for me is right.' From there she plans a story about a character based on his positive traits, but free from his negative ones, his 'degeneracy.' She writes about the mob because the mob will be the antagonist in her story. She doesn't think the member of the mob in this case had 'worse sins' than murder in their own lives (I mean you could interpret it that way, but it's a stretch, plus is uncharacteristically stupid, plus is something Rand would have actually explained if that's what she meant - she's always crystal clear about explaining her beliefs), but nevertheless it's the same 'mob-mentality' at work as found elsewhere. A lynch mob is different, I'm talking about the crowds of people who turned up to see public executions, basically making justice a form of entertainment masquerading as moral superiority. The worst cases would be witch-trials or execution for 'treason', or counterfeiters, or show-trials in Russia. The modern instances would probably be the Enron or Royal Bank of Scotland inquiries, where although there was guilt, one has to say 'give me a fucking break' when all these former-colleagues or regulators line up to wash their hands and denounce the scapegoat. Then you have the 'celebrity speaks out of turn' stories, where people act like nothing they ever say in private is just as bad. All cases have different details, but the argument is that the mob-mentality is somewhat consistent throughout. Once again this is a private diary for planning fiction. It's not 'Ayn Rand's Memoirs, Chapter 6: What I thought of William Hickman.' Or 'Ayn Rand: My Heroes.' Rand is in the process of forumulating a philosophy that eschews collectivism and along comes a prominent news story where she gets a chance to study the mob-mentality in reaction to someone who is not a collectivist whatsoever. Murders are very common, but ones which become huge public spectacles are not. It is not sufficient to ask 'why is the public so outraged?' The question becomes 'why is the public so outraged about this instance, but not others?'