Which is BS tbh. Everyone makes mistakes.
I think with politicians and political appointees, it's a little different because that's very much a public trust. Nobody deserves to hold political office, they should instead be deserving of it by being ethical and having integrity.
Amen. And avoiding a culture of blame (taking inspiration from the NTSB) makes it much more straightforward to put systemic measures in place which reduce the impact of those mistakes. People still make mistakes at the same rate, but more mistakes get trapped and more negative outcomes can be avoided.
The vitriol of this discussion shows just how difficult it is to establish such a culture. People really want to see mistakes as evidence of moral inferiority.
And I guarantee anyone who's written code long enough has written plenty of footguns of their own.
I'd say that by talking about mistakes without blame, I think we actually avoid people making mistakes because folks can learn from other's mistakes, and see them as something they could just as easily do, and so internalize the lesson.