I'd quibble with the framing, here: Dudes like SBF don't really have friends in the way most of us use the term. What they have are _associates_ - who are really often just slightly more-favored marks. Remember that SBF is a dude who deeply internalized a #MasterMorality version of Utilitarianism that gave him carte blanche to ignore conventional ethics, so things like 'friendship' are gonna be highly relative to him.
https://www.npr.org/2023/10/21/1207143248/sam-bankman-fried-trial-ftx-crypto-fraud-alameda

Anyway...

What we're seeing here (Harlan Crow paying undisclosed private school tuition for a child in Clarence Thomas' care) is an a fascinating teaching example to me. On the one hand it's if not directly #Calvinist, very Calvinist-adjacent: Thomas presumes elect membership & related privileges.

Additionally, tho, it's a great example of a variant #MasterMorality in that engaging in #Elect-status behaviors becomes a class signifier.

https://newsie.social/@ProPublica/110309908147997052