WaverodTime to take a page from the Who and talking about my generation.
We grew up watching cartoons with cartoon villains. The ghost haunting places was some local guy trying to make a small fortune by running people off. People were trying to take over the world through some hare-brained scheme that was more about doing something evil than about actually getting control of the planet. They were showy, and obviously evil. (Who builds a special fortress in the shape of a giant purple griffin??) Their henchmen were by and large "I'm on their side because I'm evil!"
You knew they were evil when you met them. Odds are, they told you themselves. But of all the things they were, they were never ordinary people. The guy down the street? The woman in line at the supermarket in front of you? Not the evil we grew up with. Too banal
The actual evil we face, though? It's not Megatron or Skeletor. And because we're looking for schemes and maniacal laughter we don't see them