Nobody who builds something on the back of a lies deserves, or gets, my respect.
To me, it would be in the same vein as saying, "All respect to him, he kidnapped and murdered people, but he makes 10 times the amount I do and hasn't been caught. Genius!".
>Well murdering people is on an entirely different level.
It is a different level, but dishonesty (particularly continuing and for the purposes of self enrichment) is still nothing to be proud of.
> I admire him purely for the ability to self promote.
He's not self promoting. He's promoting something that is not himself. Its fairly easy to make yourself look good and promote yourself by lying. Its much harder to do it in an honest way, someone who can genuinely self promote themselves based on their actual skills/achievements is someone to admire.
To me, it would be in the same vein as saying, "All respect to him, he kidnapped and murdered people, but he makes 10 times the amount I do and hasn't been caught. Genius!".