Nah Chuck was a good guy at heart. No one could actually respect Jimmy if they really knew him ? He was a con man from the moment he was 10 year sold when he stole from his dad. Jimmy had multiple opportunities to straight and he always chose the evil path.
Yeah Chuck the good guy who died with zero friends left. The good guy who remorselessly used a simpleton to trap his brother. Same good guy who schemed behind his brother's back to block him from becoming a lawyer at his firm. The same brother who assiduitely helped him while he played hermit over a fake malady. Same good guy who couldn't even admit to his wife the truth about what was hailing him.
Your post is the perfect example of how people take image and professionalism as signs of a good person, which is entirely misguided and shows poor judgement. You also fall into a lazy false dichotomy, (Chuck good, Jimmy bad), when both of them had huge shortcomings as human beings.
Jimmy and Chuck are complete opposites when it comes to their shortcomings though, which illustrates the two major ways people often display sociopathic/narcissistic tendencies and behaviors.
Chuck displays very little affect, except when he's mad. Chuck's emotional austerity is often on display in the show. Chuck has very little emotional empathy too. We see that clearly when Howard suggests it might be time to retire, only for Chuck to turn into an enemy, not realizing and not sensing Howard's altruistic motivations. He interprets it as the complete opposite. You can often come across these types of people. While not having the emotional empathy necessary to intrinsically understand the difference between prosocial and antisocial behaviors, they nevertheless become functioning members of society by learning value systems. Either through the law or religion, or most often through family members, or all of them. These sort of people will often be more preoccupied by the image of doing/being good, rather than actually doing/being good. As long as I pay my taxes, vote, give to charity and go to church on Sundays, then I'm a good person! I can still be an ass to people, judge people left and right, use them, it's okay. Yet, these people will more often than not ignore the beggar on the street corner, ignore the pain or plight of others. Chuck drapes himself with the law. It's the value system he adhered to. In his mind, the law is more important than the actual people they are meant to protect. That's why he has no qualms in manipulating and using Ernie. No qualms of lying about his intent to the BAR hearing. Always judging others with an air of superiority, which is often the lot of people who lack affect but adhere to a value system. They'll judge others and themselves by that value system alone and nothing else. I can only really speculate on why he was this way, as we get very little information on his rearing, other than knowing their mother prefered Jimmy.
As for Jimmy, it's clear he has emotional empathy, but it's often blunted by an opposing value system (sheeps & wolves) he adhered to as a kid, as he was rebelling against his simpleton father. That's why we often see Jimmy's inner struggle, between his empathy and the wretched values he learned. Jimmy saw his father as a sentimental fool and more often than not cons people who reminds him of his father's perceived foolishness. These types of people are often the ones who can turn a new leaf when they grow older as they end-up with their backs against a wall. Like Jimmy after the Chicago sunroof incident. In other words, it's easier to change one's value system than developing empathy you've never had. In Jimmy's case, turning a new leaf worked, until he learned the duplicity of his brother.
It's far easier to spot and condemn the Jimmys of our world, but one of the biggest problems of our society is giving too much leeway to the Chucks of our world. The politicians, ministers, lawyers and financers of our world who drape themselves in an image of purity and righteousness, when they actually are no better than the Jimmys of our world.
