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How the US Legalized Corruption

indica.medium.com

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Re: How the US Legalized Corruption

#3
Ugh why bring race into this... Even if the author makes good points, he's not going to convince anyone by saying 'white people have funny words for bribes' in the first paragraph. This is coming from someone who 100% agrees with the rest of the article. Still, I won't share this with anyone I respect.

Re: How the US Legalized Corruption

#5
> White people use funny words for bribes.

Really bizarre way to start an article. It's quite remarkable how such statements are mainstream now. Is the author unaware that there are corrupt politicians of all backgrounds?

Re: How the US Legalized Corruption

#6

Ugh why bring race into this... Even if the author makes good points, he's not going to convince anyone by saying 'white people have funny words for bribes' in the first paragraph. This is coming from someone who 100% agrees with the rest of the article. Still, I won't share this with anyone I respect.

Yeah same really abruptly made me want to stop reading. Imagine switching out white people with another race and it’s blatant racism.

Re: How the US Legalized Corruption

#7
Seems like an overly simplistic take. How do you have any form of political donation without it being labeled a bribe under this way thinking?

I'm for much harder reforms on political money but this article is surface level at best.

Re: How the US Legalized Corruption

#9
Having read a few pieces from this author's blog, it strikes me that he lacks nuance and writes for sensational rhetorical effect.

Debates about access and the role of money in American politics are important.

Conflating direct bribery (as in transfer of value for official action) with fuzzy access politics does NOT clarify the discussion.

It seems the point is to push back against some strawman argument that corruption only exists in less developed countries. But thankfully, we have a well-developed political science tradition that defines, measures and tracks these things much more carefully than a blogger-agitator.

Toss in the petty racial elbow-jabs, this blog post is not particularly worthwhile.

Re: How the US Legalized Corruption

#10

Ugh why bring race into this... Even if the author makes good points, he's not going to convince anyone by saying 'white people have funny words for bribes' in the first paragraph. This is coming from someone who 100% agrees with the rest of the article. Still, I won't share this with anyone I respect.

Dividing Americans down racial lines rather than socioeconomic lines literally helps the benefactors of this bribery gravy train keep their grip on America.
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