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Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

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Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#41

Post by mswphd »

wat10000 wrote: post #30
throw0101a wrote: post #15

Even before this new record high, in the previous ~15 years the average seemed to be around 75% (±), which seems… high? I would perhaps understand the US public thinking that (some levels of) government being "incompetent", but not corrupt. By some measure the US does seem to have 'decent' scores for perception of corruption: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index * https://www.transparency.org/…

I'd guess it comes down to what counts as "the government." Millions of people work for the federal government, and millions more for state and local governments. Is there widespread corruption among them? I don't think so. And I don't think my countrymen think so either. But "the government" is often meant as just the very top. The President is corrupt. Big swathes of Congress are corrupt. We have a Supreme Court ju…

I (and I'm sure others) would obviously agree. just a smattering of the obvious cases

* for years people have noticed that many members of congress use privileged information to pick stocks.

* lobbying post-Citizen's United has a very decidedly "buying politicians" aspect to it

* a congressman (Menendez) was literally arrested while holding gold bars from a foreign government. he went to prison, but is the only person on this list who has iirc.

* the former mayor of new york (a long-time police offer) was embroiled in a Very Funny, very obviously true corruption scandal for turkish airline tickets. the prosecution against him was dropped for no good reason.

Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#42

Post by mswphd »

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #21
tekla wrote: post #12

Note the numbers between 2010 and 2025 were in the 72% to 79% range if you read the article. So numbers have not actually increased that much.

2010 was right after the great recession, and after the people that caused it got bailed out by the government.

2010 is also Citizen's United.

Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#43

Post by sublinear »

I'm curious how these polls are conducted. These polls are at least already biased since people self-select. If they're online only, even moreso. If they're only advertised to echo chambers, even moreso.

Anyway, the result may be that the polls are only measuring younger people with nothing better to do. That's interesting but only a record high amongst that subpopulation. I'm fairly certain this is business as usual.

Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#44

Post by [deleted] »

netsharc wrote: post #31
jeffbee wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Implying that it's always been this way is part of the reason we are now here. For my entire life, bad faith commentators insinuated that the federal government was rife with corruption. When under Democratic control, of course. The time that Al Gore made one long-distance telephone call from his official desk, using his own personal calling card, birthed over 200 New York Times articles, 30 of them on the front page…

"Both sides are just as bad" is copium for when the guy from "your side" is revealed to be a corrupt piece of shit. You don't like it, so you justify to yourself that the other party is also full of creeps and assholes and thieves, so you can continue to support your guy guilt free... Of course the supporters of one particular political party is much more better at gymnastics of the mental kind than the other side. H…

[deleted]

Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#45

Post by spicymaki »

groby_b wrote: post #23
darth_avocado wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Identifying as independents means nothing. 67% of independents in 2018 viewed one party more favorable and were unfavorable to other. In other words, the independents have a partisan lean towards one party and are more likely to vote that way. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2019/03/14/political-in...

"indepdendent" does not mean "i see all parties as absolutely the same". It means "I am not firmly affiliated". You still have the ability to make choices on who is a better likely outcome

This is correct. That is why I changed from independent to an actual political party. There is no point, it is highly improbable that I would ever vote for the party that is against my values. The two main US political parties are diametrically opposed.

Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#48

Post by amazingamazing »

> Is corruption widespread throughout the government in this country, or not?

How is corruption defined for the purposes of this survey?

If there is none (I assume there is not), then it is only natural this number go up as the media highlights and propagandizes and highlights all actions taken by all government officials.

Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#49

Post by yongjik »

autoexec wrote: post #8

Corruption in the US isn't new, but it's never been done as openly as it has been recently. I don't think it's a good thing. It shows that the government isn't concerned about what the public thinks, which suggests that they believe they no longer have to be. That's not a healthy sign for what's supposed to be a democracy.

I think it's worse. It's not that the government doesn't care that the public hates it; it's more like the government is doing whatever it wants and half the public is going wild absolutely loving it.

Well, maybe a bit less than half these days.

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