Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread • Hacker News Board

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

#91

Post by m4rtink » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 12:45 AM UTC

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #51

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.

Part of the problem with the open brazenness of the corruption is that the populace of the country will follow the lead. The rot will spread far and wide if it is seen that there is no consequence.

Yeah, just look at the eastern block countries - corruption was everywhere and considered totally normal. So much that it eventually brought the whole thing down.

But it still left a deep mark on people - people who grew up under the old regime still considered it normal to bring gifts (usually alcohol in some form) when visiting doctors - the idea being it would be rude not to!

This is having real consequences - I saw an interview with a doctor, where he showed the reports a big closet, full of alcohol from these gifts.

That was from just the last week. He also mentions colleagues with tendencies for alcoholism dying from this...

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

#92

Post by trashface » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 12:46 AM UTC

The disparity between Trump and previous presidents on income earned while president is so vast, you need a log scale graph to make it meaningful. Your favorite LLM can generate it for you (except maybe grok, I presume)

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

#93

Post by scrubs » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 12:46 AM UTC

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #61

yongjik wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's more like a third. > 35% approve, 61% disapprove, 5% not sure https://www.economist.com/interactive/trump-approval-tracker

That 35% will change their tune if it screws their stuff up. Trump et al is great in the large unless he's your business partner or boss screwing your money and life up, hitting on your wife or daughter, owes you money etc. Cheap symbolism is appealing in a fog only, not in your face.

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

#94

Post by vkou » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 12:46 AM UTC

swed420 wrote: post #5

Related: New High of 45% in U.S. Identify as Political Independents (January 12, 2026) https://news.gallup.com/poll/700499/new-high-identify-politi...

Two thirds of those independents will vote MAGA down the ballot to give him a third and fourth term.

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

#95

Post by vannevar » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 12:49 AM UTC

giantg2 wrote: post #78

Lots of people here are focused on one guy. But the the article says "widespread". In my experience, much of the corruption is at a local or state level. At the federal level it seems the corruption is mostly related to agencies (GAO reports) and lobbying.

It doesn't seem like they asked about specific levels or branches of government, so presumably the respondents were giving a general impression. And in that case, it's hard to believe that a corrupt President wouldn't strongly influence the response.

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

#96

Post by dispomatrix » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 12:51 AM UTC

jeffbee wrote: post #14

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.

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…

Yeah, because the disposition matrix is peak democracy.

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

#97

Post by icegreentea2 » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 12:51 AM UTC

pseudosavant wrote: post #38

Looking at their charts, Democrats and Independents clearly think corruption is up a lot since 2024. But Republicans think corruption is down from 2024. The polarization of the electorate in the U.S. is pretty incredible.

It's not just a question of belief, it's also a question of their information environment. The polarization in the electorate isn't just a question of what people believe, but what information their fed. Unfortunately, information environment -> belief -> environment is forms a strong sustaining feedback loop.

It is also worth pointing out that that 83% of republicans (vs 90% of independents) still believe that the government is widely corrupt. Like given the ~20% "crazy threshold" in basically any type of political polling, 80% of republicans is effectively "every single republican you could ever convince".

I would not lose sleep over polarization in this context.

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

#98

Post by XorNot » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 12:54 AM UTC

swed420 wrote: post #29

XorNot wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That only matters of you actually do make different choices. But of course in turn even trying to control for that depends on their being meaningful changes in party platforms between elections. So I'm pretty content calling it a meaningless measure.

Identifying as independent is the first step toward not voting at all (which itself is a type of vote, especially in a rigged system). So definitely not meaningless. It demonstrates increasing amounts of people are tired of pretending our democracy isn't mostly illusory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniparty

[flagged]

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

#99

Post by jmyeet » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 12:57 AM UTC

In many countries around the world, corruption is a huge problem. But pretty much everywhere it happens there's a surface-level denial or attempt to hide it. If you're Putin or Erdogan, for example, you'll have children who get beneficial contracts and there's layers of obfuscation.

So there are three things that are scary about Trump's corruption:

1. It's so brazen and on a scale rarely seen. Apparently he's made $2 billion since coming back into office and he does so openly. Pardons are for sale. Truth Social has a feature to pay to get early access to posts to trade on, basically. There are crypto rug pulls. The list goes on;

2. A third of the population simply doesn't care and will defend it no matter what; and

3. He'll never be held accountable by any future administration. This is the worst part. If this happened in China, he'd go to prison and his assets would be seized. This would extend to his family and their assets. Just look at Hui Ya Kan [1].

The US just does not punish the wealthy. Look at the Sacklers and Purdue. There's clear evidence they hid the fact that Oxycontin was addictive despite their public claims and they have a large amount of responsibility for the opioid crisis. In a just world, they would all die penniless in 6x8 foot grey prison cells. And who went to prison for the 2008 subprime crisis? Oh, that's right. Nobody.

This also extends to the powerful. George W. Bush had an illegal torture program. Who went to prison for it? Only 1 guy: the whistleblower John Kiriakou for talking about it.

The Supreme Court is utterly corrupt. Anthony Kennedy allegedly traded his retirement for a job for his son. John Roberts's wife makes tens of millions in headhunting fees for finding lawyers to argue before teh Supreme Court. Clarence Thomas is just one bribe after another.

The entire government is captured by people who want to get rich by betraying their country to the ultra-wealthy.

[1]: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-evergrande-founder...

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

#100

Post by rootusrootus » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 1:03 AM UTC

Loughla wrote: post #54

yongjik wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The half that supports this nonsense genuinely believes this level of corruption has always existed. They're just happy it's their team this time. I simply do not understand American politics.

> I simply do not understand American politics.

You are in good company with most Americans in that regard.

It seems like the whole "we just blame the other side for everything we want to do, and then use that as justification when we actually do it" strategy must be well orchestrated, but the voters themselves legitimately seem to believe it is actually how things work. I am darkly impressed at the skillful manipulation.