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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

#141

Post by slater »

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #134
chronc7403 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You all literally saw what he did in his first term! Yeah, he stopped US military from defending other countries for free. Soft power doesn’t pay your rent/mortgage.

Can people on HN stop flagging comments they disagree with which don't violate the guidelines? It's getting tiresome. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

From that very same link:

"Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading."

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

#142

Post by Petersipoi »

yongjik wrote: post #49
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.

[flagged]

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

#143

Post by bigstrat2003 »

newAccount2025 wrote: post #20
Webstir wrote: post #4

But, not the politicians I voted for. It's always the other guys.

Nah. At the end of the day it’s candidate A vs. B. Once they’re all corrupt you still have to decide between them and pick the lesser evil as you see it. They’re creatures of ambition and incentives, and the corruption is a feature of the system. It sucks but what can you do but vote for the corrupt dems or the corrupt republicans?

> It sucks but what can you do but vote for the corrupt dems or the corrupt republicans?

Vote for a third party, or don't vote at all. Casting a vote for someone you don't actually want in office ("the lesser of two evils") is negligent.

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

#144

Post by 0xDEAFBEAD »

ModernMech wrote: post #137
0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a map which attempts to estimate when slavery was abolished across various parts of the world: https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/zsnr8q/year_of_abo... The US wasn't much of an outlier. As a general rule, anyone who tries to use slavery as a skeleton key to understand US politics is most likely an ideologue with an agenda. Sane people don't propose struggle sessions for events which happened 100+ years…

Genghis Khan died 800 years ago. The last American to have born into slavery died in the ~1970s~ 1960s.

The 1970s were 50 years ago. "Long dead", in other words. Did you know that Brazil didn't abolish until 1888? They also imported far more than the US: https://www.slavevoyages.org/static/uploads/01.jpg

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

#145

Post by lesuorac »

paisawalla wrote: post #115
vannevar wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>...Republicans dropped from 87% to 83% after their guy was elected, whereas Democrats nearly 1.5x'd their number of skeptics. This is not surprising; a big reason that Republican voters were able to justify voting for Trump and open corruption was that they were bombarded with claims that there was a "Biden crime family" in office for four years. No real evidence of that was ever uncovered, but it didn't stop Fox Ne…

[flagged]

Aren't the beliefs founded though?

There are immigrants who commit crimes. Sure, it's not _every_ Mexican is a rapist and we're probably talking about basis points of basis points here. But it's a foundation.

Hunter Biden did get money from people who wanted access to Joe Biden. Sure, Joe didn't actually help them out. But it's a foundation.

The problem isn't the unfoundedness it's that it's extrapolated beyond what the foundation supports.

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

#146

Post by 0xDEAFBEAD »

slater wrote: post #141
0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can people on HN stop flagging comments they disagree with which don't violate the guidelines? It's getting tiresome. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

From that very same link: "Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading."

Vote however you want, but I'm sick of people abusing the flag feature.

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

#147

Post by XorNot »

swed420 wrote: post #104
XorNot wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> What a childish, stupid opinion. Democrats lost to a gameshow host . Twice. They just had to be better than that, and they couldn't manage. Pathetic. They also created the conditions for his rise. Twice. The bar is so amazingly low, and yet you can't comprehend how they keep fumbling this. Maybe, just maybe, it's a good cop / bad cop arrangement where only capital interests win, and it's a race to the bottom for ev…

So you're capable of identifying that how people vote does matter, that the electorate actually did determine the outcome, you are not alleging that the election was actually rigged, but you think not voting in a first past the post electoral system - while expressing dissatisfaction with the outcome as decided by the voters - will achieve something?

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

#148

Post by amanaplanacanal »

Petersipoi wrote: post #136
rapind wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Trump tomorrow says communism is great, then every Fox news host, MAGA content creator, and MAGA bot would be extolling the virtues of communism. The republican house and senate would enable it, maybe with a small bribe here and there. There is no line. There is no integrity. It's just looting.

[flagged]

I think you missed their point entirely.

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

#149

Post by ModernMech »

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #144
ModernMech wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genghis Khan died 800 years ago. The last American to have born into slavery died in the ~1970s~ 1960s.

The 1970s were 50 years ago. "Long dead", in other words. Did you know that Brazil didn't abolish until 1888? They also imported far more than the US: https://www.slavevoyages.org/static/uploads/01.jpg

It's recent enough that people living today knew former slaves. That's not ancient history at all, so I think the comparison is not good. I'm sure Brazil also has to deal with fallout of their practices, but I don't see how it changes how the fallout of US slavery impacts the US.

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

#150

Post by vjvjvjvjghv »

matthewdgreen wrote: post #107
kolanos wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The national favorability rating for the Democratic Party sits around 39% to 41% favorable, with unfavorable ratings ranging from 48% to 54% across recent mid-2026 polls. [0] And Congress as a whole... > The approval rating for the U.S. Congress stands at 10%, while disapproval has climbed to 86%, according to data from Gallup. [1] So not sure what this is really telling us? [0]: https://fiftyplusone.news/polls/fav…

People hate Congress but love their Congressperson. It's even got a name: Fenno's paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenno%27s_paradox Diffuse organizations like "Congress" or "the party" aren't what you're voting for. Unfortunately Congress really does take it on the chin for the actions of the President in midterms, because that's very recognizable and personalized, and partisan votes (or just staying home) are…

"People hate Congress but love their Congressperson. "

I honestly think most Congress people want to do good for the country. But the system has become totally dysfunctional making it basically impossible to really work on issues. The influence of money is just too much. To me this goes hand in hand with the rising inequality that gives a few people at the top outsized influence. Super PACs don't even have to deploy their money anymore. The simple threat is already enough to bring most Congress people in line if they want to keep their job.

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