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

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

#441

Post by imthatsteve » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 1:58 PM UTC

spicymaki wrote: post #45

groby_b wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

The parties arent actually opposed its just that democrats want to change everything and republicans dont. Dems propose something and reps oppose it. Thats generally how its supposed to work but usually there is a debate that should accompany the proposals.

The general difference between a liberal mindset and a conservative mindset is the difficulty in making things work. Liberals believe that things usually work and the hard part is getting them to work exactly how you want them too. The conservatives think that things usually dont work and the difficult part is getting them to actually work.

This actually really matters when your talking about renovations whether its a building or a government you have to choose between the new fancy shiny thing will all the options and the old beaten up reliable thing that only does one thing and does it really well.

When dems propose something new, all the reps see is every way that it could go wrong or even be worse than the last thing.

When reps oppose something new all dems see is stupid old people afraid of progress.

And thats assuming that everyone actually has good intentions before we get into partisan bs and outright corruption.

The dem-rep balance would actually be really great in the politicians gave half a fuck about the country but they arent trying to make the country better in good faith they are trying to win politics which isnt even possible, a win for one party means the end of the country no matter which party the country needs the balance i just laid out above. You need long term trusted institutions and you also need to change and update things over time. Both perspectives are necessary if you want a functional government this petty infighting serves no purpose besides allowing politicians and their corrupt friends to loot and pillage the country from the inside while the stupid population argues over men in womens sports or when child sacrifice is okay.

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

#442

Post by maxerickson » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 1:59 PM UTC

petcat wrote: post #435

maxerickson wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should the money get spread around? It's a business, pay the people that earn it. I understand what is in it and wouldn't take any of it as long as it is combined with caps on player pay. Where's the cap on media revenues or stadium ticket prices?

There are no caps on player pay.... The Supreme Court already explicitly forbid that.

There is an antitrust exemption and a direct cap on school to athlete payments. Sure, third parties that aren't associated entities can still make payments to players, but its transparently the intent to lower the share of revenue going to the players.

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

#443

Post by somenameforme » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 2:02 PM UTC

msandford wrote: post #380

somenameforme wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've always rubbed our faces in it in modern times. There was a time, not that long ago, when Presidents wouldn't accept payments for speaking after office. It only began with Gerald Ford. Previously it was felt that it would impugn the integrity of the office, and obviously it 100% does. Nonetheless, now presidents are happy to e.g. bail out companies and then take tens of millions of dollars in speaking fees for…

My feeling about all the corruption talk is that everyone is at different points on the "oh yeah now I see it" curve. I've noticed that I'm really annoyed at people who are just now getting it as I've been seeing it for 20+ years. Because people who are further behind didn't see it before they have no idea how bad previous corruption was and only see the new corruption as a unique evil, unmatched by anything that eve…

I think when people grow up with something it grows to become all they know, and so they assume it's normal and everything else is aberrant. So the overt corruption of now a days (or at least of yesterdays) is not even seen as corruption, because otherwise surely somebody would do or say something about. Surely.

So large 'awakenings' require localized extreme circumstances, or at least the perception of extreme circumstances. That perception keyword is what makes everything so dumb, but I won't complain. More people being 'aware' is a great thing, regardless of how we get there.

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

#444

Post by imthatsteve » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 2:03 PM UTC

spicymaki wrote: post #388

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, vote for a third party. If you don't actually like the candidate you vote for, you're engaging in political negligence. When I vote, I almost never vote for a Republican or Democrat candidate because they are, by and large, not people I want representing me. So I vote for someone I do want representing me.

Voting 3rd party is throwing away your vote in the US electoral system. The reason is structural. Currently, I believe there are two independent senators and one independent representative. Independents are not another party they are just unenrolled and they all caucus with one of the two major parties. There is no third party representation in congress.

Less than one third of eligible voters vote. Your espousing a self fulfilling prophecy.

The only reason party politics exists is because of you and people like you who keep spouting this lie that keeps them in power.

So instead of lying just say that you fully agree with everything both parties do and thats why you keep them in power and refuse to vote for someone rather than against.

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

#445

Post by otterley » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 2:07 PM UTC

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #425

otterley wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happened around 2010 that might have precipitated whatever changes you’re thinking of?

Tumblr? Cultural shifts from social media started to gather momentum roughly around that time.

There was a lot for people to be angry about, particularly the quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan that the Bush administration got us into as a knee-jerk reaction to 9/11, combined with the 2008 financial crisis and Wall Street public bailout that culminated in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street

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

#446

Post by anon84873628 » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 2:15 PM UTC

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #127

tstrimple wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine there had been no Nuremberg trials. The Nazis just got a slap on the wrist and almost immediately let back into politics as usual. That's how we got here. We're still fighting the remnants of the confederacy. Germany and Japan in particular purged most of those elements from their society. Here we built statues to the evil fucks.

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…

You seem to be missing important parts of US history, not least of all the century of Jim Crow. I mean, come on, my Boomer parents were already alive to see the Civil Rights Act passed.

For a trace of the thread directly from the civil war to the current Supreme Court, check out this podcast episode:

https://youtu.be/1i2VuPACBbU?si=8jv8XrRTLHJ9hHTu

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

#447

Post by anon84873628 » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 2:18 PM UTC

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #335

multjoy wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you actually 'both sidesing' slavery?

I'm pushing back on Chermska1's effort to say that "well actually, the confederacy wasn't really about slavery".

They didn't say the Confederacy wasn't really about slavery, they said it was much more than that. And it's those more abstract ideologies which have persisted through American politics, as traced in the history podcast episode I posted in a sibling.

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

#448

Post by estearum » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 2:21 PM UTC

bandofthehawk wrote: post #214

estearum wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it’s almost certainly not just more open. But also more common and more intense. There is 100% absolutely no possible comparison to Trump’s personal acts of corruption in any prior White House ever.

Maybe it doesn't qualify as a personal act of corruption, but George W. lying us into the the Iraq war followed by capturing people off the street and then torturing them in military prisons, is comparable to what's happening today, in my opinion.

Yeah I wouldn't say Trump is necessarily the most "evil" of POTUS's, partially because that ascribes too much complexity to his character.

But he's easily the most corrupt, also aided by the simplicity of his character.

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

#449

Post by anon84873628 » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 2:22 PM UTC

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #264

antonvs wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a general rule, someone trying to use a simple single numerical measure as a skeleton key to understand politics across nations is an ideologue with an agenda. As for the Genghis Khan comparison, I may have made an error. We may just be dealing with severe cognitive limitations here.

If you think slavery is the key to explaining everything about the US, the burden of proof is on you to show that. Just because something gets discussed a lot does not prove that it's important. Donald Trump is himself the child of immigrants who immigrated to the US well after the end of slavery, and maintained a residence in a state (New York) which opposed slavery. The relevance of slavery to his presidency is at…

No one even mentioned the Trump administration. The major connection is through the Supreme Court.

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

#450

Post by estearum » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 2:23 PM UTC

patagurbon wrote: post #329

mitxela wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is Ground News relevant here?

They help launder this idea that every issue has two reasonable sides. Which is patently false There is some kernel of value to seeking out information from diverse sources. But groups like Ground News pervert that to mean that the left and right are on equally good terms with fact and reality (nevermind that collapsing politics and news media down to left and right is balderdash)

Huh... I'm super liberal (not so progressive necessarily) and I enjoy Ground News a lot. I don't feel like it gives an impression of both-sideism at all, and that's something I'm quite sensitive to?