My small sample size observation (seeing acquaintances argue politics on facebook) has been that it’s easy for people to retreat to “every politician is corrupt” to brush off any specific examples. When you have zero trust in the system, there’s no trust to betray - ThreadSky

jdcmedlock.bsky.social • 5 days ago

My small sample size observation (seeing acquaintances argue politics on facebook) has been that it’s easy for people to retreat to “every politician is corrupt” to brush off any specific examples. When you have zero trust in the system, there’s no trust to betray

Reposted from Chris Hayes

I know this is going to sound naive or earnest, but I genuinely find myself shocked by how little people seem to be upset by the levels of corruption we're seeing. Is that the median voter assumes everyone is corrupt already? Or isn't actually getting stories about the corruption?

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mcesher.bsky.social•5 days ago

It’s always “pelosi traded stocks” so it’s ok for Trump to tell oil and gas execs they can write legislation for $1B

mcblondeland.bsky.social•5 days ago

My same sample size says "God uses imperfect vessels." when referring to Trump. It infuriates me.

salt-miner.bsky.social•4 days ago

I sometimes listen to rightwing Christian talk radio just to know what the thinking of those folks is. And "Cyrus" and other versions of "imperfect vessels" is an all-purpose tool for justifying ... anything

nobodynohow.bsky.social•5 days ago

Approx half of America is "they're all corrupt". The other half is what the hell can I do about it other than vote and call my congress person?

ziyyigo-tipyigo.bsky.social•5 days ago

When you can't find a New York Democrat on Capitol Hill willing to say anything bad about Adams or Cuomo...

goon.sh•4 days ago

It’s an easy out when people get confronted. It’s really just displays a weakness in their argument.

corgicommissar.bsky.social•5 days ago

The one I've seen from relatives is 'the government is bad, so I applaud people ripping it off' - this was specifically in regards to the college admissions scandal stuff, so dunno if it applies today. But my guess is probably also yes.

peterh32.bsky.social•5 days ago

Fox News has been a 30 year project in teaching people to distrust the United States government

hamiltwan.bsky.social•5 days ago

My analogy is that people fail to distinguish between "taking home stationary from work" corruption and "embezzling the entire company budget and fleeing the country" corruption. And it's a big problem. Congress people should stop inside trading, but Trump also sold the government to Musk!

hamiltwan.bsky.social•5 days ago

Schmoozing with lobbyists is bad, but orders of magnitude less bad than destroying the Constitutional order for the purposes of getting social security so Elon can loot the United States government.

rachelxb.bsky.social•4 days ago

This has always been pure laziness and it’s now incredibly dangerous

cmclay.bsky.social•5 days ago

it was headed this way for a while but i feel like it really became inevitable when the perfect storm of political media compulsively both sidesing everything for years combined with top level dems (pelosi stock tracker exists for a reason) openly self dealing made this close to unfixable short-term

dadframe.bsky.social•5 days ago

This is the answer. How many times have we all heard some iteration of "they're all corrupt, they're all the same, they're all bad." Just look at Congressional approval ratings even during good times and I think stomach cancer has better polling.

techerous.bsky.social•4 days ago

It continues to frustrate me to no end that overall congressional approval has been in the toilet my entire life, but members tend to be fine amongst their constituents. We refuse to acknowledge that we are incentivizing inaction.

dadframe.bsky.social•4 days ago

Yes, that's always how it goes. "They're all bad, but not my guy, they're different."

liammilner.bsky.social•5 days ago

Also, I think there just aren't enough stories using the word "corrupt[ion]" to describe what's going on.

okiestofokies.bsky.social•5 days ago

R m.o. for a long time. Create false equivalence or what about…. But then there is truth in general corruption of the system. SC obviously corrupt. Oppo does zilch.Then look at some smaller crooks at the helm of the oppo who just do it legally. But not fair by anyone to say all.

justindavidh.bsky.social•5 days ago

This is also my experience. “It sucks that it turns out he’s like the rest of them… just pray everything works out.”

myvillanera.bsky.social•5 days ago

Literally, this. Trust was eroded over years by conflating no corruption with actual corruption in right wing media.

techerous.bsky.social•4 days ago

Had this just happen yesterday. An older co-worker who I respect pulled the "both parties are the same" line and used us not having more choice over who RUNS in the 2 major parties primaries as his evidence so I couldn't even get to policy or execution differences.

tobellz.bsky.social•5 days ago

Further. If you believe everyone is secretly corrupt, open unapologetic corruption plays as refreshing honesty.

thisisxian.bsky.social•5 days ago

That's what Fox News did about 30 yrs ago.
Make sure there's zero trust in journalism, then there's no trust to betray

twiceborn.bsky.social•5 days ago

Had a similar experience when I said during the last election that JD Vance seemed especially opportunistic and slimy; a response I got on social media to that was "oh so he's just like every politician then"

grebehumaine.bsky.social•5 days ago

It's much easier to run on "anti-corruption" on the right because it's so often not really about corruption. Right-wing rhetoric around "draining the swamp" is often (correctly) understood by their base to be about purging ideological opponents.

wattasecond.bsky.social•4 days ago

That’s because people think cynicism is the savvy position but in reality they tend to perform worse on tests to spot liars

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29993325/

frankiron.bsky.social•5 days ago

They are not wrong, with a few exceptions

severedlimb.bsky.social•5 days ago

But why would anyone trust it when there is clear corruption at all levels? Seems wrong to criticize people for actually understanding reality for once

hamiltwan.bsky.social•5 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/hamiltwan.bsky.social/post/3lk7cd7bkus2g

severedlimb.bsky.social•5 days ago

Insider training is not equivalent to taking home office supplies in any way! It’s just straight up corruption

hamiltwan.bsky.social•5 days ago

In the analogy, stealing supplies is also bad (although maybe forgivable, whatever, it's an analogy). The point is that one of those things doesn't destroy the company.

severedlimb.bsky.social•5 days ago

Yes but it sets the stage for people to become indifferent when other instances of greater import occur because there is no enforcement whatsoever. It’s an issue of faith and if ppl never see consequences why should they have it? That’s all I’m saying

hamiltwan.bsky.social•5 days ago

Yes, and I'm agreeing the lesser corruption is bad. But we should also be able to distinguish between lesser and greater problems. That is literally a thing they teach kindergartners (not about corruption, but in general, proportionality of response).

paranoidnon.bsky.social•5 days ago

There are solutions, of course, that were widely employed throughout history, but they aren't solutions that any establishment politician would be willing to countenance even for a moment

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