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This is the problem. People are so ready to believe government is hopelessly corrupt that they assume all aspects of it must be evil and should be taken away or
by ianai 7y ago
This is the problem. People are so ready to believe government is hopelessly corrupt that they assume all aspects of it must be evil and should be taken away or “cancelled.”
There are actual agencies that fight, deter/avoid, and persecute corruption within the government. But people believe the worst so they’ve accepted the worst behavior from government.
This should be a moment where people learn how actual government agencies work and what exist. Like this https://www.oge.gov/ https://www.oge.gov/
For decades, the US government has been a shining example of republican democracy with actual oversight and minimal corruption.
- chrisco255 7y agoI believe in the old idiom, "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely." The whole reason I want government to be small is because I know that the bigger and more powerful it gets, the more corrupt it will get. The more unwieldy it is to change. The U.S. government has tons of corruption. And we've seen that in recent years with the CIA and the FBI, with the spying, and mass data collection. You look at how the U.S. government treats Assange and Snowden and tell me they aren't corrupt. The fake Russiagate scandal was built on lies forged by our own intelligence agencies. The Iraq war was supposed to be based on WMDs. I could go on and on...but you've got to be naive to call the U.S. government corruption-free or anything close to it.
- malvosenior 7y agoYou say “believe” as if people can’t see the corruption and wars with their own eyes. It’s all there out in the open, you can see it yourself. > There are actual agencies that fight, deter/avoid, and persecute corruption within the government. They are doing a terrible job since our government is corrupt from top to bottom. [edit] There’s a really good comment to the parent by chrisco255 that was flagged for some reason. It says: > I believe in the old idiom, "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely." The whole reason I want government to be small is because I know that the bigger and more powerful it gets, the more corrupt it will get. The more unwieldy it is to change. > The U.S. government has tons of corruption. And we've seen that in recent years with the CIA and the FBI, with the spying, and mass data collection. You look at how the U.S. government treats Assange and Snowden and tell me they aren't corrupt. The fake Russiagate scandal was built on lies forged by our own intelligence agencies. The Iraq war was supposed to be based on WMDs. I could go on and on...but you've got to be naive to call the U.S. government corruption-free or anything close to it.
- ianai 7y agoWikipedia: “In 2018, Transparency International ranked the United States as the 22nd least corrupt country,[1] falling from 18th since 2016.[2] In 2019, Transparency International stated that the United States is "experiencing threats to its system of checks and balances", along with an "erosion of ethical norms at the highest levels of power.[3]” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_the_United_State... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index?wprov=sfti1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index?w...
- malvosenior 7y agoI'm not sure what point you're trying to make. Of course there are other countries that are more corrupt. That's the entire point of the argument; the government (anywhere) cannot be trusted.