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Confidence in U.S. Institutions Down; Average at New Low
- LewisVerstappen 4y agoConfidence in everything is down. Is there anything (institution/product/whatever) where confidence has increased?
- sn0w_crash 4y agoDownvote this if you will, but I feel that confidence in independent content creators has increased. The likes of Joe Rogan, Tim Dillon, Lex Friedman, Charlemagne and Schulz and other content creators are gaining massive audiences that are both trusting and interested in what they have to say. Viewership for these channels (especially among younger audiences) absolutely demolishes most institutions
- homieg33 4y agoWeird that you would preface a reasonable perspective with “downvote if you will” then it appears you did get downvoted.
- anigbrowl 4y agoBaitposting is discouraged by the HN guidelines. Faking controversy is one way to get attention.
- LewisVerstappen 4y agoFantastic point. Confidence in independent creators has definitely skyrocketed. Haha why do you think I’d downvote that?
- sn0w_crash 4y agoI was speaking to the HN hivemind
- baybal2 4y ago
- maxerickson 4y agoShould the healthcare system have a podcast where they don't take responsibility for the content, because they are just having a conversation? I mean, if it doesn't want to get demolished.
- zmgsabst 4y agoThey already have that — see their whole COVID effort. They should try having a podcast with several hour interviews discussing actual information with experts — rather than telling us official lies, in sound bytes. Like John Campbell, Vinay Prasad, Robert Malone, etc.
- yalogin 4y agoWhat about their covid effort? Can you elaborate?
- JaimeThompson 4y agoHere is a bit about Prasad, but it's a complicated subject so this doesn't present the entire picture. https://cancerletter.com/the-cancer-letter/20211008_4/ https://cancerletter.com/the-cancer-letter/20211008_4/
- yalogin 4y agoOh I have mistakenly stepped into this mess? I will step out and wash my shoes :)
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- hamiltonians 4y agohard to think of anyone. biden and trump have the lowest approval ratings of recent presidents. no one has any confidence in anyone or anything.
- xwdv 4y agoConfidence that climate change will destroy the world has increased.
- JohnJamesRambo 4y agoMy confidence in crypto has increased. It survived another cycle. Lindy effect stronger each time.
- twblalock 4y agoCall me when people have higher standards. Everyone likes to complain about the government but when have they actually voted against an incumbent politician? The failure of state governments and the Federal government to meet basic standards of competence and deliver expected outcomes is not going to change until the voters start punishing politicians for it. This situation wouldn't fly in a lot of other countries -- if, say, the electrical grid or the public transit or the level of safety in the streets in the UK or France or Germany was as bad as it was in the USA, politicians there would fear for their jobs. In the USA they still do not fear for their jobs, and everyone seems to assume that incompetent government is the natural and only conceivable order of things. That is what needs to change. Until I see incumbent politicians lose their jobs, I won't believe that change is coming.
- nathanaldensr 4y agoThe United States has gone back and forth between the two dominant parties for almost its entire history. Can we definitively say things have gotten objectively better? If not, then what does voting actually do? If I could run for representative and have a decent chance at winning, maybe I would run. Unfortunately, I wouldn't stand a chance against better-funded, entrenched interests with unlimited money. Why should I bother, so I and my family can be destroyed publicly for the sake of winning?
- JasonFruit 4y agoThere's a solution I like: ratify the original First Amendment, which would have greatly reduced the number of constituents per representative, which would a) have made representatives more responsive to their constituents, and b) made it harder for wealthy special-interest groups to capture every election for the House of Representatives. It was originally understood as correcting an inaccurate wording in the Constitution. Here's the text: > After the first enumeration required by the first article of the Constitution, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number shall amount to one hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall be not less than one hundred Representatives, nor less than one Representative for every forty thousand persons, until the number of Representatives shall amount to two hundred; after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than two hundred Representatives, nor more than one Representative for every fifty thousand persons. For reference, right now each representative is supposed somehow to act on behalf of almost two thirds of a million people! How can one person vote on behalf of so many, who are inevitably drawn from a mix of rural, urban, poor, wealthy, and every other varied circumstance of life? How much can any one person feel represented, or hope to influence who represents them or how?
- nathanaldensr 4y agoObviously this is just a symptom. I chalk this up to spiritual emptiness, hedonism, and nihilism.
- DSingularity 4y agoSpirituality is the only thing that can convince people to spend a lifetime fighting against these structures of injustice. Otherwise, why not take your intelligence and use it to build a good life for yourself and family?
- JasonFruit 4y agoDo you count concern for the welfare of your compatriots as a kind of spirituality? I could certainly see how it could motivate a person to work to improve national institutions.
- throwawaysleep 4y ago> Otherwise, why not take your intelligence and use it to build a good life for yourself and family? Basically me. Ran a few times as a candidate for political office. Realized that trying to change things is a scam, so now I operate based on hook and crook.
- JasonFruit 4y agoCongratulations on your decision to be part of the problem?
- woodruffw 4y ago> Spirituality is the only thing that can convince people to spend a lifetime fighting against these structures of injustice. Otherwise, why not take your intelligence and use it to build a good life for yourself and family? You will find, if you talk to people, that the overwhelming majority believe that these ends are closely related, if not coextensive. Spirituality can be a very strong motivation; it can also be a very temperamental one. Better to build futures on less fickle foundations.
- irrational 4y agoHow can it be anything higher than zero?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- TeeMassive 4y agoIt seems to me that top level politicians are routinely doing things that would have made their predecessors resign in shame a few decades ago.
- prawn 4y agoThey and their parties have realised that you can get away with more and more. If you can rile up one extreme to offset losing the centre, that's a win for them as they hold power for longer. The candidates are largely dispensable and compensated in one way or another for taking risks. I'd guess that the more critical an issue feels to your adherents, the more you can get away with.
- sillystuff 4y agoMore detailed polling results: https://news.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.as...