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Confidence in all American institutions is down. It's funny though, if you mention the most trusted institutions are small business, the military, the police,

Confidence in all American institutions is down. It's funny though, if you mention the most trusted institutions are small business, the military, the police, the medical system, and religion -- a lot of elites would gasp. And if you told them the least trusted institutions are government, news media, and big business they'd become apoplectic. https://news.gallup.com/poll/394283/confidence-institutions-down-average-new-low.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/394283/confidence-institutions-...

user3939382 4y ago
That's a striking list because I feel like I could write a book about the corruption in the military, police, medical system, and religion. My philosophy is that humans are individually all corruptible and corrupt to some degree, so when you compose a system from humans the system inherits those characteristics and there's no way to design policies which remedy that. I submit all of history to the present moment as proof that I'm correct.
- WalterSear 4y ago
  And all politics is either an argument about how to circumvent that, or that same corruption - manifested as an argument on how to circumvent that.
- twh270 4y ago
  There's perception, desire, and actual performance. Maybe we want to believe in certain institutions (a little) more; maybe we perceive them to be more trustworthy because of what we (think we) know about them. I agree that humans are all corruptible, but strongly disagree that there's "no way" to design policies which remedy that. Corruption thrives when there is secrecy and a lack of accountability, and is reduced when there is transparency and where power is limited. We'll never be able to eliminate it, but we can reduce it by creating systems that increase transparency and prevent people from having unbridled power.
  - user3939382 4y ago
    We tried transparency and ended up with the FISA court.
fdgsdfogijq 4y ago
Would they really gasp? Elites arent that dumb, clearly news anchors know they are losing trust, but the money behind the scenes pushes the propaganda anyways
- somenameforme 4y ago
  Being out of touch only requires one to live in a bubble. It says nothing about somebody's intelligence.
- colpabar 4y ago
  The propaganda is what allows elites to exist at all, whether they're aware of it or not. If all us regular people stopped bickering over gender identity and really opened our eyes to see how bad wealth disparity really is, we'd riot and burn down their mansions. Elites live in a bubble, and one of the membership requirements is never letting anyone know you don't believe what the people on TV say.
  - MichaelCollins 4y ago
    I think they're aware of it. They gutted Occupy Wall Street like this.
  - HKH2 4y ago
    > we'd riot and burn down their mansions. The cops clearly won't let that happen.
    - colpabar 4y ago
      You really think they're gonna risk their lives to defend a mansion when they won't risk their lives to save school children?
vkou 4y ago
The military is the only 'trustworthy' institution in that list, and only to a very limited extent. We can trust it to not carry out a coup, to not get involved in domestic affairs, and to not play geopolitics without consulting with the DOS first, but that's about the extent that trust goes to. For the others, you seem to be confusing 'ignorance of' or 'sentiment for' with 'trust'.
- wyldberry 4y ago
  Well in that list, the military is the only one that's realistically governed the same across the branches. Police departments are federal, state, county, and city. Religion is highly fragmented. I imagine trust in "religion" would change if it was broke out into it's representative governing bodies as opposed to one big bucket.
  - lowercased 4y ago
    Yep. Baptists don't trust the Pope or any Vatican leaders. Catholics don't trust the Mormon church leaders. Jehovah's Witnesses don't trust Jewish leaders. and so on... "Trust" in religion is almost always going to be "your own" religion, and even then, we see church infighting and splits regularly.
jeffbee 4y ago
Counterpoint to your conclusion: when asked about specific companies, Americans rank Amazon and Google above virtually everything else include Jesus and almost as much as the military. The "big business" they distrust is media and banks. https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2020/01/americans-trust-tech-companies-more-than-the-government-and-celebrities.html https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2020/01/americans-tr...
- nostromo 4y ago
  Interesting data -- but the survey is regarding "religious leaders" not "Jesus" -- which is very different.

user3939382 4y ago

That's a striking list because I feel like I could write a book about the corruption in the military, police, medical system, and religion. My philosophy is that humans are individually all corruptible and corrupt to some degree, so when you compose a system from humans the system inherits those characteristics and there's no way to design policies which remedy that. I submit all of history to the present moment as proof that I'm correct.

WalterSear 4y ago
And all politics is either an argument about how to circumvent that, or that same corruption - manifested as an argument on how to circumvent that.
twh270 4y ago
There's perception, desire, and actual performance. Maybe we want to believe in certain institutions (a little) more; maybe we perceive them to be more trustworthy because of what we (think we) know about them. I agree that humans are all corruptible, but strongly disagree that there's "no way" to design policies which remedy that. Corruption thrives when there is secrecy and a lack of accountability, and is reduced when there is transparency and where power is limited. We'll never be able to eliminate it, but we can reduce it by creating systems that increase transparency and prevent people from having unbridled power.
- user3939382 4y ago
  We tried transparency and ended up with the FISA court.

fdgsdfogijq 4y ago

Would they really gasp? Elites arent that dumb, clearly news anchors know they are losing trust, but the money behind the scenes pushes the propaganda anyways

somenameforme 4y ago
Being out of touch only requires one to live in a bubble. It says nothing about somebody's intelligence.
colpabar 4y ago
The propaganda is what allows elites to exist at all, whether they're aware of it or not. If all us regular people stopped bickering over gender identity and really opened our eyes to see how bad wealth disparity really is, we'd riot and burn down their mansions. Elites live in a bubble, and one of the membership requirements is never letting anyone know you don't believe what the people on TV say.
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  I think they're aware of it. They gutted Occupy Wall Street like this.
- HKH2 4y ago
  > we'd riot and burn down their mansions. The cops clearly won't let that happen.
  - colpabar 4y ago
    You really think they're gonna risk their lives to defend a mansion when they won't risk their lives to save school children?

vkou 4y ago

The military is the only 'trustworthy' institution in that list, and only to a very limited extent. We can trust it to not carry out a coup, to not get involved in domestic affairs, and to not play geopolitics without consulting with the DOS first, but that's about the extent that trust goes to. For the others, you seem to be confusing 'ignorance of' or 'sentiment for' with 'trust'.

wyldberry 4y ago
Well in that list, the military is the only one that's realistically governed the same across the branches. Police departments are federal, state, county, and city. Religion is highly fragmented. I imagine trust in "religion" would change if it was broke out into it's representative governing bodies as opposed to one big bucket.
- lowercased 4y ago
  Yep. Baptists don't trust the Pope or any Vatican leaders. Catholics don't trust the Mormon church leaders. Jehovah's Witnesses don't trust Jewish leaders. and so on... "Trust" in religion is almost always going to be "your own" religion, and even then, we see church infighting and splits regularly.

jeffbee 4y ago

Counterpoint to your conclusion: when asked about specific companies, Americans rank Amazon and Google above virtually everything else include Jesus and almost as much as the military. The "big business" they distrust is media and banks. https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2020/01/americans-trust-tech-companies-more-than-the-government-and-celebrities.html https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2020/01/americans-tr...

nostromo 4y ago
Interesting data -- but the survey is regarding "religious leaders" not "Jesus" -- which is very different.