[refurb]

Go back another 30 years and everything you mention was happening as well.

JFK - lying about the missile gap with Russia to get elected

Johnson - lying about his intentions in Vietnam

Nixon - too many to list

If anything, I'd say there is more transparency around unethical behavior by elected officials.

[ergothus]

> I'd say there is more transparency around unethical behavior by elected officials

And that's what worries me - note in my post above I was careful to talk about "public". Before there was a veil of deniability, the idea that at least a pretense of innocence had to be maintained.

Now it feels like there is little care to hide it. Sure, many of us are outraged, but that outrage has done nothing to translate into stopping the actions.

[tdeck]

Your perspective really resonates with me, and it reminds me of the old quote "Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue". When people lie to cover up their misdeeds, it at least promotes the collective acknowledgement that we have certain values.

[jacobush]

It also puts a limit on what evil deeds can be done, too many or large things can't be hidden under the veil of innocence.

When even pretence is no longer a concern, there's no limit really.

[ekianjo]

> If anything, I'd say there is more transparency around unethical behavior by elected officials.

Yes, and it's because there are more watchdogs and reporting than ever before, and "the internet does not forget"

[raverbashing]

> I'd say there is more transparency around unethical behavior by elected officials.

And politicians using inordinate behaviours as political currency and more people to condone the same absurdities

[Cthulhu_]

Go back a little more and you've got US concentration camps where they put in anyone Japanese or looking vaguely asian.

Go back a little more and you've got Mexicans at the border branded as dirty, forced to take bleach showers and have their clothes fumigated using Zyklon-B, inspiring the Germans to use it to mass-execute Jews. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1917_Bath_riots ).

Go back a little more and you've got slavery and states trying to segregate from the US to maintain the system.

Go back a little more and you've got immigrants genociding the native population using biological agents, bullets, and mass rape to conquer the land as their own.

The US has NEVER had the moral high ground; their best claim to fame is helping to liberate Europe from the Nazis, but other than that they've absolutely shit.