[stackghost]

Sadly, this Soviet attitude of complete cynicism and disbelief of any and all official sources due to corruption and incompetence is going to become more widespread and mainstream.

The USA is speed running a destruction of trust in public institutions, supported by two thirds of the electorate and a majority of large American tech firms.

Somehow, inexplicably, people seem to think this will all go back to normal when Trump leaves office.

[subscribed]

Tell me more about trust into the current administration.

Reflect on how trusted and fact-based are they.

To me (who was growing under the Soviet puppet government), it's pretty much the same, up to and including secret prisons, the killings and kidnapping for wrongthink.

There's a chance we will go back to normal - the way New Yorkers respond to Mamdani gives me hope.

[mindslight]

The problem is that going back to "normal" would require either Republican voters (en masse) to accept what a terrible mistake they've made, or for the Democratic establishment to stop being the "good cop" stasis option still controlled by corpos. And neither one seems likely.

We'd have a chance with ranked pairs voting, which would naturally allow competing options to gradually gain support rather than the current two party duopoly. But getting that to be implemented would also require one of the above.

[idiotsecant]

This has so little to do with Trump. Trump is a symptom of the disease, not the cause. Forces (not least of which is the state itself) have been at work in america chipping away at public institutional trust for at least 60-70 years.

This is what happens when the easiest way to achieve power is by spreading FUD and not really caring about the actual task of governing.

We're just speed running it now.

[laughing_man]

Trump is the result in that breakdown of trust, not the cause. We have the best Congress money can buy, and the bureaucracy spends its time, and our money, playing kingmaker. Why would anyone trust public institutions?

[watwut]

> We have the best Congress money can buy

That is not true? It is not the best, the money were used to make it dysfunctional. The congressional dysfunction is not due to bureaucracy. Conservative actors who want the government to fail, so they intentionally changed the rules so that it cant fix the issues.

Of course, congress can not do much in a two party system where one party is ideologically dedicated to obstruction and destruction. But, the right place to complain about that are conservatives, not the abstract government.

[laughing_man]

That phrase isn't meant to be taken literally. It's an old way to say Congress is very corrupt.

And no, conservative "actors" do not want the government to fail. Which party was it, again, who wants ICE to stop doing its job?

[watwut]

You mean the job of terrorizimg the communities? ICE is law breaking unaccountable violent group. Yes, it is ok to want them to stop. It is proper role of government to protect rights of people and to stop roque agencies.

And yes, conservatives do want the government to fail. They are actively working on it.

Third, I did not said congress is "corrupt". As of now, the most corrupt are president, those around him and supreme court. Republicans in congress are acting in bad faith.

[laughing_man]

So you want the government to fail at the things you want it to fail at, yet you're trying to project that onto conservatives?

Good lord. You actually think the president and SCOTUS are more corrupt than Congress? Amazing.

[stackghost]

>So you want the government to fail at the things you want it to fail at, yet you're trying to project that onto conservatives?

There's an important distinction between wanting the government to fail, and wanting the government to cease violating civil liberties en masse.

There is a false dichotomy being manufactured/astroturfed by Republicans that the only choice is between the current Star-spangled Gestapo and unrestricted, mass illegal immigration.

In actual fact there is a broad spectrum of approaches between those two.

[stackghost]

>Trump is the result in that breakdown of trust, not the cause.

I agree, and my comment should not be construed to imply otherwise. It's Americans themselves that are the problem, which is why the decay of America will long outlive Trump.

[rolph]

yes he does have a purpose.