Another way America is a lot like 90s Russia: no one cares about corruption anymore
Saw the new Eric Adams video where he jokes about traveling to Ankara, making a ref to the corruption case against him that he got paid off by Turkey. Naturally, some commentators on the feed bristled with righteous anger: “Oh my God, how could Adams be so glib about the corruption case against him? How immoral.” But I saw this and thought…well…here’s another way that Russia’s past is America’s future.
The fact that Adams can joke about his own corruption case shows he thinks his supporters don’t care about this whole corruption business. That it’s not a big deal. And he’s right. No one really cares about corruption anymore in America. Trump, in his special way, showed how true this is. His entire second presidency has been filled with corrupt self-dealing — with his family’s pay-to-play crypto scams being the most obvious. I think a lot of people now just assume that you gotta be corrupt to get ahead. That everyone is corrupt. It's like with the whole “selling out” idea. No one cares if you “sell out” anymore. The phrase has lost all meaning. In fact, I’d say a lot of people see selling out as a sign of success. Everyone’s just looking for a chance to sell out. Not that many even get the chance to sell out. They’re just not that important. I hear it from people in the music industry — it’s not that new bands are selling out to the whims of the record labels…they come pre-sold…they do everything they can to fit themselves into the parameters of what the record labels/market wants, rather than think about their music.
I mean, corruption has always existed in America.