I meant criminals in the ethical sense, not necessarily in the judicial sense. Compare how the American judiciary treated the Sackler Cartel verses "Chapo" Guzman of CDS.

Mind you, this is of course not unique to the US. What is unique is that many Americans openly defend such corruption (while also parroting some copytext provided by Sackler Cartel lawyers). That's what I meant by degeneracy.

I would strongly disagree. Polemicists and public demagoguery is of course present in the US, but that's not really what I am discussing. I will give you another example.

Mandatory arbitration in B2C contexts. Objectively speaking this an American-style corruption scheme to limit the ability of individuals to use the legal system and force them to use a corporate run kangaroo court system that's not too different from the USSR or CCP China.

Many Americans will reflexively defend any criticism of corruption in the judicial system often employing rote copytext that is widely promoted by regular people (not just influencers). In this particular context one example of common copytext would be "we are a nation of contracts" (which is of course false) but there are other variations as well.

These aren't small exceptions. This sort of support for crime and corruption is very prevalent among the US public.

Mind you, this is not meant as an anti-American statement. From my perspective, one isn't doing anyone a favour by sweeping key problems under the rug and pretending they don't exist. I also say similar thing to my American friends about my own country.

I would prefer if the US was in the democratic camp of nations. But personally I think it's already too late for that. I hope I am wrong.

I don’t know who you are talking to, but I have never heard a real person face to face say "we are a nation of contracts". Only tv newsertainment. The only defense I have heard for arbitration was a half-hearted mention that the courts are already jammed.

As for corruption of the judicial system, that was one of the major points of the black lives matter protests. The judicial system give cops preference, allowing them to continue to brutalize minorities.

Here is a gallop poll showing faith in the judicial system at 35%.
news.gallup.com/poll/653897/am…

I've been in the jury room, before 2020 even when faith in the system really took a nose dive. One guy wouldn't vote to convict no matter what because he didn't believe any part of the system was fair. Others openly expressed how thier lack of faith in the system was impacting thier deliberations. Keep in mind, judges will tell people that both of those actions are illegal and can get you put in jail. No one turned them in or even objected to those opinions.

Most people have come to the realization that the government, especially the judicial system, doesn't work for the people. They work for the corporations.

The only defenders a person is likely to meet are the ones who profit from the system. People with stock portfolios and such. And even among those many agree the system isn't fair to people.

Americans Pass Judgment on Their Courts

Between 2020 and 2024, Americans' confidence in the U.S. judicial system and courts declined by 24 percentage points, one of the largest country-level drops for the courts measured globally since 2006.

^{Benedict Vigers (Gallup)}

I will admit the "nation of contracts" piece is not from a IRL convo, it was a forum convo. That being said I've definitely encountered very similar polemics in face to face conversations in the US.

The level of skepticism of oligarchs and government corruption in the US is far less than in any country I've lived in (I've lived in 5 countries across North America, Europe and Asia, I've also visited another ~25 countries, some multiple times).

I am not saying there is no skepticism of either the judiciary or the oligarchic system, but a lot of people (note I never said a plurality or majority, I used the word "large") actively and aggressively promote oligarchic polemics, corruption and criminality.

In other countries, you almost never have situations (IRL) where someone talks about the constitution or freedom of speech or any such concepts in a random manner. You can have conversation about such topics, but these are defined and focused discussions. In the US, as foreigner, you get the impression and that everyone and their mother claims to be constitutional expert. And the "free speech supporter" polemics (the ones I've heard IRL, not internet or media stuff) are extremely shallow, bordering on childish.

And the polemical outbursts almost always leverage standardized copytext. This is very noticeable if you are foreigner and you travel across the US and talk to different people in different environments.

It is not my intention to "shit on the US", not at all. But it also not reasonable for me to deny my real experience in the US (not one location, I've been to maybe ~20 states or so).

Maybe this will stop Chinese tourists from holding their babies over trash cans, so they can shit into them….

Pardon?