> unprecedented levels of open corruption where nobody seems to feel the slightest amount of guilt as long as they get away with it.

Historically speaking, current levels of corruption in most of the world are either low, or completely precedented.

In the US specifically, corruption may be higher the last decade than in the couple of decades precloud, but certainly is not as high as 120 years ago.

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danaris 8 hours ago | parent [-]

I'm sorry, at what point in the late 1800s was the President of the US actively enriching himself at the taxpayers' expense, openly taking bribes from foreign countries, and threatening the families of members of Congress who he felt were not sufficiently supportive of his agenda?

	▲	defrost 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Offhand, Ulysses S. Grant had a scandal ridden presidency (1869 - 1877) with multiple large scale corruption examples all headed by his closest associates. There was some goings on related to foreign territories and annexation that I don't well recall, but to this day Grant's degree of involvement is debated - he tolerated much corruption from his personal secretary, defended him, and steered corruption investigations away until eventually removing Babcock(?) from his post. Much pressure was exerted during this period, I hazard some of that pressure was via threats to persons, their assets, and perhaps their families. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandals_of_the_Grant_administ...