Contrary to "liberal" Professor Juan Cole, there are many levels to Hell — and the United States does not inhabit anywhere close to its bottom rung

© 2019 Peter Free

 

30 January 2019

 

 

Hyperbole is not a political lefty's most effective tool

 

As an example of the American "liberal" tendency to shoot itself in both feet, history professor Juan Cole recently said that:

 

 

The United States fell 6 places to a ranking of only 22 in Transparency International’s list of countries by corruption.

 

But as I have argued before, the United States is the most corrupt country in the world, and should be ranked 194, not 22.

 

© 2019 Juan Cole, The United States Is the Most Corrupt Country in the World, TruthDig (30 January 2019)

 

 

This fall in American desirability would be astonishing news . . .

 

. . . to the millions of people who fervently want to emigrate to the United States each year.

 

 

The word "most" requires a comparison to something

 

Cole's short-circuited reasoning ran this way:

 

 

The US is so corrupt that our ruling, Republican Party, would even deny human-made climate change and adopt pro-carbon policies destined inexorably to wreck the planet earth, all to ensure a few extra years of profits for dirty coal companies and oil giants like Exxon-Mobil.

 

Our government is so corrupt that the Environmental Protection Agency . . . has become a cheerleader for polluting industries, gutting any regulation that might stand in the way of making a little extra money at the expense of, like, killing people.

 

The US government is so corrupt that it is winking at the brutal murder by Saudi authorities of . . . Jamal Khashoggi . . . .

 

The US is so corrupt . . . that the US Senate has allowed a bill to come to the floor . . . which approves of . . . states excluding vendors and contractors who boycott Israel.

 

A sure sign of corruption is an electoral outcome like 2016. An addled nonentity like Donald Trump got filthy rich via tax loopholes . . . and then was permitted to buy the presidency with his own money. He was given billions of dollars in free campaign time every evening on CNN, MSNBC, Fox and other channels . . . because they were in search of advertising dollars and Trump was a good draw.

 

The rich are well placed to bribe our politicians to reduce taxes on the rich.

 

One sign of American corruption is the rapidity with which American society has become more unequal since the 1980s Reagan destruction of the progressive income tax.

 

The US military budget is bloated and enormous . . . . perhaps half of it is spent on outsourced services . . . . corporate welfare on a cosmic scale.

 

The US has a vast gulag of 2.2 million prisoners . . . . There is an increasing tendency for prisons to be privatized . . . . It is wrong for people to profit from putting and keeping human beings behind bars.

 

Asset forfeiture in the ‘drug war’ is corrupting police departments and the judiciary.

 

© 2019 Juan Cole, The United States Is the Most Corrupt Country in the World, TruthDig (30 January 2019)

 

 

All true and lamentable.

 

But, objectively speaking, how can one claim a fall from 22nd (good) to 194th (bad) place — without comparing the falling body to some of the intervening levels of corruption?

 

For example, common experience points out that:

 

 

Police in the United States are usually not out to extort bribes.

 

American troops do not routinely accost people in Homeland streets.

 

Drug lords generally do not murder average citizens.

 

Nor are our individual existences (statistically viewed) completely at the mercy of Head Despots.

 

 

For all its flaws, the United States remains a pretty good place for many tens of millions of Americans to be.

 

In contrast, we all recognize that there are countries in which all of my above-listed negatives are rampant.

 

Professor Cole should (if Reason be the guide) have come up with a comparative explanation of why our levels of dissimilar corruption exceed their more conventionally obvious ones.

 

In short, Dr. Cole, how does the United States "out-shithole" all other places?

 

 

The moral? — Saying something that is obviously ridiculous is not persuasive

 

It just indicates a disorderly, impulsive mind. Like President Trump's.

 

Irrational hyperbole — whether "liberal" or "conservative" — is probably not going to fix the large flaws that the United States certainly exhibits.

 

Well-meaning leftists (like Cole) need to get a grip on what is required to persuade, rather than to repulse.