European media: Over the past 30 years, public trust in US national institutions has gradually collapsed, and Americans are living in a culture of distrust

China Daily, September 19th (Xinhua) - According to the European website "Modern Diplomacy" on the 16th, American writer and critic Gerald Beck recently pointed out that the US Congress, current government, Federal Bureau of Investigation, judiciary, large corporations, technology companies, unions... what do these institutions have in common? The answer is: the American public no longer trusts them.

Screenshot of a report on the European website Modern Diplomacy

The article points out that in the past 30 years, people have witnessed something unprecedented that threatens the survival of American democracy - the collapse of public trust in national leaders and institutions. If there is a phenomenon that better reflects what has happened in the United States in the past few years than any other phenomenon, it is that the American people live in a culture of distrust.

According to relevant poll data, the trust and credibility of Americans in all the major institutions that define and shape American democracy have sharply declined over a generation. For 50 years, Gallup polling agencies have been measuring the public trust of the most important institutions in the United States.

Screenshots of news reports from Gallup polling agencies

In July of this year, Gallup's latest survey showed that the average proportion of Americans who expressed "great or considerable trust" in nine important institutions in the United States was 26%. This is the lowest value ever recorded, approaching 50% when Gallup began measuring it in the 1970s. Other surveys have also reached the same conclusion. The Pew Research Center has been conducting similar surveys for 30 years and found that public trust in most American infrastructure has significantly decreased.

Perhaps even more concerning is that Americans not only no longer trust key institutions of the country, but they also distrust each other. According to a comprehensive social survey conducted in the United States, when asked "Generally speaking, do you think most people are trustworthy, or should you be more careful when interacting with others?" over the past 50 years, the proportion of people who believe they can be trusted has decreased from nearly half to less than one-third.

The article states that the sharp decline in social trust has caused irreparable damage to the bonds between Americans. Today's United States is fundamentally a country that is not at ease with itself, with a large number of citizens extremely distrustful of the leaders and institutions that manage them, distrustful of the companies that serve their needs, distrustful of the people who provide them with education and information, and increasingly distrustful of each other.

What's the problem? The progressives who control most of these institutions hope people believe in a simple explanation - this is not related to them. This is all the fault of Republican politicians who resort to any means, right-wing media, former President Trump's propaganda of his allies, and social media that sell "false information". But the article points out that the corruption in the American system was not only earlier than during the previous administration, but also much more profound. In fact, the heads of major institutions in the United States often blame everyone except themselves. In the past decade or so, the American people have gradually realized that they have been misled, deceived, and betrayed

The article concludes by stating that these institutions in the United States are not only hypocritical and deceptive, but also have performed poorly in the past few decades. Other factors that lead to trust collapse include the US government's involvement in a catastrophic foreign war, support for border opening, drug addiction, financial crises, corporate scandals, and a sharp increase in economic and social inequality.

Most importantly, the elite class dominates these institutions, disregarding the beliefs and desires of ordinary Americans, and the gap between the two is widening.

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