ArcaMax

PARIS — The issue that most kept Americans awake at night over the past year wasn’t health or work issues, or even relationship troubles. It was the corrupt establishment.

A whopping 65 percent of Americans say that they’re more worried about “corrupt government officials” than even loved ones getting seriously sick or dying or not being able to afford life, according to the 2024 edition of Chapman University’s Survey of American Fears.

And that figure hasn’t changed much from 2019, perennially topping the list. Even amid the nonstop Covid “disastertainment” of 2020/2021, the survey placed the fear of dodgy government leaders ahead of dying relatives by 20 percent. Maybe authorities tackling and apprehending joggers on empty beaches for “health” reasons has something to do with that lack of trust?

And people wonder why there’s such hysteria when seemingly benign drones suddenly appear in the sky in New Jersey, as was the case in December. Or why a non-negligible chunk of the population hunkers down in online silos that peddle alternative or creative theories to official narratives. Or why felony convictions have now become a selling point for a presidential candidate — or at least not making enough of a dent to cause a loss. There’s a sense that if the system hates you, then you must be a hero. And even more so if you vow to oppose it.

And lumped in with that establishment is also anything that it enables against the interests of the little guy. It would explain why even the recent brazen murder of a health care insurance company CEO in New York City, which appears to have been politically motivated by anger toward the system, is seen as more acceptable than not in a survey of voters under the age of 30 by Emerson College.

This lack of trust in the establishment is why, more than three decades after being imprisoned for murdering their own parents at their home near Los Angeles, Lyle and Erik Menendez are now enjoying a wave of popular support for their release, driven by a hit Netflix docufiction series highlighting alleged sexual abuse by their parents. There's now renewed focus on the suggestion that the system swept it under the rug to land a dart on the board after an initial mistrial, as the district attorney sought to save face in the wake of OJ Simpson’s acquittal.

It’s why despite nonstop bombardment across the conventional and digital media landscapes of the Biden administration’s “whatever it takes” message in support of funneling more cash into the pockets of US weapons makers “for Ukraine” — most of Americans now oppose it, according to a CBS/YouGov poll published oar the end of November.

It’s why many Americans see Washington’s invisible hand everywhere, from Syria and Moscow to the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline explosion in the Baltic Sea.

Other fears on the list seem to support the top one of government corruption, since the government has done such a great job of tackling them that they’ve become permanent.

Cyberterrorism ranks right behind government corruption, with 58 of Americans worried about it. Sure, it sounds scary, but do most people even know what it means? If they do, it’s only because the government won’t shut up about it. Cyber has been the new focus for the military industrial complex for the past several years. So has terrorism, although that has been dying down. But hey, if you can jam both of those things together into a single term, then you’ve got a real taxpayer extortion tool. Please, take all my money if it means saving me from the ghosts in the machines!

Except that the government has been fear-mongering long enough about both cyber and terrorism that they really should have a strong grip on it by now. Instead, they’re starting to sound like the left does when they’re trying to drum up cash for their never-ending war on poverty. Or their war on women, which has apparently been resolved to the point that the fight for feminism has now morphed into a defense of men who wish to self-identify as women. Both cyber and terrorism problems should be well under control for the amount of tax cash invested. The two terms shouldn’t now be joining forces like Batman and Superman in a comic book movie crossover.

A similar argument can be made for other list-topping worries like Iran, Russia or North Korea using nuclear weapons. Whatever happened to all those sanctions that government said would keep Americans safe? Sanctions restrictions are meant “to accomplish foreign policy and national security goals,” according to the US Office of Foreign Assets Control administering them.

Doesn’t look like Americans feel any more safe as a result of those efforts. Perhaps they're mostly just a way to tilt the global economic playing field by scaring the competition away from doing business, lest they face US sanctions for doing so, all while the Treasury Department issues exemptions for select American companies?

Climate change is still a concern for 48 percent of Americans surveyed. Guess that Biden administration increase in climate financing from $1.5 billion in 2021 to $5.8 billion the following year, and to $9.5 billion last year didn’t get the job done, huh?

Maybe that’s because it’s all a big scam, funding pet "climate justice" projects instead of the construction of a giant tarp for the planet to protect it from the main climate culprit: the sun. Maybe try taxing cow farts, like Denmark is planning to do starting in 2030?

The good news is that even horror movies can be viewed through a comedic lens. The "Scary Movie" film series is even based on the concept. So here’s another year of giggling through this giant demented clown show. If only because it sure beats the alternative.