[Devilspawn6666]

I've seen another example over the last few days.

Quite a few people who have been vociferously pro-EU and in favour of their protectionism, tariffs and non-tariff trade barriers have been going crazy over the US imposing tariffs, even though the US rates are far lower than the EU's.

A similar group has historically been strongly against government corruption but recently have been attacking efforts to uncover and stop corruption in the US Federal government.

[pjc50]

> efforts to uncover and stop corruption in the US Federal government.

Unserious. The big cheques in Wisconsin don't count? The presidential cryptocurrency?

[myrmidon]

> even though the US rates are far lower than the EU's

What does "far lower" mean to you? Can you give examples? Because to me, the view "Trumps tariffs are only matching what foreign nations already do" is just factually wrong.

Personally, I just think blanket tariffs as a significant form of government income is highly detrimental, from a foreign policy perspective (=> alienates allies, encourages retaliation), as a tax-substitute (because it's basically a regressive "tax-the-rich-less" scheme, which, given meteorically rising wealth inequality, is the last thing we need) and also for economic development (because there is neither the workforce, nor the actual desire, to build up low-margin manufacturing in the US-- making those products 30% more expensive is not gonna change that meaningfully).

> A similar group has historically been strongly against government corruption but recently have been attacking efforts to uncover and stop corruption in the US Federal government.

I don't have a lot of beef in this, personally, but if you're talking about doge:

I just have to look at their website, and what I see are numbers that don't add up at all, containing a lot of cuts for purely policy reasons, wrapped in highly partisan messaging.

I'd be strongly against that even if they advocated for wheelchair accessibility and gay rights on their twitter, or w/e.

Corruption, to me, is if you buy influence on government policy by spending money on officials, and that is exactly what I see under Trump.

[watwut]

> US rates are far lower than the EU's.

This is a lie. And no, VAT is not tariff. And no, Trumps formula does not measure tariffs.

> efforts to uncover and stop corruption in the US Federal government.

There were no such efforts. There were efforts to knee cap both transparency and agencies that used to act against corruption. Trumps previous administration was drowning in corruption and there is no reason to think this one is different. Musk is effectively giving government contracts to himself.

[LocalPCGuy]

Both of these are basically strawman arguments - there are legitimate, non-tribal reasons to be against the actions taken re: tariffs and the purported anti-corruption tasks. For example, a person can be strongly against government corruption but also be strongly against the current efforts/methods being used for a multitude of reasons. And similar for tariffs. (Not having those debates here, just pointing out that I don't believe those examples hold up.)

[protocolture]

You uh seem to have consumed some tribal coolaid lmao.