Confidence in US institutions from 2021-2022 per Gallup

With the internet and social media every tom-dick & harry can badmouth and express every little negative opinion they have, and do so anonymously, which serves to embolden even more unthinking negativity. Of course they think they're somehow "contributing" to the enlightenment of the masses, but are only just hastening the demise of respect for society and it's institutions.
 

I think your outlook on the nation is more a function of the "news" channel you watch than the actual facts. It's amazing how "nothing is going right" to "everything is great" depends on who is in the White House. The truth being we're muddling through.
 
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fuzzybuddy said:
I think your outlook on the nation is more a function of the "news" channel you watch than the actual facts. It's amazing how "nothing is going right" to "everything is great" depends on who is in the White House. The truth being we're muddling through.
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It's certainly a huge part of it. Depending on who is in power, we have a voluntary media bias that rivals state sponsored media, but at least we still do have an opposing counterpart. It just flips from mainstream liberal "state media" to conservative "state media" with the other taking the opposing roll depending on which party is in power. I'm happy to see that both newspaper and TV news rank in the lowest five.
 
Harry Le Hermit said:
I've read the thing twice and maybe should download the PDF, to find what I am looking for... which is confidence in polling companies. :)
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While I did inject some humor, I also wonder about why they chose to only include "Great deal" and "quite a lot" and not include the major category of "some". And yes, I downloaded both 2021 and 2022.
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It still goes down, but it does not put forward the massive lack of confidence the headline indicates, in my opinion.
 
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In that original poll, it shows the Military getting some of the highest confidence marks, but apparently it's just an illusion people have ..
they are having a struggle to get recruits ... several websites share this information.

This is just sad ..

Every branch of the U.S. military is struggling to meet its fiscal year 2022 recruiting goals, say multiple U.S. military and defense officials, and numbers obtained by NBC News show both a record low percentage of young Americans eligible to serve and an even tinier fraction willing to consider it.

The officials said the Pentagon’s top leaders are now scrambling for ways to find new recruits to fill out the ranks of the all-volunteer force. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks consider the shortfall a serious issue, said the officials, and have been meeting on it frequently with other leaders.


“This is the start of a long drought for military recruiting,” said Ret. Lt. Gen. Thomas Spoehr of the Heritage Foundation, a think tank. He said the military has not had such a hard time signing recruits since 1973, the year the U.S. left Vietnam and the draft officially ended. Spoehr said he does not believe a revival of the draft is imminent, but “2022 is the year we question the sustainability of the all-volunteer force.”

The pool of those eligible to join the military continues to shrink, with more young men and women than ever disqualified for obesity, drug use or criminal records. Last month, Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville testified before Congress that only 23% of Americans ages 17-24 are qualified to serve without a waiver to join, down from 29% in recent years.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/milita...-meet-2022-recruiting-goals-officia-rcna35078
 
Bonnie said:
The pool of those eligible to join the military continues to shrink, with more young men and women than ever disqualified for obesity, drug use or criminal records. Last month, Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville testified before Congress that only 23% of Americans ages 17-24 are qualified to serve without a waiver to join, down from 29% in recent years.
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Strange or not, the same thing , for same or different reasons, happened in wwII. They had to lower the standards to make enough men eligible for military service. WWI they did not have that problem. After searching for several years to find out why the health of men was so much lower, they concluded and wrote the official White Paper, "Three White Poisons" , showing that processing food, namely milk, flour and sugar, had caused the increase in health problems. From then until now, it only got worse every year, as advertising was allowed to promote the three white poisons, and more.
 
Bonnie said:
In that original poll, it shows the Military getting some of the highest confidence marks, but apparently it's just an illusion people have ..
they are having a struggle to get recruits ... several websites share this information.
Click to expand...
Even with greater confidence in the military, even if that's misplaced confidence,
the same thing is happening with multitudes of small and large companies/ corporations regardless of confidence --- fewer people available to fill positions.
 
Media has lost most all confidence because they lean one way or another and editorialize and mislead instead of report and let the public use their own thinking on an issue .........
I, for one, lost confidence in many institutions and government for the simple fact is they are failing.........they are NOT doing the job they are paid for.....
i look around and see people afraid to speak truth in case cancel culture is around the corner ....or they are bad mouthed on social media ...

Look at news stories .... people will start to rationalize criminals ........ laws do not have the caveat that being poor is an excuse.
laws do not have when we get around to it....

laws and rules "not enforced right now " but kept on the books ..why? if no longer needed REPEAL them
we have let those in government pick and chose what laws they want to follow
those in government swore an oath to uphold and follow the laws of the land but.......too many pick and chose what they want and many in public follow suit .... shaking my head that is the sad place we are in......
 
AnnieA said:
The polling only goes back to 1979. Not saying you're wrong ...just hard to track it using this poll.

View attachment 231478
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Major scandals no doubt cause loss of confidence in major institutions. We can cite them in that graph.
  • Late '80s: Iran-Contra scandal and subsequent pardons. S&L scandal and bailout
  • 2003: Invasion and occupation of Iraq based on lies
  • 2020: Insurrection and attempted coup
I'd bet that loss of confidence in major U.S. institutions dropped after Watergate.
 
Bonnie said:
In that original poll, it shows the Military getting some of the highest confidence marks, but apparently it's just an illusion people have ..
they are having a struggle to get recruits ... several websites share this information.

This is just sad ..

Every branch of the U.S. military is struggling to meet its fiscal year 2022 recruiting goals, say multiple U.S. military and defense officials, and numbers obtained by NBC News show both a record low percentage of young Americans eligible to serve and an even tinier fraction willing to consider it.

The officials said the Pentagon’s top leaders are now scrambling for ways to find new recruits to fill out the ranks of the all-volunteer force. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks consider the shortfall a serious issue, said the officials, and have been meeting on it frequently with other leaders.


“This is the start of a long drought for military recruiting,” said Ret. Lt. Gen. Thomas Spoehr of the Heritage Foundation, a think tank. He said the military has not had such a hard time signing recruits since 1973, the year the U.S. left Vietnam and the draft officially ended. Spoehr said he does not believe a revival of the draft is imminent, but “2022 is the year we question the sustainability of the all-volunteer force.”

The pool of those eligible to join the military continues to shrink, with more young men and women than ever disqualified for obesity, drug use or criminal records. Last month, Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville testified before Congress that only 23% of Americans ages 17-24 are qualified to serve without a waiver to join, down from 29% in recent years.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/milita...-meet-2022-recruiting-goals-officia-rcna35078
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The very ones disqualified are the ones that SHOULD be drafted. The structure of the military would be good for them. I know today's society only abets them.
 
The military may be the only power on the list to save our democracy when the time comes. Of course, it could also be the undoing. I can't predict what it will do when the time comes, but I have little faith in the rest of things on the list.
 
Bonnie said:
The pool of those eligible to join the military continues to shrink, with more young men and women than ever disqualified for obesity, drug use or criminal records. Last month, Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville testified before Congress that only 23% of Americans ages 17-24 are qualified to serve without a waiver to join, down from 29% in recent years.
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This headline highlights issues we have in many areas of life .....
think of applying for any jobs ... same type of instance of being disqualified
many GOOD paying jobs not filled because so many cannot pass a background check ... or drug test
or honestly maybe unable to do things due to limitations of weight ....
some jobs in my area especially well paying are now resorting to physicals before employment.... obese issues will keep you on the sidelines.

Young people do not see that all three of these items can and often WILL cause lifelong issues and LIMIT their choices in future.

I wonder how or why these items were listed in this order ......
most items of equal prevalence would be listed alphabetically ..... so assuming the first ( obese) is the biggest issue ........

once again we sidestep reality........ for protecting feelings
just like we do when Obesity is a big volume of healthcare costs ... was a driving factor in covid issues yet crickets from public and government regarding addressing THAT risk factor.
 
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SeniorBen said:
Major scandals no doubt cause loss of confidence in major institutions. We can cite them in that graph.
  • Late '80s: Iran-Contra scandal and subsequent pardons. S&L scandal and bailout
  • 2003: Invasion and occupation of Iraq based on lies
  • 2020: Insurrection and attempted coup
I'd bet that loss of confidence in major U.S. institutions dropped after Watergate.
Click to expand...

I think you have to take off partisan blinders to get a good overall picture. '86 at the peak of the Iran-Contra hearings was overall high, military went up and steadily stayed up (see detailed pdf) during the long war. Some peaks and lows look to follow presidencies, especially early 90s and this year (displayed more clearly in the pdf.) Different parties but both old, white men former VP establishment guys; the phrase "party favors" just came to mind, lol.

Churches, public schools and news have steadily trended down in the 21st century, all three of which touch the lives of most Americans.

It would be interesting to see an economic analysis year by year.
 
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We have our Primary vote next week, and I have been doing a bunch of research on the various candidates. Once again, it looks like the choice will be trying to find the "lesser of the evils". I haven't found Any that generate much in the way of enthusiasm....instead, they all seem to be playing to the extremist views. If other States are similar, I see nothing coming but more divisiveness.
 
Our local radio station posts news online. They tell just the facts, period. That's why I like to read it to find out what's going on in town.
 

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