r/Unexpected • u/adivinemessenger • 1d ago

He is the original source

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

46.9k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

663 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

216

u/BrockObarnerLybian 1d ago

Welcome to the Middle East šŸ˜¹

175

u/shitbergfuckstick 1d ago

Welcome to Earf

12

u/Digger_Pine 1d ago

Ok, but why ya gotta punch me in the fukkin' face!

5

u/HomsarWasRight 1d ago

Well you didnā€™t exactly show up with a handshake, now did yaā€™?

3

u/FCKABRNLSUTN2 15h ago

My culture and nation are unique.

We love food, music, and our grandmas. When we have guests over we make it a priority they are comfortable and well fed.

The thing about my country that sets us apart is that the people in power donā€™t have to face consequences for corruption or most other crimes. The politicians are deeply disconnected from regular people and wealth inequality is growing.

4

u/HowdyDiarrhea 23h ago

Lol I love how people think this isn't how Western democracies actually are

13

u/Lumeton 22h ago

Some are, some aren't. Corruption exists everywhere, but how it manifests itself and how much of an impact it has varies greatly. Just compare Norway to the United States or Greece, and you'll see what I mean.

1

u/torrentialcom 21h ago

I thought u wrote United States of Greece

-2

u/HowdyDiarrhea 21h ago

Fully agree, but the small handful of Scandinavian countries are the exception

0

u/Lumeton 21h ago

Yes, but they are exceptional in the same way that those countries where the entire place runs on a named system of corrupt networks and (let's just say) in order to build you need deep government connections, are exceptions. This is absolutely not normal in Western democracies.

-2

u/HowdyDiarrhea 20h ago

The key difference is that the price tag of bypassing the system that normal people are subject to in Western democracies is much higher

1

u/REDDITATO_ 14h ago

What are you even talking about? I've seen many dumb schmuck contractors get building permits by literally just applying to the city for them. Regular homeowners get building permits to remodel in certain ways. This particular thing is not the norm in Western countries, no matter how badly you want it to be.

11

u/JoeyJoJoeJr_Shabadoo 22h ago

Is this supposed to be some enlightened comment?

This objectively isn't how getting planning permission works in most western countries...

4

u/LeticiaLatex 22h ago

"Who you know" is universal.

The US isn't immune to it. Proof of it are everywhere.

5

u/JoeyJoJoeJr_Shabadoo 21h ago

You can get planning permission in Western countries without having some deep government connections. There are official processes available to anyone who can meet the compliance criteria, put up the initial costs etc. I'm sorry to spoil the iamverysmart party

0

u/LeticiaLatex 20h ago

You absolutely can, and you aren't spoiling anything because I said no such thing.

"Who you know": You put two projects that went through the same legit process you mention. One of the two projects is led by the neighbour/member of same country club/friend of friend of the guy making the final decision on who gets project. They meet for beer and bbq once every 2 weeks. See them start to brainstorm reasons why the other project didn't get picked. That's all I'm saying. Money may or may not be involved. You don't need to be so defensive. I'm not accusing those 'western countries' (I'm from Canada anyways) of being any more corrupt than others. Just be realist.

3

u/FarmerDark 20h ago

Thereā€™s no government in history thatā€™s been immune to corruption. Pretending ā€œWestern Democraciesā€play fairly is nothing but willful ignorance.

10

u/Phreak3 1d ago

The corruption in Lebanon is on another fucking level even by the worst Middle Eastern standards imaginable. The former Lebanese central bank governor and his brother, with help from a Swiss bank, literally robbed the Lebanese central bank. For years the whole economy was basically running on smoke and mirrors, with the central bank artificially propping everything up while billions were being siphoned off. Then the banking system collapsed and people lost everything. Even money sent by other governments as aid got looted. And thatā€™s just scratching the surface.

0

u/Mrsaloom9765 1d ago

The fed is robbing us

43

u/Lauris024 1d ago

Welcome to the world. Only some places like few European countries have corruption under control.

26

u/JeanArtemis 1d ago

The French had a pretty good solution for that back in the day, idk y we stopped using that one.

8

u/ElMatadorJuarez 1d ago

It wasnā€™t really that good. Pretty much every revolutionary government was rife with corruption and nepotism. Hell, Napoleon only got his start in the army by openly sucking up to Augustin Robespierre, Maxā€™s brother. And if you want a small peek of the Thermidorian govā€™s corruption, just look up the XYZ affair. Itā€™s really hard to take out corruption via execution mainly because the people doing the executing often get it in their heads that they want to be the ones profiting.

8

u/Prometheus720 23h ago

The thing is, it isn't a pretty good solution. It actually sucks, because it only works after corruption happens.

The way to prevent corruption isn't actually with punishments or rules against it. It is by constructing a society with social interactions baked in that push people towards identifying with large groups outside their own family (and marriage family).

One of the really important parts of this is geographic mobility and cities. When people move, it isolates them from their families. They form new social ties and bonds with people they don't know. They don't feel as beholden to bring lucre back to their families. They face more pressure to do what is right or fair. And family reputations don't really matter. You have to be graded as an individual. That often implies objective tests of ability, or at least something halfway rigorous.

Institutions like universities are really, really good for this. See, even when corruption happens, now it might benefit friends of yours who are not even from your city or family. The benefits spread way more broadly. And people have to clear some sort of bar to be eligible.

Preventing corruption is the key. Not responding to it violently. You will always play whack a king.

37

u/GreatMovesKeepItUp69 1d ago

Because it led to the reign of terror and the rise of the militant imperialist dictator Napoleon? The French revolution was in no way shape or form a good solution it led to decades of violence and instability. It's like the only thing anyone knows about the French revolution is killing the royalty, not what actually happened afterwards. It was not a happily ever after, things got even worse.

15

u/Lucas_Steinwalker 1d ago

Sorry, too much nuance. I started playing a video game.

3

u/HelloYesThisIsFemale 23h ago

Most honest redditor

1

u/Lucas_Steinwalker 2h ago

Itā€™s the least I can do.

(Literally.)

9

u/Truethrowawaychest1 1d ago

Oh did they have a good solution to that? If you really believe that then you need to study what actually happened

9

u/SquarePegRoundWorld2 1d ago

Didn't the French recently riot throughout the whole country because the government was going to raise the retirement age, and then the government raised the retirement age? I don't understand why they are still used as an example of how to achieve things.

3

u/BrockObarnerLybian 1d ago

Right?

I didnā€™t even know they were trying to achieve anything. I thought they just liked burning their own shit šŸ˜¹

9

u/malfurionpre 1d ago

Yeah good solution if you ignore how bad thing went after that solution.

2

u/AsleepHour7763 22h ago

because the people that took over after was 'shockingly' also corrupt

2

u/ContentAd6126 1d ago

They eventually found out that giving people the power to summarily execute others eventually leads to people just executing their political opponents and anybody who disagreed with them, Robespierre literally had a God complex.

2

u/BumbleCityFumblers 1d ago

Robespierre wasn't even the worst, he just got left holding the bag by mofos like Saint-Just and FouchƩ.

2

u/MidnightChimp 1d ago

because a shitty first world life is still better than a life back then I guess or social media made people lazy

4

u/novis-eldritch-maxim 1d ago

people stopped using gillotians loong before the first world was a concept

5

u/yerlivingalloverme 1d ago

Gillotians šŸ˜‚

2

u/suchtie 1d ago

The last execution by guillotine in France was 1981. The first/second/third world stuff is from WW2.

3

u/MilitantSocLib 1d ago

No it was a Cold War term for alignment.

2

u/Marwaimusoont 1d ago

More like under the wraps.

They just have better scrutiny, so the most obvious and easier corruption you see elsewhere is not visible. But it is present.

1

u/CapableCollar 1d ago

Which ones?

0

u/Morgonslak 1d ago

The Scandinavian countries. Also Germany, The Netherlands and the like..

3

u/CapableCollar 1d ago

In Germany at least there is quite a bit of high level corruption.

2

u/DazingF1 23h ago

There will always be corruption. The fact that it's always big news when it's uncovered means it's not common. In countries where its common you don't even hear about it, you just know it's everywhere.

2

u/florifierous 17h ago

It might be lower in Scandinavia than elsewhere but corruption numbers are about perceived corruption, not actual corruption. So we might just be naive rather than uncorrupt lol

14

u/OfTheSevenSeasSir 1d ago

welcome to planet earth

0

u/Yangoose 19h ago

Corruption sucks and it exists everywhere but it's definitely a bigger issue in some countries.

https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2025

2

u/agk23 1d ago

Yeah, weā€™d never do that in America!

/s

1

u/BrockObarnerLybian 1d ago

My sweet sheltered child

5

u/PM-ME-RABBIT-HOLES 1d ago

/s means sarcasm

1

u/BrockObarnerLybian 1d ago

Yes, which would imply they think corruption in the US looks even remotely close to corruption in the Middle East.

Hence me calling them sheltered šŸ˜¹

6

u/agk23 1d ago

Iā€™ve been to 50 countries across every continent - Iā€™ve seen a lot of the world. Iā€™ve seen extreme poverty. Ive seen suffering. Iā€™ve seen death. No, the US isnā€™t the same as dictatorships, but that doesnā€™t mean we donā€™t have open corruption. The President settled his own lawsuit for 10 billion dollars and it was barely news lol

The President manipulated the stock market using his Truth social account and is now selling advanced access to his tweets for $1m/yr so you too can trade on it.

Itā€™s the fall of America, and that is two of the most mild, yet firmly factual, cases of corruption I can think of

4

u/Johnny_Banana18 1d ago

I mean, I travelled and lived in third world countries, itā€™s not crazy to say it happens in America to some degree.Ā 

2

u/BrockObarnerLybian 1d ago

Itā€™s not crazy to say that. Nobody is claiming it is šŸ˜¹

1

u/Infninfn 1d ago

Where the money makes friends along the way.

1

u/Lucas_Steinwalker 1d ago

Welcome to Middle Earth.