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Comment by cyanydeez | Hacker News Reader

Ok, but usually, as we've seen, *gestures around*, the problem with the American justice system is if _theres a lot of crooks_, it absolutely just tries to normalize what the crooks are doing.

There's obviously no scape goat in Boeing. IT's systemically corrupt, which means Americans will happily try to make it look like that's normal and reasonable and "the best we can do". If not outright find the most dull, corrupt white guy and hold him up as a paragon of the perfect saint.

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Right, but everyone from the individual prosecutor to the bureaucrats at the DOJ to the regulators at the FAA to members of Congress HAVE to be thinking "what if the next fuckup involves a plane falling out of the air and 200+ deaths, then it's my ass on the line" at this point.

FAA is probably thinking that since they're the ideal scapegoat in such a situation, but I don't think any member of Congress gives a shit about how many Boeing kills, as long as Boeing continues to pay them off.

Congress cares about votes more than payoff from Boeing. So long as voters don't care about how many Boeing kills congress wants the Boeing payoff. As soon as congress thinks voters care about Boeing congress will turn on Boeing.

Do you care about "Elevance Health" - they larger than Boeing according to the fortune 500 list (20 vs 52 in 2024) - but I hadn't even heard of them until I looked up the list just now. I have no clue what the company is up to (health informs my guess, but it is a guess). Companies like them can continue to do whatever and voters won't care.

But voters care about a multitude of issues. People care much more about things like abortion, immigration, healthcare, gun rights (or control), and yet none of those are seeing any movement or chance of causing meaningful threat to their voter base.

It'll take much much worse than a couple more crashes for the Boeing issue to eclipse all those things to become an issue people actually change their voting over.

Acute current events affect people differently.

If a plane full of Americans falls out of the sky and kills everyone on board, and it turns out to be because of negligence at Boeing, and it happens close to an election, that will definitely be used against any incumbent politician who could be portrayed as responsible.

Politicians want to avoid a scenario like that. But it does require several things to line up for that scenario to unfold, so they have no incentive to care beyond what is necessary to prevent it.

Movement takes time. Those against abortion have been active for decades. Likewise those against gun control.

those may not be your side of the issue but it is clear a lot of voters care and are voting opposite of you.

>Those against abortion have been active for decades.

Like 240 decades.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath

Congress will do the usual: accept Boeing's money and overlook the issue on one hand, and pretend to the public that they're doing otherwise on the other.

Unfortunately, Americans and the peoples of many democratic countries have given up on verifying if their elected officials are actually doing what they say they are, so taking a ~~bribe~~ campaign contribution and lying about it is a medium-high gain and low risk activity.

As a bonus, you can then use those contributions to market yourself and your lies to the same voters even harder!

It's crazy how close that door blowout was to being just that kind of disaster. If it happens later/higher it's a much different outcome.

Well, these "plane falling out of the sky" fuckups have already happened[1] and the culture there still has obviously not changed. Maybe it's going to take a "plane full of Americans falling out of the sky" fuckup event.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737_MAX_groundings

How many of those leaders are steeped in the old ways of airlines, back in the 70s/80s/90s when 1000+ deaths a year was the norm? I wonder how many of them believe air travel has become too safe, that there is profit to be made by backing off the recent improvements.

https://asn.flightsafety.org/statistics/period/stats.php

Because that's clearly been happening the last 40 years?

Can you name someone whose been scapegoated for 200+ deaths recently?

>"if _theres a lot of crooks_, it absolutely just tries to normalize what the crooks are doing."

Correction - a lot of rich and powerful crooks,

I don't think the problem is crooks in the justice system, but crooks throughout the system, which is a monster that feeds itself - with money you buy power with power you can make more money.

This is what you get in a society in which money is the only thing that matters. This is a stupid idea to even write here let alone build a society upon.

This is why people love to hate Elon Musk. Having a despicable character at the head of Tesla is the only thing that makes it possible for people to care about anything that Tesla or his other companies does.

Boeing would be huge news, and would be in much worse trouble, if there was a flamboyant bad guy to hold people's attention. Being dull is an important quality for corporate leadership for exactly this reason.

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