Are all countries the same?

I remember when COVID was present and because of it I always watched the news and updates.
I couldn't help but notice the things we were told to do and the people telling us not following there own rules.
And the prime minister back then got caught telling alot of lies, and even now members of the that party are still doing wrong.
My dad says you can't trust any of them and I am beginning to believe him now.
Do other countries have MPs like ours?
Like you never hear any scandal from countries like Norway, Finland, Switzerland and lots others or does it just not get reported here in the UK?
( One of my more serious posts)😃

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CheekyBadger · M

It's not the case that all countries are the same - it's tempting to think that as we are often presented with a view of the world that suggests that, however that's certainly not the case. What you saw during COVID is not uncommon - especially when what was done was pushed from outside - in the UK where I am, the ideas of lockdowns, mask mandates etc wasn't a homegrown idea but pushed from the outside - like it was in most western countries. In fact, even the pandemic response plans from WHO were anti lockdown/mask etc until 2019 based on the previous reaseach they were found to be ineffective howver something happened in 2020 and suddenly the main-stream-media were demanding them on behalf of the people and politicians caved to the pressure. Clearly they didn't believe in them as they only adhered to them in public (I'm not picking sides - in UK both main parties were breaking rules privately).

As to whether stuff gets reported or not is an interesting one - we saw quite a lot of state control of main-stream-media and here stuff like "partygate" didn't get reported until quite some time later although it was probably known about closer to the time. There was also political shenanigans in UK where the media was utilised as a weapon between factions seeking control.

How this was in other countries I can't say - I very much doubt that the same sorts of things didn't happen but if there isn't such a culture in the media then it's not necessarily going to be reported. Likewise political scandal often isn't reported outside of the country where it occurred as it's not considered particularly newsworthy since, unless the politicians are well known internationally, people aren't interested - unless the wrongdoing is particularly egregious. An example of this is in UK we get quite a lot of news about how bad Donald Trump is but here relatively little about Joe Biden - part of that is political bias but also part is that Joe Biden isn't a well known politician in UK anyway. Many had never heard of him until he became president and many still wouldn't know who he is. Donald Trump is a much better known figure in UK due to his former business and entertainment work as well as being former president.