There is an ethic to corruption based upon counter reality. It says, promoting motives is the purpose of life rather than alignment upon objective reality.

To not align upon objective reality is to run into conflict with objective reality, because realities are that complex. It's analogous to fixing a television with a hammer.

Objective reality is the size of the universe, as it defines life. No one can defy objective reality, and the truth which links to objective reality is the only force corrupters cannot subdue. Truth is the communicated representation of unified reality. Linking to unified reality aligns upon the realities which define life.

Corruption is allowing motives to create conflicts with the unified, objective reality that shapes the universe and defines life.

The conflict shows up in the impeachment arguments. Supposedly, Trump's breaking every law in the book was superior to adhering to the laws, because he was promoting his "life style." Promoting a life style is supposedly superior to adhering to laws.

In science, it's supposedly ok to fake the results in promoting motives, because the motives are supposedly the purpose of life, not the objective realities. This purpose is stated as the reason for not correcting errors in science as shown on the web page titled How Scientists Are Fired And Intimidated.

Corrupt persons are fighting a war against rationality, the purpose being to promote motives and not allow objective realities to get in the way. Corrupters actually assume that if everything were aligned upon their motives, it would solve their problems.

One of the things corrupters miss is that everyone's motives are somewhat different. When corrupters see the differences, they assume everyone else's motives should be the same as their own. Whose motives are supposed to be the reference? Each corrupter considers himself to be the reference for existence. Trump assumes he got elected to use his motives and related values as the reference for everything that happens within the country, and he doesn't want to allow laws to get in the way of promoting his motives.

Humans evolved a concept of government using laws as a method resolving the contradictions of different motives being in conflict with each other. Laws create order in a public domain which is supposed to be separated from the private domain.

Corrupters see no difference between the public domain and the private domain, so they try to impose their motives and values in the public domain.

Another example of the difference is "Project Veritas," which is a conservative group that secretly records conversations as a method of degrading public figures who are liberals and then publicizes the results. It's not appropriate to publicize private conversations, but conservatives in general don't know the difference. To a large extent, the persons being recorded say nothing wrong; they simply have values which everyone does and express them in private, which people are expected to do. So Project Veritas attempts to scandalize people for their private views, when there is nothing inappropriate about having such views.

It's somewhat noticeable that conservatives are that way. They find something inappropriate to exploit not knowing what appropriate is. Doing that is cowardice, but conservatives don't seem to know the difference.

What rational persons view as cowardice is viewed as a brilliant method of winning to other persons. Putting economic sanctions on other countries is an example of such inappropriate cowardice. It's no more justifiable than telling your neighbor that he can't buy things at the store. But when the most powerful country cannot be defied, inappropriate cowardice becomes some sort of perverse virtue.