it seems that in Germany/Europe these statistics are much less manipulated than in the US
Actually that was one of the things I wanted to ask. Is the US the most egregious practicioner of this sort of numerical revisionism? And: Do harmonized indicators even exist among EU member-states (or even eurozone members), such that we know, say, the unemployment, under a common definition, in all member countries? I mean when the Belgian Economy Minister states that unemployment (or any indicator) in Belgium is X% and his Greek counterpart states that in Greece it is Y%, are X and Y necessarily directly, or pretty close to directly, comparable?

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom - William Blake

Not so much trust in my experience as lack of knowledge and sophistication.

A certain form of anti-intellectualism accentuates these two elements, making the divorce of ones views  from ones own interests all the more easy, in the short term at least, to acheive.

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill