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.