You joke but this is actually what like 99% of classified documents actually involve, not conspiracy shit, just methodologies that worked that the relevant agency doesn’t want people finding out about and developing countermeasures to.
This is why Edward Snowden is on an extended stay in a Russian airport right now, not for exposing a conspiracy and making the US government look bad, but for basically handing the playbook over to the public leading to adversarial countermeasures against the techniques and exploits they use.
If you ever see those “how to not be identified at a protest” posts, that’s more or less what the letter agencies are trying to avoid people being able to make more of.
I’m sure it was just a coincidence that the first attempted assassination of MLK was made by a schizophrenic black woman ranting about the things the CIA hates while they had a secret program for brainwashing disenfranchised schizophrenics into assassins and spies.
They were both. They were the organization that both spiked their own punch bowl with LSD and that overthrew several democratically elected leaders for American interests.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that they were competent in many ways. It’s just that they’re an insane sort of competent. They’re both fully capable of difficult and bad things and utterly incapable of self control
Context?
The CIA is often attributed great cunning and intelligence, both in popular culture and by their enemies.
In reality, they were busy during the Cold War dosing up on LSD and trying to cultivate psychic powers, including tests to try to kill goats with mind-powers
Counterpoint; you’re more likely to only hear about the things that didn’t work.
…the things that do work are important, so kept quiet.
You joke but this is actually what like 99% of classified documents actually involve, not conspiracy shit, just methodologies that worked that the relevant agency doesn’t want people finding out about and developing countermeasures to.
This is why Edward Snowden is on an extended stay in a Russian airport right now, not for exposing a conspiracy and making the US government look bad, but for basically handing the playbook over to the public leading to adversarial countermeasures against the techniques and exploits they use.
If you ever see those “how to not be identified at a protest” posts, that’s more or less what the letter agencies are trying to avoid people being able to make more of.
No joke, just what I assumed is the case.
And, consequently, the movie The Men Who Stare at Goats
Is that all they were doing?
Sometimes they tried to kill Castro with exploding cigars.
Honestly I say the KGBs fails were funnier with regards to trying to coerce foreign governments
They made a sex tape of the leader of Indonesia and when they tried to blackmail him with it he demanded copies to show to his buddies
Well, there was also the MKUltra thing.
I’m sure it was just a coincidence that the first attempted assassination of MLK was made by a schizophrenic black woman ranting about the things the CIA hates while they had a secret program for brainwashing disenfranchised schizophrenics into assassins and spies.
They were both. They were the organization that both spiked their own punch bowl with LSD and that overthrew several democratically elected leaders for American interests.
Oh, I’m not saying they’re not shitty. I’m only saying they aren’t nearly as competent as people think.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that they were competent in many ways. It’s just that they’re an insane sort of competent. They’re both fully capable of difficult and bad things and utterly incapable of self control
See this relevant Citation Needed episode.
There was an excellent movie called The Men Who Stare at Goats that’ll get you up to speed, just remember it’s a 100% factual documentary.
Now that I think about it, if NCD had to make a movie, it would end up exactly like The Men Who Stare at Goats.
The movie is a loose adaption of Jon Ronsons book and documentrary series which is a 100% factual documentary.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Men_Who_Stare_at_Goats