• antidote101@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      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.

      • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        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.

        • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          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

      • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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        8 months ago

        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.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      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.

      • PugJesus@kbin.socialOP
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        8 months ago

        Oh, I’m not saying they’re not shitty. I’m only saying they aren’t nearly as competent as people think.

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          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