• captainlezbian@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    7 days ago

    Say what you will MK Ultra was really funny with enough distance to not see the humanity in the people they got institutionalized.

    The bit where the agency just correctly assumed the punch at their Christmas party had lsd in it is just top notch. Why was the CIA secretly dosing people with psychedelics in France? Mostly because nobody would stop them and that’s what mad with power looks like, but also it is absurd.

  • PugJesus@piefed.socialOPM
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    67
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    8 days ago

    Explanation: The CIA, the main foreign intelligence arm of the USA, has a very… dubious history (and dubious present, for that matter). While their most infamous exploits were done with full knowledge and consent of the highest echelons of the US government (such as Operation Ajax ), there have been times when the CIA’s operations have been unknown even to the US government - or in direct contradiction of their orders from the US government. Illegal by international law? Almost always. Illegal by domestic law too? Why not?

    The CIA continues their bullshit today because they’ve never been properly punished or reformed, even after Senate hearings in the 1970s established that they were playing fuckwad games that even insane Cold War era politicians were not down with.

    • adhocfungus@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      39
      ·
      8 days ago

      And sadly when they were “punished” (had funding withheld) they would just drum up their own cash by trafficking guns and drugs. Nowadays they just don’t even bother trying to pass audits.

    • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      8 days ago

      They are the main suspect in the assassination of their own leader - the JFK assassination.

      They even had Dulles, the founder of the CIA, lead the investigation into the same assassination that their organization was complicit.

      It would be like having a mob boss of a city lead the investigation into the murder of the mayor that was perpetrated by the mob boss’s own people.

      The funny part is that the conspiracy is so old and so often repeated now that no one cares or have become so conditioned to the idea that the CIA does terrible things and that’s acceptable.

    • PugJesus@piefed.socialOPM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      53
      ·
      8 days ago

      No need to. The crimes of the Soviets don’t justify the crimes of the CIA, or make them any better.

      • modestmeme@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        10
        ·
        8 days ago

        Yes indeed, everything that strays from the dogma at hand is whataboutism. Historical perspective, nuanced details, everything. To say the CIA is bad implicitly implies everyone else was good.

        • DaTingGoBrrr@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          11
          ·
          8 days ago

          Can you not have more than one thought in your head at any given time? Why would stating that CIA is bad imply that everyone else was good?

            • Steve Dice@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              7 days ago

              Nobody is forbidding talk about the atrocities of the KGB, though. Have you considered you’re just perhaps a little jaded by .ml and just need to chill?

              • modestmeme@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                7 days ago

                I assure you, based on the responses to my initial comment (and the copious down arrows) that NO we can not talk about the KGB. It’s the CIA alone in the world f’ing up nations. That is the narrative. Do not look at a bigger picture.

                • Steve Dice@sh.itjust.works
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  4
                  ·
                  7 days ago

                  Nope. The down arrows to your comment are due the sheer insanity of it. You’re saying that every criticism of the CIA has to include a disclaimer saying the KGB is also bad or you’re supporting it. You’re completely and utterly out of your mind.

          • modestmeme@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            7 days ago

            I’ve been hearing about CIA atrocities for decades. They’re real, they’re ongoing, they’re something people should know about. But most folks who dwell on the CIA never ever look into the other side of the Cold War, the KGB, the Soviet Union, and all the equally heinous shit they did. It’s like they didn’t exist and the CIA did its deeds out of perverse fun & psychosis. It was decades of covert “war” between two competing superpowers. Acknowledge that there were two sides and they both engaged in covert war activities.

    • crumbguzzler5000@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      8 days ago

      Nothing in this is giving other shadow governments a break here.

      I think it’s great to point out the crimes of the CIA because they are popularised so much in western media, go on Netflix and look at action movies and TV shows, you’ll be able to find a good number which feature the CIA and them being the “saviours”

      • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        7 days ago

        Being the saviours, often by running amok all over the place (and blowing half of it up). Which has now been normalised, when the police doing the same (in movies, still) in their city at least get a vague reprimand.

    • Dr. Wesker
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      8 days ago

      “But… but… but…”

      Just take the L, dawg. There are pleny of other days in the week to be rightfully critical of other countries.