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The simplest explanation is that people in the US gov't act and believe this kind of stuff. It aligns with every piece of leaked private correspondence from the
by rtpg 6y ago
The simplest explanation is that people in the US gov't act and believe this kind of stuff. It aligns with every piece of leaked private correspondence from these people, as well as public statements at the time and now.
If anything the last 4 years (mostly composed of "professional politicians" despite those at the top maybe being outsiders!) should be real "mask off" to the supposed genius and amazing tradecraft of the US.
Ocamm's razor here is that this was the memo.
- angry_octet 6y agoIt is striking how moronic and ill informed it is. When I think of all Ambassadors with grace and favour appointments it makes me grimace. The extraordinary testimony from Fiona Hill and Alex Vindman was at least reassuring that competent people were in government, even if they were being ignored.
- commentrix 6y agoIC has always attracted the best and brightest gossips, deviants and liars. They love to "know more than" even if they have to make it all up. The paradox is their assessments are supposed to be reliable. How can anyone trust a word any of them ever say? That's the stupidity. They're all very "bright", they just don't have any scruples at all. It's basically a social club for sociopaths, wannabe "unlanded" social-climbers and insecure narcissists who just gotta find a way they can pretend to be better than anyone else. I don't think this unprofessionalism applies to military/signals intelligence which is too strict and results focused, only the other "human" types. But the reality is you need people like that, you need people that are easy to control. That's why so many of them have some sort of dirty secret, because the organizations can more easily rely on people they can blackmail. The obsession with secrecy is not just an occupational requirement, it's a deep seated psychology issue for many of the people, that becomes an organizational psychology issue, because of all the twisted crazies they have roaming around in their ranks.
- readarticle 6y agoIf it’s any consolation, the US has increasingly moved its diplomatic channels out of their traditional venues into the Pentagon over the past few decades, and it’s absolutely packed to the gills with Vindmans and Hills. While the State Department might get a new coat of paint under Biden, it’s been being “gutted” for decades.
- andybak 6y ago> It is striking how moronic and ill informed it is. I didn't get that at all. Maybe it's discourteous and flippant. The humour is broad rather than refined but I still chuckled. Hard to evaluate "ill informed" due to distance in time and the fact that I lack insight into the context. It wasn't aiming to be comprehensive and insightful. It was a tongue in cheek crib sheet between people that appeared to know and get where each other was coming from.
- engineer_22 6y agoAn intelligent person can communicate important information through jest. In this ability is found charisma and charm - important characteristics for a diplomat. We wouldn't want our adversaries to think us dull.
- angry_octet 6y agoI found it incredibly dull and far from charismatic.
- cpach 6y agoIt’s quite hard to produce humour that is enjoyed by everyone. To each their own. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- engineer_22 6y agoI found the Russian. Cheers! :)
- dash2 6y agoRead the footnotes. It was an internally produced joke.
- cpach 6y agoIt ought to be humour. Obviously someone took the time to come up with the title Never Mind the Manganese Ore Export Quotas, Here’re the Enjoyable Popular Music Boys. I’m pretty sure there is no actual album with that title. [Edit: Apparently the photo is from the National Lampoon, May 1978.]
- aasasd 6y agoIn case someone doesn't know, that title is a play on the album of Sex Pistols.
- Mauricebranagh 6y agoI am not sure what you point is here? US diplomats (& members of the Blob) like their counter parts in the foreign service (UK) quite often use humour in internal documents. Listen to podcasts by insiders like the bombshell's there is also a famous SIS (MI6) document about the death of Rasputin written in the style of teh Daily Mail.
- IfOnlyYouKnew 6y agoI have no idea what you're getting at. While the memo is intended to be humorous, it still requires vast knowledge of the issues to write and/or fully understand. Humour and professionalism are not incompatible. I know Trump liked to pretend that he is being criticised for failing to adequately play-act the sort of stiff formality his basic understanding of "being presidential" encompasses. But that was never the case.