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Like the election interference. I keep imagining a small company of 50 employees punching in their time clock, grabbing coffee, then dedicating the rest of thei

Like the election interference. I keep imagining a small company of 50 employees punching in their time clock, grabbing coffee, then dedicating the rest of their day to ruining the elections of another country.

midhhhthrow 6y ago
Keep in mind this happens from both sides
- Pfhreak 6y ago
  Both sides? What do you mean 'both'? Presumably there are considerably more than two sides -- I'd expect that many countries are interfering in many other countries elections.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
st_goliath 6y ago
I think this train of thought might be headed towards what Hannah Arendt described as the "banality of evil"[1]. An average person with a mundane office job that happens to be for e.g. a certain government agency (to stay with the example), indirectly causing all kinds of mayhem elsewhere that is largely beyond their comprehension, simply because it's all neatly abstracted away from them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banality_of_evil#The_Banality_of_Evil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banality_of_evil#The_Banality_...
- ahelwer 6y ago
  Oh yes, this is a rich area for writers. There's also the famous quote from Gravity's Rainbow: "A million bureaucrats are diligently plotting death and some of them even know it." (please don't try to read that wretched book on the strength of this single quote)
- neatze 6y ago
  At least on wallstreet, early on I noticed, sometimes people simply lose awareness (social interaction play's critical role) and end up doing illegal things, without knowing it, some end up in jail. I think if person ends up in amoral/illegal group, eventually he will end up doing amoral/illegal/unethical things, there is no guard except to avoid such groups proactively.
- NaturalPhallacy 6y ago
  "If you want to do something evil, put it in something boring."
shadowban_meme 6y ago
they should up their game with wars, sanctions, and coups just like the leader of the free world did/doing to every country on earth. election interference oh sounds so serious.
dmos62 6y ago
What's weirder? A small 50 employee "hostile" company, or a big one with hundreds and hundreds of employees?
grawprog 6y ago
So a CIA office?
belatw 6y ago
I have a friend in Makedonya who wrote fake news articles im support of Donald Trump for two years. The best she could have made as a journalist was €350-€450 per month. This is a nation where the average salary is €250/month and senior software engineers make maybe €1000-€1500. MKD’s biggest export is people because of their economy. Writing these articles she made €5000 per month. It was a life changing amount of money. Now she owns a 4-plex downtown and another 2 airbnb units. She has lifted her family into the middle-class thanks to this. Her employer profited millions; and they did no worse than the usa does to many other countries on a daily basis.
- dash2 6y ago
  I am afraid your friend is a professional liar. You seem to be trying to justify it with arguments that are hardly persuasive. (Seriously, it's fine because she got rich?) Be aware that while unashamedly bad guys can remain smart, people who want to keep their bad behaviour from themselves inevitably make themselves stupid by doing so.
  - belatw 6y ago
    Who should I believe: my best friend’s fiancee whose house i stay at when I visit Skopje 8 times per year, and have known ror 6 years .. or some schmuck on a bulletin board? Considering America’s fanatical believe in freedom of speech and meddling in the sovereignity of other nations we have zero ground to stand on in this situation.
- jfengel 6y ago
  Honestly, I have a hard time even resenting your friend. Maybe she was especially good at her job, but most of what I saw from that industry was laughably bad. You'd have to be a complete moron to be taken in by it. That tens of millions were had more to do with the fact that we'd been doing it to ourselves for decades than with your friend's additions to it. Oh, certainly she made everything a tiny bit worse, but I don't have any anger to spare on top of the deep enmity I feel for the people who teed up the situation in which she worked. I have a sneaking suspicion that if your friend (and her coworkers) did something less despicable for a living it would not have made much difference. People right here carefully cultivated that environment of hatred and gullibility that your friend helped exploit. They're the real problems -- and they're still doing it.
spoonjim 6y ago
There's a big company of over a million employees that has done this for decades, it's called the United States military and Intelligence Community. Iran, all of South America, etc.

midhhhthrow 6y ago

Keep in mind this happens from both sides

Pfhreak 6y ago
Both sides? What do you mean 'both'? Presumably there are considerably more than two sides -- I'd expect that many countries are interfering in many other countries elections.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

st_goliath 6y ago

I think this train of thought might be headed towards what Hannah Arendt described as the "banality of evil"[1]. An average person with a mundane office job that happens to be for e.g. a certain government agency (to stay with the example), indirectly causing all kinds of mayhem elsewhere that is largely beyond their comprehension, simply because it's all neatly abstracted away from them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banality_of_evil#The_Banality_of_Evil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banality_of_evil#The_Banality_...

ahelwer 6y ago
Oh yes, this is a rich area for writers. There's also the famous quote from Gravity's Rainbow: "A million bureaucrats are diligently plotting death and some of them even know it." (please don't try to read that wretched book on the strength of this single quote)
neatze 6y ago
At least on wallstreet, early on I noticed, sometimes people simply lose awareness (social interaction play's critical role) and end up doing illegal things, without knowing it, some end up in jail. I think if person ends up in amoral/illegal group, eventually he will end up doing amoral/illegal/unethical things, there is no guard except to avoid such groups proactively.
NaturalPhallacy 6y ago
"If you want to do something evil, put it in something boring."

shadowban_meme 6y ago

they should up their game with wars, sanctions, and coups just like the leader of the free world did/doing to every country on earth. election interference oh sounds so serious.

dmos62 6y ago

What's weirder? A small 50 employee "hostile" company, or a big one with hundreds and hundreds of employees?

grawprog 6y ago

So a CIA office?

belatw 6y ago

I have a friend in Makedonya who wrote fake news articles im support of Donald Trump for two years. The best she could have made as a journalist was €350-€450 per month. This is a nation where the average salary is €250/month and senior software engineers make maybe €1000-€1500. MKD’s biggest export is people because of their economy. Writing these articles she made €5000 per month. It was a life changing amount of money. Now she owns a 4-plex downtown and another 2 airbnb units. She has lifted her family into the middle-class thanks to this. Her employer profited millions; and they did no worse than the usa does to many other countries on a daily basis.

dash2 6y ago
I am afraid your friend is a professional liar. You seem to be trying to justify it with arguments that are hardly persuasive. (Seriously, it's fine because she got rich?) Be aware that while unashamedly bad guys can remain smart, people who want to keep their bad behaviour from themselves inevitably make themselves stupid by doing so.
- belatw 6y ago
  Who should I believe: my best friend’s fiancee whose house i stay at when I visit Skopje 8 times per year, and have known ror 6 years .. or some schmuck on a bulletin board? Considering America’s fanatical believe in freedom of speech and meddling in the sovereignity of other nations we have zero ground to stand on in this situation.
jfengel 6y ago
Honestly, I have a hard time even resenting your friend. Maybe she was especially good at her job, but most of what I saw from that industry was laughably bad. You'd have to be a complete moron to be taken in by it. That tens of millions were had more to do with the fact that we'd been doing it to ourselves for decades than with your friend's additions to it. Oh, certainly she made everything a tiny bit worse, but I don't have any anger to spare on top of the deep enmity I feel for the people who teed up the situation in which she worked. I have a sneaking suspicion that if your friend (and her coworkers) did something less despicable for a living it would not have made much difference. People right here carefully cultivated that environment of hatred and gullibility that your friend helped exploit. They're the real problems -- and they're still doing it.

spoonjim 6y ago

There's a big company of over a million employees that has done this for decades, it's called the United States military and Intelligence Community. Iran, all of South America, etc.