It's as though they became what they were fighting. Totalitarianism is old enough that people now even seem nostalgic for it, but it was really awful, and it wa

It's as though they became what they were fighting. Totalitarianism is old enough that people now even seem nostalgic for it, but it was really awful, and it was worth preventing pretty much everywhere. A few assasinations to prevent the otherwise inevitable purges and massacres was ugly, but in the context of what they witnessed before and after the second world war, worth it. Their calculus appeared to be to accept a few thousand casulties to prevent the extermination of millions. When they succeed, it's really ugly, but when you look at the great 20th century failures of the CIA (China, North Korea, Cambodia, Cuba, Bolivia, Venezuela) the consequences were even more terrible. What seems to have changed is they're not trying to prevent it anymore, but making sure it's one they can manage. Imo, I think they got completely taken by Russia, where they thought when the wall came down the cold war was over, but really it had just started in earnest, and now every single new CIA recruit is fully indoctrinated into their old enemies' ideology before they even fill out an application. The movements behind the former Russian oppression very much exist as non-state actors today, and instead of mere nation states, they form pan-national networks facilitated by colleges, NGO's, and foundations. It's so subtle. If you believe the biggest problems facing the world today are rooted in some other people lacking social accountability, that it is limits to the ability of institutions to organize, fund, and plan society, and that it is religion creating identities that cannot be reconciled with society, you may already have been subverted.