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I'll just drop this here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover For the FBI to spy on elected officials
by perihelions 3y ago
I'll just drop this here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover
For the FBI to spy on elected officials and public figures, and use their secrets to blackmail them into doing what the FBI wants, is more than a realistic concern: it's a historical fact that government power-brokers ran that kind of racket on a large scale, spanning decades. Hoover's technical capabilities were a fraction of the digital era's. These are incredibly dangerous powers to have concentrated in one place.
- soderfoo 3y agoAny recommendations for a book about Hoover? I just finished reading The Devil's Chessboard about Allen Dulles and the nascent CIA. It's a great book if you haven't read it.
- fnordpiglet 3y agoG-Man (Pulitzer Prize Winner): J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century https://a.co/d/5xKzQfn https://a.co/d/5xKzQfn
- soderfoo 3y agoThanks, I really appreciate it!
- toyg 3y agoKillers of the Flower Moon has a young Hoover in its cast of characters, and it does a pretty good job of describing his rise. It's also a fantastic book in its own right, which should be read before the incoming movie spoils it forever.
- tempodox 3y agoI have always been wondering about this apparent lack of self-preservation instinct in politicians.
- hajile 3y agoWho says it isn't self-preservation? The uni-party keeps them all rich. They are corrupt politicians who know the corrupt FBI people very well. Both keep each other in check as a kind of mutually assured destruction. This means they can keep the money and power pipeline to themselves by using that to kick out anyone who does the wrong thing. Want to argue about gender or abortion? They fundamentally don't care either way. Want to deal with insider trading or stop our wars? You get your dirt dumped and the entire machine turns against you.
- nonethewiser 3y agoIs someone has a history of doing something, and there is not punishment or corrective action, the most rational assumption is that they are still doing it.