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A couple issues with the "just declassify stuff" approach, for those unfamiliar: - The actual declassification decisions would be made by career nat'l security
by bell-cot 1y ago
A couple issues with the "just declassify stuff" approach, for those unfamiliar:
- The actual declassification decisions would be made by career nat'l security people. Who know that nobody was ever disciplined for keeping "2 + 2 = 4" secret. Nor promoted for declassifying the (metaphorical) blueprints for George Washington's false teeth.
- I've not seen it articulated, but there's also the "never speak honestly around troubled children" nature of declassifying anything. Capitalist journalism promotes junior high school drama queens, and the internet is crawling with simpletons and nut jobs. If you declassified the fact that, in 1971, DoD Junior Analysts Joe & Alice suggested basing nuclear missiles on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockall - it wouldn't matter if their idea was vetoed the next day by an O-4, or was physically impossible anyway. There would still be a giant "OMG AMERICAN NUCLEAR MISSILES WERE GOING TO BE LAUNCHED AGAINST INNOCENT BRITISH SEAGULLS!!!" shitstorm about it - because for a (seeming) majority of humankind, "truth" is whatever idea is pushing their buttons the hardest right now.