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It is crazy how secret services in a lot of "democratic" countries now have a green pass to violate the national law for their own interests without real conseq

It is crazy how secret services in a lot of "democratic" countries now have a green pass to violate the national law for their own interests without real consequence. It reminds me of the secret service in a Nordic country (maybe Denmark?) that shared national secret info with the US without any right to do so, without approval of the national assembly. Also, what should be the scariest thing in the report: "as on board as other journalists"

audunw 1y ago
“now”? At what point has there been good accountability of secret services? Given what we know of their history it has arguably been even worse before. Perhaps some smaller countries have had secret services with an apparently clean record (would be hard to know for sure) at some point. But that could be more a matter of luck with who was in charge and hired at that point.
- greatgib 1y ago
  It is new, for both secret services and politics, there use to be a principe of honor and respectability. Once exposed to bad behaviors, people where quitting by themselves or heads being chopped because of the public shame. Now the people involved will keep their position till the end, doing whatever needed and whatever the cost to not move despite being convicted or close to it. To me, this is new in the last decades. Look at Nixon with the Watergate, nowadays, same with Trump, the guys will just say "and so what?" And things will continue like if it was nothing. Same in UK, same in France, ...
bavell 1y ago
It's crazy to me that some people think this is new.
- perching_aix 1y ago
  Not sure why it would be, short of taking a cheap shot at people. Most people alive right now were born in the past 50 years [0], and won't be intimately familiar with history in so much detail, including me. It's niche knowledge, let's be honest. And people being conspiratorial and speculating on these is not the same as knowing about it with examples. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_median_age https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_median_ag...
  - exe34 1y ago
    "it's worse now" would imply a positive belief about how things were better back in the halcyon days and things are worse now. Otherwise they would not have said it. Not knowing something isn't the same as knowing something that is not.
    - perching_aix 1y ago
      Not sure I follow? These were the things that were said: > It is crazy how secret services (...) now have a green pass Step-function. > think this is new Step-function. You're the only person describing a gradient ("it's worse now"). > Not knowing something isn't the same as knowing something that is not. This is what I'm saying. That this kind of thing having been speculated on by a lot of people the GP above then believed doesn't mean those folks had actual information backing all of that up.
      - exe34 1y ago
        I didn't mean to imply any gradients, I was referring to the perception that things have changed in a negative way. I think we are in agreement anyway.

audunw 1y ago

“now”? At what point has there been good accountability of secret services? Given what we know of their history it has arguably been even worse before. Perhaps some smaller countries have had secret services with an apparently clean record (would be hard to know for sure) at some point. But that could be more a matter of luck with who was in charge and hired at that point.

greatgib 1y ago
It is new, for both secret services and politics, there use to be a principe of honor and respectability. Once exposed to bad behaviors, people where quitting by themselves or heads being chopped because of the public shame. Now the people involved will keep their position till the end, doing whatever needed and whatever the cost to not move despite being convicted or close to it. To me, this is new in the last decades. Look at Nixon with the Watergate, nowadays, same with Trump, the guys will just say "and so what?" And things will continue like if it was nothing. Same in UK, same in France, ...

bavell 1y ago

It's crazy to me that some people think this is new.

perching_aix 1y ago
Not sure why it would be, short of taking a cheap shot at people. Most people alive right now were born in the past 50 years [0], and won't be intimately familiar with history in so much detail, including me. It's niche knowledge, let's be honest. And people being conspiratorial and speculating on these is not the same as knowing about it with examples. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_median_age https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_median_ag...
- exe34 1y ago
  "it's worse now" would imply a positive belief about how things were better back in the halcyon days and things are worse now. Otherwise they would not have said it. Not knowing something isn't the same as knowing something that is not.
  - perching_aix 1y ago
    Not sure I follow? These were the things that were said: > It is crazy how secret services (...) now have a green pass Step-function. > think this is new Step-function. You're the only person describing a gradient ("it's worse now"). > Not knowing something isn't the same as knowing something that is not. This is what I'm saying. That this kind of thing having been speculated on by a lot of people the GP above then believed doesn't mean those folks had actual information backing all of that up.
    - exe34 1y ago
      I didn't mean to imply any gradients, I was referring to the perception that things have changed in a negative way. I think we are in agreement anyway.