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> People should be jumping to work there and make the place better. You don't just get to sign up to work for the CIA and make things better - you'll spend yea
by cheald 12y ago
> People should be jumping to work there and make the place better.
You don't just get to sign up to work for the CIA and make things better - you'll spend years doing damn distateful things before you're ever in a position to affect positive change, assuming you haven't been properly corrupted by then. If you refuse to toe the line, then you'll find yourself fired or pressed with criminal charges.
Selling your soul for a small chance to change the CIA seems quite the price to pay.
- mycroft-holmes 12y agoExactly. The government is going to be receptive to an activist asking them to stop bulk data collection and mass surveillance because they're trying to change from within.
- jacquesm 12y agoHow do you know they will be receptive?
- mod 12y agoI'm entirely sure he was being sarcastic.
- mycroft-holmes 12y agoOops. I accidentally typed is instead of isn't.
- saraid216 12y ago> If you refuse to toe the line, then you'll find yourself fired or pressed with criminal charges. The difference between this and activism would be...?
- harry8 12y agoYou should not be facing charges for refusing to take part in a criminal conspiracy and doing your best to cause the appropriate legal action to be taken to mitigate that criminal conspiracy. That statement should be completely uncontroversial.
- saraid216 12y agoYou're completely missing my point. Activism can very frequently involve being fired from your job (which is why many activists end up forming organizations and getting paid specifically for their activism) and being threatened with charges pressed. Having to deal with this inside the organization you're trying to change rather than outside of it isn't actually different. It's a different psychological experience (namely, it's far more hostile), but the threats don't change.
- jacquesm 12y ago> You should not be facing charges for refusing to take part in a criminal conspiracy The people that do not want to work for the CIA to begin with are doing just that, only they make up their minds a bit earlier. > and doing your best to cause the appropriate legal action to be taken to mitigate that criminal conspiracy. Snowden did try to talk to his superiors about this sort of thing. http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/edward-snowden-interview http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/edward-snowden-interview He makes it quite plain that he tried to go through 'channels' first.
- honksillet 12y agoFor the past 2 administrations the CIA has had a terrible record of trying to punish whistleblowers. I agree that people inside the CIA need to speak up, but at the highest levels, people who have tried just that have had their careers ruined.
- pekk 12y agoI don't think we were talking about infiltrating the CIA for the purpose of dumping all its secrets, were we?
- pjc50 12y agoThe organisation will not change without external pressure. External pressure cannot be applied without knowing what it is doing. Knowing what it is doing is illegal. The organisation will not change.
- harry8 12y agoDoes this sound like some part of the reason for why the corrupt high ups hate Wikileaks and their ilk(1) with a passion? (1) where their ilk means: the New York Times, the NewYorker, The Washington Post, The Intercept