They still get to do immense damage but I expected them to be megabrains or aomething goddamit.

  • Mrtryfe [none/use name]
    ·
    4 years ago

    They do have some megabrains. You don't get a huge population of unquestioning mouth breathers without having some intentional policy decisions. Something just innocuous like the CIA woke playlist seems laughable to us, but it is quite effective for a not insignificant amount of people.

    • RNAi [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      4 years ago

      But that doesn't require that much brain anyways

        • RNAi [he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          edit-2
          4 years ago

          Cuz I don't have a shitton of money coming not only from rich mfers who are my real bosses, but also from the serfs I'm brainwashing.

          Basically, cuz I don't control the means of propaganda. And I'm not talking about just newspapers newschannels and hollywood but also schools from kindergarten to universities.

          These kind of things are easier when you have a state.

          • TeethOrCoat [none/use name]
            ·
            4 years ago

            I know, the intelligence is not in the propaganda, it's in all the support structures. I respect (not like) them for realizing this and monopolizing the means as swiftly as they did.

  • RamrodBaguette [comrade/them, he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    This is the epiphany that radicalized me. It wasn't that the ruling class didn't care for the rest of us or that they controlled every facet of our lives, since most people deep down know that. It was how maliciously petty, stupid and arrogant they are in the long-term. They are smart enough to exert control via manufactured consent but not smart enough to ensure self-preservation and stability for the future.

  • TeethOrCoat [none/use name]
    ·
    4 years ago

    No, they are not. To pull off manufacturing consent to the level that it is today is impressive.

    • RNAi [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      4 years ago

      Just put lead on fuel and infuse wverything in rabid propaganda, wait a generation or two and voila

  • Eldungeon [none/use name]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Yea we're definitely space balls. As evil as this country is our wealth allows us to be extremely narcissistic and stupid especially when we think we're being cool.

  • Gkalaitza [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    They arent stupid, at least a ton of powerfull people that built and maintained US hegemony and the domestic and global statsu quo arent. The US foreign policy, the intelligence, inteferences and realpolitik, the manufacturing of consent and playing on domestic devisions, the narrative building and propagation, the coopting and neutralizing of threats and movements. They have been brutaly and depressingly efficient and successfull in their vast majority. You dont just happen to stumble over your current position and the safeguarding of the status quo for half a century by the FBI, CIA and state deparment being just bumbling idiots . Failures are a lot but the vastness of the actual threads and narratives and actions all these agencies and the government undertakes in the name of capital and imperialism are orders of magnitude more than them, often not even known until something leaks or comes up. Dont underestimate your opponent. Even if you as a well read and ascended in your political understanding communist can think that a lot of moves or involvement they have is mask off and incompetent, they dont give two shits knowing that they it will work for the vast majority of people

    • FidelCashflow [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Those aren't the people at the top. Every coup the via pulled off was becausw of compotent mid level staff. You gonna tell me any of thr top guys hired because they were good at beer poing in harvard have the skills to know how to take appart thr government in a small country they couldn't find op a map?

      • f12security [none/use name]
        ·
        4 years ago

        I have a couple of friends that are MI/DoD deep intel (one is now about 52 and I've known him for ~ 13 years but never knew exactly what it was he did) but I've deduced based on some photos I've seen at his place (with major political figures, posing for a pic with some other guys with beards, M-4's and civilian clothes about to board a Blackhawk) that he's likely CIA/SAC/PAG. Since I've known him, he's received some kind of expedited degrees from top tier schools (internationally). He's also super progressive.