Page 5-8 are most important

  • s0ykaf [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    i've never really understood this declassification thing

    why do they do it? i mean, i know the law is the law, but they could just lie and/or hide the documents since they're literally the CIA

    • Huldra [they/them, it/its]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      Feeds the narrative that anything bad and abusive was in the past, that things are getting better always and that its irrational to oppose the state nowadays for things in the past.

      Also feeds into the bullshit about the west being "honest" and "open" with secrets, to compare to the mean scary commies who wont let the west in to see everything everywhere.

      People do unironically believe that things universally and automatically are less bad if you are "honest and open" about it, this is why people act like its irrational to get on the US's case for cold war shit or even more recent like Abu Ghraib, but will keep hammering on the bullshit "Tiananmen Square Massacre" because they think its more evil to not be "honest" about it. Plus of course all the propaganda against China and all the propaganda that tries to diminish US abuses contributes too, but this is something that is a big part of this mentality.

      • LeninWeave [none/use name]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        They're... not even honest and open. They declassify things after they can no longer hurt them, or when forced to, then they only declassify part of the truth, etc. It's all limited hangouts, they're not volunteering more information than they need to to make themselves look "open".

        Also, as others point out, no one cares. People think these are conspiracy theories. And, to cap it all off, not only would the capitalist press never really spotlight most of it, but they're also literally in the agency's pocket as seen here. This shit does not exist to the average person, declassified or not, because there's no real focus on it in media.

        • Huldra [they/them, it/its]
          ·
          3 years ago

          I mean yeah, but when forcefully faced with this and if they dont just discard it as "conspiracy theories" many people will take the declassification as a sign of progress and liberty and truth and all that.

          Its a whole buncha different layers to keep people from actually understanding and grasping the political and historical realities.

          • LeninWeave [none/use name]
            ·
            edit-2
            3 years ago

            Yeah, exactly.

            :agony-soviet: Americans are the most propagandized people on earth. :amerikkka-clap:

      • emizeko [they/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        will keep hammering on the bullshit “Tiananmen Square Massacre” because they think its more evil to not be “honest” about it

        burns me that they say this even though the Chinese government has never denied the actual events of the day, just the western narrative, and even released a report about the June 4th incident

      • FailureToLaunch [she/her]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        Yeah I was gonna say this. I've been called a conspiracy theorist by people for referencing events that are described in detail in documents just like this

        Kinda boggles my mind but people just dont care lmao

        • s0ykaf [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          so in truth the reason why they feel free to release these documents is they know it's gonna amount to absolutely nothing

          it's like an abusive relationship where the truth is right there in front of your eyes, but you still refuse to believe it because of whatever notions were created in your head by the abuser

          some fucking scary shit when you think about it

          • Alaskaball [comrade/them]M
            ·
            edit-2
            3 years ago

            "Wow so everything is CIA propaganda and we shouldn't believe it, lmao paranoid tankie"

            "Bro why are you citing the CIA. lmao hypocritical tankie"

            • LeninWeave [none/use name]
              ·
              edit-2
              3 years ago

              It's so fucking hard for people to understand the concept of "bias", for some reason. Sources have bias - when they lie or misrepresent, they usually do it for rational reasons.

              • CIA says something that makes them look good - good chance it's a lie or a misrepresentation of the truth.

              • CIA says something that makes them look bad - almost certain it's the truth, good chance it's a limited hangout.

    • read_freire [they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      as mentioned tangentially in the replies, this is what's called a limited hangout

      pretty sure there's solid circumstantial evidence that the CIA's got a much deeper relationship w/ some media than just inviting them to langley to hear about some unclassified stuff, or being cozy w/ reporters that'll uncritically regurgitate the spin

      • invalidusernamelol [he/him]M
        ·
        3 years ago

        This paper opens with them defining the limited hangout. This is the paper that enshrined the modern limited hangout into agency policy.

        • read_freire [they/them]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Oh good point.

          Making your doc detailing limited hangouts itself a limited hangout