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Comment by bell-cot

tl;dr version: The FBI has been up to all the same sorts of abuses and incompetence as large, minimally-supervised security/law enforcement agencies have been up to for the past ~5,000 years. Laughably naive and under-resourced reform attempts - "we'll write a great-sounding new rule on this piece of paper, and loudly announce that they have to follow it, and this magical piece of paper will fix all the problems!" had done about as little good as any experienced grown-up would expect.

Bluntly put, don't expect it to get substantially better, no matter what nice new rules are written on magical pieces of paper. Organizations like the FBI default to crudely upholding the social hierarchies which feed them, in ways which appeal emotionally to organizations' members. Most higher-ups in those social hierarchies know how to enjoy the benefits of that behavior - while conveniently overlooking the dirtier details. Further down the social hierarchies, there are plenty of "Santa Claus fans" - really Wanting To Believe that their FBI / CIA / police / etc. are paragons of morality and competence - who react poorly to messengers bearing bad news.

Vs. savvy advocates of real oversight and reform, with the the skills, resources, and attention spans to make that happen & stick? Those are less common than Elvis impersonators in Putin's personal security detail.

parent bell-cot 4 years ago

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