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Comment by protonfish

11 years ago

What culture? Fox News, Professional Sports, and reality TV? I miss the days when intellectuals were pandered to. Now they are just irrelevant.

4 comments

protonfish

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cryoshon  11 years ago

Could be, but I think those choices are too unfocused in intent to be the work of the government. Hard to say exactly what their focus is, if they even still do those kinds of operations.

If I were the CIA, I'd start by looking at mainstream American Muslim groups safely inside the fold, then move on to groups closer to the fringe but still not radical, as these would be the perfect kind of organization to create, both for the ability to keep tabs on muslims and also for crafting the millieu of the muslim subculture within the US. I guess the point here would be to create a moderate muslim front domestically in order to prevent ISIS sympathizers from gaining traction. I'm not sure if this is actually a good idea or not.

After I'd found some of those aforementioned groups, I'd check out their preferences for pornography, video games, and illegal drugs-- the most reliable way to do this is to be in person. These options are a good place to start looking for an outside nudge, given that they're still taboo, especially among muslims.

After thinking it through, this seems a bit far fetched. I'm not sure that the CIA would be wasting so much time on dubious culture creation/shaping without it being proven as extremely effective in the right context.

  • wutbrodo  11 years ago

    Their history certainly supports their penchant for enthusiastically engaging in strategies with no proven effectiveness (like giving people LSD for the purposes of mind control). Though there's (maybe) something of an argument to be made that the Cold War was an era of particular lunacy and that the CIA of today is more sober-minded.

  • jessaustin  11 years ago

    I'm not sure that the CIA would be wasting so much time on dubious culture creation/shaping without it being proven as extremely effective in the right context.

    Like any other effectively-unsupervised bureaucracy, the only context that matters is, "are we spending more and more money?" If a plausible hole can be found, the CIA will be happy to throw money down it.