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Comment by samstave | Hacker News Reader

So even just recently, we have had several shows "Holywoodizing" the narco crap:

* Narcos (S1,S2)

* The Infiltrator

in both, the CIA are fucking criminals

now we have this... im confused. there is blatant BLATANT corruption in the US - and instead of doing anything about it we turn it into ENTERTAINMENT???

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The CIA has been portrayed as the bad guy in movies for a long time and that's the way the want it.

Why? Because they want everybody to get used to the idea that they're above the law without having to come out and say it directly.

https://www.google.com/search?q=why+are+cia+portrayed+as+bad...

To me, the DEA and the War on Drugs came across as culpable as the CIA in Narcos.

The complete and utter lack of self awareness on behalf of the DEA agents made the show, especially the second season, extremely tough to watch. Not once does the show ever introspect and try to figure out the underlying reasons behind all the violence and destruction.

TBH you're correct - I was using the CIA as an umbrella in that statement....

but anyone who even just skimmed the "school of americas" history (read, CIA DEA DELTA BLAH BLAH) would be pretty disgusted with what happened during that period... and it still goes on today.

In addition to film being entertainment, it's one of the most effective mediums for communication we have right now. Case in point: way more folks are aware of the Narcos subject matter than previously.

Now whether or not we can transition communication to action is another question entirely...

How about finding and killing bin laden? In my opinion CIA acknowledges the multi-dimensional and grey world, we live in. They are human they make mistakes, but if past 60 years are a record, they did a good job.

What if Ben Laden was the instrument of the CIA like the contras were? What if no jounalist dares to investigate it after what happened to Webb?

That's the whole point isn't it? Terrorize the internal opposition to silence

RJ Hillhouse wrote a book, "Outsourced", that comes close at time to advancing this point-of-view.

https://www.amazon.com/Outsourced-R-J-Hillhouse/dp/078616957...

The CIA has had 60 years of "illegal" coups and overthrows of democratically-elected governments. Many would find nearly everything that the CIA has done to be extremely unethical, un-humanitarian.

That said, I agree that the CIA has done a great job. Unethical? Sure. Effective? Absolutely. There have a been a few major f*ck-ups, but for the most part the CIA has an extremely good track record of shaping the world to the liking of the US (or at least to the liking of top strategists and leaders of the US).

Isn't a huge chunk of that "grayness" caused by the CIA et al. in the first place? I would much rather see all that effort put into meta-societal research, in the open, to try to figure out how to make the world's people want to converge to stability naturally instead of constantly creating and trying to control instability.

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