Comment by throwaway87394 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by throwaway87394 | Hacker News Reader

Is anyone else concerned about the changes to the CBP officer population over the last few years?

The priorities of the current administration have allowed the organization to rapidly balloon in size. Those of us who have worked at fast growing startups are aware of how quickly the character of an organization can change when it doubles or triples in size too quickly. And then the kind of person who wants to be a CBP officer in this political climate is... possibly worrying?

Will the next adminstration try to purge this organization? Will they even be able to? Are we going to be stuck with a dramatically more authoritarian customs organization for the next few decades?

I'm moderately concerned.

As a meta-addition to this comment, self-censorship is absolutely real here. I normally interact online using my real name, but obviously that seems a little more fraught when there's a real possibility that your comments will be thrown back at you when you interact with a customs officer at an airport. "You clearly don't like customs agents. That probably means you're hiding something" etc.

Culture starts at the top. If you have a mean-spirited leader at the head that frame of thought radiates through the rest of organization. The bullies feel empowered to be bolder. Meanwhile the compassionate feel isolated and unsupported. Either they armor up and just do the job silently or they leave.

As a person of color I've always self-censored when dealing with the government. You give them just the information they need to know and nothing else. Lying to a federal officer is a felony; jokes, embellishments, or casual chat is simply something you don't do. You don't know who's recording and if it will be used against you later.

>Culture starts at the top. If you have a mean-spirited leader at the head that frame of thought radiates through the rest of organization.

I think it's both. You can swap the head out in a company, but the rank and file can still resist and even have the person at the head removed by political pressure. At some point, the organization itself is completely morphed and needs pruning essentially to change it. If we want to see reform, I think politically the DoHS needs significant reforms bordering on amputation in some cases. It's hard to mildly reform such an organization such that it actually result in significant, lasting change.

The concept of class warfare is a popular tool everyone knows of, but there is a nasty new war that is going on- personality warfare.

IE- Conservative aggressive males use police jobs, the DHS, and border protection to give jobs to their chums. It’s like welfare for people who lack self control. You could say that the far left has taken over Silicon Valley, but it is not the same, skilled conservative tech people still get jobs, they just need to shut their mouths and blend in when people talk at lunch or whatever. For police departments taken over by assholes, I think they filter more heavily.

Arguing which side of the aisle filters more, is not a competition I want to see expanded by complaint. Can we instead reward blending with our mouths & hearts open?

I agree - I don’t think I’m qualified to say which sides/groups filter more, nor should that be a main focus. It would be great if we could work together harmoniously and professionally without so much group identity bs.

> skilled conservative tech people still get jobs, they just need to shut their mouths and blend in when people talk at lunch or whatever.

"Skilled colored people get jobs, they just need to keep their mouths shut and respect their betters. Skilled women get jobs, they just need to keep their heads down and endure a bit of sexual harassment."

IMO that's what that argument sounds like. Toxic work environments are toxic. And just like you don't take the white dude's word for it that his workplace isn't toxic to women or African Americans, perhaps we shouldn't take the word of the left that their workplaces are not toxic to conservatives.

Do you actually know such filtering/discrimination takes place? Or is it more that liberal/leftists simply don't apply for CBP jobs in the first place? Unemployment is low - why would people who think borders are evil volunteer to police them?

This is one of those times when I don't think discrimination is needed to explain something. I doubt you find many conservatives working for LGBT or climate change charities either, but that wouldn't be for reasons of discrimination.

I am deeply concerned. The 'luke skywalker' liberal attitudes of the past don't work anymore as a rebellious outcome. You can find a lot of videos online from politicians stating their aims and values. Across the west authority is going to be the most important thing in the future politically. You can hear many politicians that were successful during the liberal era say this, like australia's pm john howard.

There is something deeply wrong about the authoritarian swing we are experiencing. There's a sizeable chunk of the populace complaining they're being suppressed or oppressed and using the attention they gain to form their own filter bubbles where they oppress and suppress thoughts they don't like. Without a second's thought about the double standard.

The west's attitude towards valuing freedom as a goal to be achieved is put under a large question mark. Are we even aiming at that anymore? Where do you go to be free? We seem to be aiming at the right to oppress others. Hm I'm not sure about that. I'm trying to figure it out in the sunlight. It seems the only way to be 'free' in the old sense is to be the king of yourself. Willing to throw away everything you could ever have or gain simply to retain authority over your own being.

Is the only place left for "the left" to be in exile? Underground and unseen is the only place left to be free? Dodging the spotlight, jailbreaking and refusing orders. Seems like a shitter world than I'd like.

> It seems the only way to be 'free' in the old sense is to be the king of yourself. Willing to throw away everything you could ever have or gain simply to retain authority over your own being.

You are channeling Epictetus[0]:

That is why [Diogenes] used to say, "From the time that Antisthenes set me free, I have ceased to be a slave." How did Antisthenes set him free? Listen to what Diogenes says. "He taught me what was mine, and what was not mine. Property is not mine; kinsmen, members of my household, friends, reputation, familiar places, converse with men—all these are not my own. 'What, then, is yours? Power to deal with external impressions.' He showed me that I possess this beyond all hindrance and constraint; no one can hamper me; no one can force me to deal with them otherwise than as I will. Who, then, has authority over me? Philip, or Alexander, or Perdiccas, or the Great King? Where can they get it? For the man who is destined to be overpowered by a man must long before that have been overpowered by things." Therefore, the man over whom pleasure has no power, nor evil, nor fame, nor wealth, and who, whenever it seems good to him, can spit his whole paltry body into some oppressor's face and depart from this life—whose slave can he any longer be, whose subject?

[0] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page%3ADiscourses_of_Epictetu...

Interesting. With this recent resurgence of Hitler/Stalin stuff (that is basically gone now) it seems the last time we went through an authoritarian phase there was a whole host of problems with the surrounding ideas and the implementation of it. The most recent speaker of note on it went on to talk about how he thinks the only solution this time round is to be individualist masters of our own house. Many people agree with that idea. That speaker was likely influenced by Epictetus too, and the Greeks in general.

We are all individually doomed to stand and burn in the sunlight, as a hierarchy of authority forms around us. But this is only half the equation. In the past the exiled half was a matter of flesh and assumed racial identity. We aren't doing that again. But what is the exiled status? An individual that says no to authority? What is the core problem with somebody who does not bend to our current wave of authoritarianism? How do we harness this power for good? It would be trivial to f* it up. Give past dictators the power of tagging & labeling in a secret worldwide internet database that contains everybody's face & data and the world becomes very dark very quickly. We must figure out what we are fighting to protect before it's gone forever.

It's not as simple as left vs. right. Authoritarianism can build a power base on either.

Those who reject authoritarianism still have the paradox of tolerance and tyranny of the minority to deal with.

Those who band together have more power than individuals. Those who use their power to gain more followers gain more power. Eventually it doesn't really matter what they're selling, because absent any other forces, the majority will buy it.

What needs fixing is human nature on a majority scale, and no one's figured out how to do that.

It's a bit like geoengineering: we can hack it a bit in the short term, but the longer-term consequences are still beyond our comprehension/attention span.

And besides, whose 'fix' would we trust...

'Be excellent towards one another' is probably the best guidance we'll get. Enforcing that? Well, then we need definitions and rules and people exploiting them.

There seems to be a problem generally with a lack of professionalism in many branches of law enforcement. ProPublica’s coverage of sheriffs destroying equipment after losing elections or offices being fired for not shooting suspects offer some striking examples of how disconnected LEO are vs the part of society I occupy

Maybe. Or it could be confirmation bias, media painting everything rosy under Obama.

Personally, 7 years ago I (a Canadian) had much more grief flying into England than this year (or ever) going to the US.

Just on the timeframe: there haven’t been any major changes to the CBP population over the last few years, the major reorganization, cultural... adjustments and hiring sprees that inflated and led to our current situation occurred after 9/11 and throughout the aughts.

BP specifically went from like 4K in the 90s to 20k by 2010, the damage was done a while ago.

The poisoning of the wells is my primary concern and that of many others I gather. Ballooning size coupled with installing tow the line, even if it means breaking the law, leadership..

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