Hacker News Reader

Comment by hsnewman | Hacker News Reader

The FBI has always had a bad rap, and they are a somewhat fascistic org themselves. And I'm a full-blooded born in the USA American saying this. The FBI doesn't need any help from foreign nations to be portrayed negatively. Just look up COINTELPRO for one of many egregious examples. It's not just bad individuals, but multi-year supremacist programs.

More recently, they tried to force Apple to put a backdoor in their phones.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_FBI_controversies

It's honestly kind of wild watching the political left do a total about face and embrace and celebrate the FBI while the law and order political right turns against them.

I'm getting almost as much whiplash as when the crunchy, anti-vax political left (remember the 2019 Portland measles outbreak?) turned rabidly and militantly pro-vax while the generally neutral conservative right turned extremely anti-vax. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Pacific_Northwest_measles...

But probably not as much whiplash as Obama got after he campaigned in 2008 saying that he believed marriage was between a man and a woman. https://www.politico.com/blogs/ben-smith/2008/08/obama-says-...

Interesting times.

The FBI paints themselves in a negative light, over and over and over again. It really shouldn't surprise anyone that an institution that from the very start was doing backwards crap (just look at everything the FBI did to MLK and the civil rights movement).

There's no need to bring in outside influence to think negatively of the FBI - they've done it to themselves and if anything deserve far more scrutiny than they get.

Large law enforcement orgs do have several skeletons in their closet, that's pretty much a given (and I'm not justifying it)

They also have the biggest targets and the ones that fight the hardest against their job.

But guess what, if those agencies are "big and bad", it's because so are their targets. And even then sometimes they lose

Let's just say I don't have the tiniest shred of compassion for an organization that has Epsteins client list and not a single arrest has come from it.

As far as I'm concerned the FBI is a net-negative for this country by a long shot and their defunding and dissolution immediately would have next to zero negative impact and plenty of upside.

There's been a lot of news about the FBI in a negative light, but it hasn't been "propaganda" and it hasn't been "suddenly". They've been rightfully exposed, complete with definitive proof, for doing many immoral, unethical, and downright illegal things for many years now. Hopefully they will be held accountable for their actions soon.

I sort of assume this is always happening to varying degrees. The net effect even for a skeptic is that you are less trusting of all media. Feels like a nearly unsolvable problem.

Btw I'm sure it's a two way street.

>Could a facist nation (ie: Russia) be using our news to minipulate journalism (again)?

I would argue that it's similar to what happens with a lot of major stories. Something happens, then people start seeing it everywhere even if it was always there. They just talk about it more because it's the topic of the day.

Well, the FBI isn't helping its own case by doing things like this.

I think it's a lot easier to manipulate social media than journalism. Stories like this one will always exist because the world is a huge place. On an average day they just get buried in the avalanche of information we have available. It only takes social media manipulation to make sure the stories you want to resurrect and get engagement rise to the top.

You'd have to argue that Hacker News has been invaded by foreign actors trying to manipulate this specific audience, which is plausible I suppose but I haven't seen any evidence for it just yet.

I think the public has always been skeptical of three-letter-agencies. Whether the recent outrage is a product of "natural" politics or some soviet-style "active measures" is anyone's guess

For me, the big surprise is the Republican party turning on the FBI. They have been the party of law an order for my whole life. Even recently, the back-the-blue rhetoric was mostly coming from the right and most of the right seemed to support law enforcement and the court system. I've always thought this way of thinking was fundamental to that party, but I guess not.

The evil Russians want you to be skeptical of your government's secret police!

While these things come in waves, I think there has historically been a massive amount of effort and funding by US state agencies to show the CIA, FBI, and/or DoD in a positive light in mass media. Targeted leaks to "safe" journalists, high profile cable TV spots, op-eds that are written by department leaders, etc. That stuff still happens today. I agree that Russia is probably putting money and effort into sowing distrust in US institutions, but I think their capabilities are overrated, especially considering the funding and effort on the other side. Distrust in institutions is a global phenomenon now, with Brexit, Covid, Trump, Euroskepticism, war weariness over Ukraine, etc. But the FBI really doesn't have a great domestic track record and is called out every so often by all sides. Was this post influenced by a Russian campaign? https://twitter.com/aoc/status/953090887613140993

ACAB, and the FBI are cops.

Yes, the timing is... odd. That could be part of a natural cycle of attention, or external influence, or both.

Doesn't change the fact that ACAB, and the FBI are cops.

The fascists aren’t foreign: there are a lot of people who are outraged that the law is applying to people like them and that means these positions are getting a lot more airtime than they used to on right-wing media. Compare it to, say, the same guys’ positions about how the FBI should investigate BLM protesters to how they think the far more damaging January 6th attackers should be treated.

Does anyone else notice that the days have been getting shorter lately? Could a fascist nation be manipulating the time so that we're more tired?

Must be the work of the sinister cabal over at the International Earth Rotation Service: https://www.iers.org/IERS/EN/Home/home_node.html

anyone who an is manipulating news, it's always been that way

You think it's disinformation by fascists? I wonder where we might have a lot of fascists with a lot of sway over news cycles in the United States...

... oh, look, it's the Republican Party.

More like America is divided and there are people questioning the foundations who also happen to control media outlets that are on their side. That side also facing existential questions as their leader/mascot is being investigated.

Doesnt take much to put two and two together.

The FBI has been getting a free pass, if anything. Recently illegally spying on a presidential candidate's campaign (of the opposing party of the sitting president), and currently ignoring corruption involving the President's son and "The Big Guy" (hard to tell who that might be).

The surveillance in question targeted Carter Page specifically. There were FISA warrant applications with errors and omissions. Two of four warrants were eventually declared invalid in 2020. Special Counsel John Durham is investigating the investigation. So far it looks like he's produced one acquittal, and an upcoming trial against a Russian national, Igor Danchenko.

You need actual evidence Biden was involved in the situation. All there is right now is Hunter possibly referencing his father. This is on the level of "Russia, if you're listening..." except in that case we know an actual outcome that appears to have coincided with the call for action while the venture Hunter proposed never occurred.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com