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Comment by laputan_machine | Hacker News Reader

China is under the rule of the CCP, an authortarian party to which you cannot challenge.

For all democracy's failings, for the mess the US is in, and rise of populist parties in Europe, it is still freedom.

Ironically, right wing parties in the EU rose thanks to disinformation on american social media. Following this discussion's logic, Facebook and Twitter should have been banned in the EU a long time ago.

> right wing parties in the EU rose thanks to disinformation on american social media.

Citation needed. Last I heard it was mostly attributable to migration over the last couple decades.

Does the US public have any genuine, identifiable democratic power over the FBI?

Absolutely. The FBI head must be appointed by the President and approved by the Senate. Oversight is performed by Congress. He can be fired.

I don't disagree that it is possible in theory, but are there any substantial examples of initiatives genuinely spawned at the general public level changing policy of the FBI? This would be required to upgrade the binary (True/False) proposition from a belief to a fact...but then only as a binary (the FBI could still be 99% beyond the will of the people).

This is technically true, but I wonder in practice. Like, the King of England absolutely has the power to withhold consent on acts of parliament. How accountable is parliament to the King? But replace the King with Congress, and parliament with the FBI.

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