CIA Wokeness
Michael Tracey writes about a weird CIA video that is making the rounds (emphasis added):
In a mind-blowing marketing video first published on March 25, but which had escaped widespread notice until recent days, the CIA enthusiastically endorsed several key tenets of what has now indisputably become a hegemonic left/liberal ideological and rhetorical construct:“I am a woman of color,” the video’s protagonist, an unnamed CIA officer, triumphantly proclaims. “I am a cisgender millennial who’s been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. I am intersectional, but my existence is not a box-checking exercise.”
She continues, “I used to struggle with imposter syndrome. But at 36, I refuse to internalize misguided patriarchal ideas of what a woman can or should be. I am tired of feeling like I’m supposed to apologize for the space I occupy.”
I have to admit that I do not know what the words in bold are supposed to mean. (Nor does my Firefox spellchecker. It flags them.)
I also do not understand the italicized phrases.
To me they sounds like utter bullshit.
But if the CIA wants to hire more such people I am all for it. Folks who can not leave their personal issues at the door typically muck up their workplace and create productivity problems.
A less effective CIA will be a plus for the rest of the world.
Posted by b on May 5, 2021 at 13:55 UTC | Permalink
next page »Like b suggests: never stop/prevent the enemy (which is what CIA is, for most people) from making a mistake. The sooner they replace their cadre with woke idiots the better for humanity and the chances of our survival.
Posted by: Idiocrates | May 5 2021 14:20 utc | 2
Yeah this video took a nice beating on The Hedge....frikkin hilarious! Over 50% of The Company's light lifting is subbed out to contractors, and most of the Langley smurfs are busy "analyzing" data, soooo desk jockey much? It would be fun to track where the diversity hires actually go, but hey I've got a garden to build!
Posted by: Chevrus | May 5 2021 14:23 utc | 3
Utter bullshit indeed. Listing all the boxes she checks and then adding "my existence is not a box-checking exercise" is comical in itself. Hopefully b is right and the CIA will be less effective for the inclusion of people like her.
@b In your last sentence 'the' before CIA is superfluous, it appears you cut down a larger sentence incorrectly.
Posted by: MarkU | May 5 2021 14:28 utc | 4
"Generalized anxiety disorder" is what people who have a poor working relationship with reality often suffer from. The anxiety arises from the divergence of what they believe the world to be from what they perceive about the world with their senses. It is a permanent state of cognitive dissonance. The "woke" believe that the cure for this disorder is to create "safe spaces" where exposure to elements of the real world that trigger the cognitive dissonance can be banned and cancelled. It is an undeclared goal of the "woke" to extend these "safe space" reality exclusion zones to encompass the entire planet.
Naturally, that goal is only attainable within the fantasy spaces of the "woke" reality exclusion zones themselves, and those zones can only exist due to the pity and forbearance of the rest of the population. Currently the reality exclusion zones only encompass educational establishments (primary and secondary schools; university campuses), some government agencies, and some non-industrial workplaces (mass media, marketing, other strictly white collar enterprises).
Remember the "Havana Syndrome", where CIA spooks under diplomatic cover at various US embassies, but mainly the one in Cuba, developed psychogenic illnesses because they were convinced that they were being zapped by Soviet mind rays? This is the result of taking individuals who already suffer from emotional and psychological damage like the cisgender millennial in the linked CIA advertisement and placing them in postings where they are absolutely convinced that they are completely surrounded by hostile enemies. Their delusion and paranoia feed off each other. Then, for the first time they hear crickets unlike anything they ever experienced in their gated, manicured, bug-sprayed northern Virginia wealthy suburbs and their already fractured mind shatters the rest of the way.
When you recall that the CIA is the "Mighty Wurlitzer"; the conductor of the orchestra of mass media narratives, it becomes clear why outfits like the New York Langley Times, the Washington Bezos Post, the CIA News Network and such have been going off the rails with their absurd narratives these last several years.
Posted by: William Gruff | May 5 2021 14:50 utc | 5
Actually the agency is a perfect place for someone who needs safe spaces, willingly engages in mind replacement, and blindly believes all of their co-workers share the same dogmatic hysteria through which they justify their Karen-ness. I hope they let them run some ops in dark areas.
Posted by: Stumpy | May 5 2021 14:52 utc | 6
I would say it is a bad idea to use Firefox if you care about your privacy. I would recommend using either Palemoon or Tom's Palemoon fork.
Posted by: Doubter | May 5 2021 14:54 utc | 8
A crack in the New Cold War edifice?
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/05/opinion/biden-taiwan-china.html
Posted by: Prof | May 5 2021 14:56 utc | 9
Yeah, that has to be one of the most hare brained Psyop fails ever. The US is a world leader alright, in mental retardation and lack of self awareness.
Identity politics and wokeness meets imperialism. Makes you wonder how much longer they can unironically continue calling themselves 'intelligence' agencies.
Consistent with other brilliant 'Born in the USA', ideologically spawned own goals, like bank deregulation, privatising the military, legalising bribes in politics, incentivising every idiot to own a gun, de-industrialising and outsourcing production in China, and the inevitable coup de grace in waiting, leveraging the Dollar's status as reserve currency to impose sanctions... because... exceptionalism and indispensability are just eternal, universally accepted virtues apparently.
If learning from mistakes makes us wiser, one can expect more than a few Buddhas of sorts to emerge from the US in a generation or 3. Would not want to be there in the time between though, it's bound to be a rough ride.
Posted by: Et Tu | May 5 2021 14:58 utc | 10
“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
-KR
---
just noticed that KR is 119 in common numerology (number enthusiasts, raise your hands)
Posted by: librul | May 5 2021 15:03 utc | 11
I am tired of feeling like I’m supposed to apologize for the space I occupy.
Tracey cut the quote mid-sentence. Here’s the full quote, which is even more ridiculous:
I am tired of feeling like I’m supposed to apologize for the space I occupy, rather than intoxicate people with my effort, my brilliance.
Katie Halper and Esha Krishnaswamy roast the “brilliance intoxicator”:
The CIA Gets Woke (8 min — Katie Halper’s YouTube channel, May 4, 2021)
Posted by: S | May 5 2021 15:05 utc | 12
I am tired of feeling like I’m supposed to apologize for the space I occupy, …
Also, the phrase suggests that she does feel like she’s supposed to apologize for the space she occupies—and she’s tired of that. I wonder why she feels that way.
Posted by: S | May 5 2021 15:13 utc | 13
But if the CIA wants to hire more such people I am all for it.
Do they want to hire them or do they want to virtue-signal?
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | May 5 2021 15:16 utc | 14
We are entering the final stages of total Ideological Subversion of the West.
It reminds me of the Nazis, who brainwashed enough people into dehumanising Jews et al. in order to uphold 'higher values' such as their own racial superiority and nationalism.
How far off are we from seeing more of these brainwashed woke morons happily murdering some unsuspecting stranger whose only crime was to use grammatically correct language, hold religious or conservative views while never harming a single person, or not refusing to celebrate every artificial category in the ever growing lists of rules one must be banned or cancelled for not agreeing with?
The important thing is to always be offended on behalf of those who we don't even know or no longer even here, while completely ignoring the crimes being committed right in front of us. That is the path to true virtue and enlightenment... the Media told me so...
Posted by: BrainRinsed | May 5 2021 15:20 utc | 15
Being juvenile, insane, self-obsensed
would not preclude them from being dangerous.
Really, on the whole and in various ways, the CIA acts against american interests.
But certainly in the interest of some.
Empire of Perfidious Albion.
Posted by: jared | May 5 2021 15:20 utc | 16
Thanks for this post, b. It fits in with my own beginning to read, or re-read, Dostoievski's "The Idiot", which plays with the idea of identity. I am going backwards in my re-readings as it seems to me there is a linkage between the United States and Russia (and even China) that hasn't been generally talked about, since they are usually, as nations, considered rivals. Later, in "The Devils" that rivalry is a subtext -- those young Russians who are drawn into the 'movement' have spent years 'abroad', and that turns out to have been the US.
In "The Idiot" the theme is that of a doppelganger: two apparently opposite characters who (disastrously in the novel) seem closer than twins, joined by invisible threads, unavoidably linked. I throw in China as the chinese vase component - so far not completely fleshed out, but as in T.S. Eliot's "Four Quartets" perhaps the elusive binding principle that makes human identity a complete whole:
BURNT NORTONV
Words move, music moves
Only in time; but that which is only living
Can only die. Words, after speech reach
Into the silence. Only by the form, the pattern,
Can words, or music, reach
The stillness, as a Chinese jar still
Moves perpetually in its stillness.
Just as for Heraclitus, the way up is the way down - maybe for us the way forward is back.
Posted by: juliania | May 5 2021 15:24 utc | 17
Contrary to what recent history might suggest, the CIA was founded by, and has always served as the upper-middle-class/bourgeois center-left bastion within the USG. During the Cold War, it was probably the main employer of Yale graduates, specially from the Literature bachelor. A running joke during the Cold War was that the CIA was the the world's highest concentration of failed writers.
The reason for that is very simple: its predecessor - the OSS - organically evolved during WWII as the repository for the sons of the Northeastern elite who wanted to experience the thrills of war without incurring the risk of death. By the time WWII ended, the OSS was essentially an Ivy League fraternity.
@ S (13)
Maybe she has the nagging feeling that her enrolment was mainly a box-ticking exercise.
Posted by: MarkU | May 5 2021 15:28 utc | 19
LGBT became LGBTQ
to be more inclusive will it not become
LGBTQC (certainly not CLGBTQ, could't have that).
Posted by: librul | May 5 2021 15:28 utc | 20
Aagh, left out a comma in 17 - ...words, after speech, reach...
[It wouldn't seem important anywhere else; but, for Eliot,and for poetry, it is.]
Posted by: juliania | May 5 2021 15:33 utc | 21
If they're reaching out to people with disorders, maybe it's because they need more patsies (The Catcher in the Rye approach).
Posted by: Leif Sachs | May 5 2021 15:36 utc | 23
I worked there 10 fiscal years as a computer-systems contractor, 20 years ago. Interacted with a lot of Government types. Seemed to me a huge bureaucracy, then, drowning in paperwork. Surprised if the whole place ever got anything done.
One oddity: people that went overseas, called DO then, absolutely mission critical, who often used initials for last names (worked with a "Steven P." once), got shafted for promotions when abroad: out of sight, out of mind. Often paired in offices back here, below the grade required for individual offices. Reputed to live high on the hog when away, but not back home.
Posted by: Seward | May 5 2021 15:37 utc | 24
BrainRinsed | May 5 2021 15:20 utc | 15
Was it silly of us to think the Woke revolutionaires would get enough "bang for their buck" with trannie washrooms? Despite winning every battle in the culture war, the Looney Left is never satisfied. What's scary is the latest front they've opened: the Covid reformation of western society.
They won't have trouble finding 21st century Jews to de-humanize. Just label someone a Covid Denier or Anti Vaxxer and anything will go!
A nice sentiment to think the Woke cancer can rot the CIA or US military. Afraid we've got bigger problems than that.
Posted by: EoinW | May 5 2021 15:38 utc | 25
@ Posted by: Doubter | May 5 2021 14:54 utc | 8
Why do you recommend PaleMoon rather than Tor browser?
Personally, I believe anything run on Windows is suspect.
Using VPN on an insecure operating system might only bring unwanted attention.
Posted by: jared | May 5 2021 15:49 utc | 27
i always wanted to learn a new language, but this one doesn't attract me!
b, i liked this quote and was thinking of a few posters that frequent moa - "Folks who can not leave their personal issues at the door" does have an impact on what comes out on the written page here at moa as well..
Posted by: james | May 5 2021 15:59 utc | 28
I'm still baffled as to about what 'intersectional' is supposed to actually mean or why it's something you might need to advertise.
Posted by: S.O. | May 5 2021 16:00 utc | 29
@ Posted by: EoinW | May 5 2021 15:38 utc | 24
"the Covid reformation of western society."
Except Covid19 is not just in the West, it's all over the world, and every Government is not just very concerned, it has cost them all billions. When was EVERY GOVERNMENT in the world ever in agreement about anything? Oh, climate change, maybe you think that must be a big lie too... just a guess..
If you are not satisfied with the Western response, soon to be fully immunised (at your own Gov't expense... so evil!) and hopefully reopened for good, finally, over summer, you may want try your luck as an Indian peasant or in a Brazilian favela... perhaps once half your family had choked to death and you've lost all means of income you might gain some perspective and stop promoting paranoid ignorant nonsense.
Posted by: NonPartisanRinsed | May 5 2021 16:03 utc | 31
@BrainRinsed #15:
… refusing to celebrate every artificial category in the ever growing lists of rules one must be banned or cancelled for not agreeing with …
… or simply failing to keep track of.
Posted by: S | May 5 2021 16:04 utc | 32
re OSS/CIA and failed literati:
I always thought that "A poem should not mean / But be" should be carved over the entrance at Langley.
Posted by: corvo | May 5 2021 16:04 utc | 33
If ever there were a government agency that needs to be defunded it would be the CIA.
I think that economic circumstances may lend impetus to the defund movement.
Posted by: jared | May 5 2021 16:05 utc | 34
Yeah, I really want someone with Impostor Syndrome and Generalized Anxiety Disorder deciding who gets tortured and why.
Posted by: corvo | May 5 2021 16:06 utc | 35
F-35 – a product set up to fail?
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is already known for its poor uptime:
The Defense Department still isn’t meeting its F-35 readiness goalsWhen looking at fully mission capable aircraft able to perform all of the F-35′s assigned missions, “we’re currently at 36 percent fully mission capable, and we are striving to be at 50 percent for the fleet.”
A viral video on McDonald's ice-cream machines may explain why.
The REAL Reason McDonalds Ice Cream Machines Are Always Broken
About 15% of all ice-cream machines at McDonald's restaurants in the US are out of service at any one time.
One reason is vendor lock-in, which incentivizes poor and unserviceable products. Taylor, the manufacturer of the C602 ice-cream machine gets 25% of its revenue from service. The user interface of the machine is intentionally made cryptic, so users would need to call a service technician any time a problem arrises. McDonald's is fighting a legal battle to censor the secret access code 5321 for the service menu.
Posted by: Petri Krohn | May 5 2021 16:07 utc | 36
@28 Intersectional is something like multicultural gluten free interfacing but divided into sections.
Posted by: dh | May 5 2021 16:14 utc | 37
I asked Google (and thus Wikipedia) what cisgender means?
cisgender /sɪsˈdʒɛndə/ adjective
Denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender corresponds with their birth sex.
"this new-found attention to the plight of black trans folks by primarily cisgender allies is timely and necessary"
On the same page as the search result is a teaser headline:
"How An (the) Ad About Cisgender Backfired Spectacularly"
I've formed the opinion that the BIC (the Billionaires In Charge) want societies atomised to reduce the likelihood of a revolution involving rope, and nooses. So guess how surprised I'm not that the BIC's loyal servants/savants, the CIA, are attempting to popularise such vacuous tosh as yet another addition to the LBGTQUERTY "landscape?"
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 5 2021 16:15 utc | 38
| Words move, music moves
| Only in time;
| but that which is only living
| Can only die.
| Words, after speech, reach
| Into the silence.
| Only by the form, the pattern,
| Can words, or music, reach
| The stillness,
| as a Chinese jar still
| Moves perpetually in its stillness.
Thanks so much for that, juliania.
@Posted by: juliania | May 5 2021 15:24 utc | 17
The entire TS Eliot poem can be found here:
http://www.davidgorman.com/4quartets/1-norton.htm
I began contemplating it from the beginning but I appear to be
ADHD this morning, with an emphasis on the H box.
Posted by: librul | May 5 2021 16:19 utc | 39
"Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is characterized by persistent and excessive worry about a number of different things. People with GAD may anticipate disaster and may be overly concerned [...]. Individuals with GAD find it difficult to control their worry. They may worry more than seems warranted about actual events or may expect the worst even when there is no apparent reason for concern."
Seems like the perfect profile for an operative. ;)
Posted by: Jörgen Hassler | May 5 2021 16:19 utc | 40
As others have hinted, besides just the CIA currying favor with the perceived wants of the new boss (Kamala), this may also be preparing the field for the wars and interferences of the future.
After all, we have been in Afghanland for 20 years to improve the lives of Afghan women, right? This is just the world having to be made safe for intersectionality or somesuch, the new crusade.
Posted by: Caliman | May 5 2021 16:22 utc | 41
you make the best point: you have to have something seriously "wrong" with your mind to want a job with these spooks in the first place. you can't spell "sociopath" without "c-i-a".
both the bold - and to a lesser extent the italics - are terms people use to sound interesting when they're not. especially the tendency toward self-diagnosis that westerners have; "i'm not dumb with no attention span...i have "ADHD" or "i don't have low self esteem or work-related anxiety based on the inner knowldge of how inept i am...i have "imposter syndrome".
the woke types tend to be this kind of malleable and empty vessel...which is what the "company" wants.
Posted by: the pair | May 5 2021 16:25 utc | 42
Thanks for bringing this issue to the main page in a brief article, b. I linked to this article, "CIA & The Woke Totalitarian Generation", on the Week in Review thread, but it generated no additional comment despite its being one of several recent essays on the issue of the contrived Wokeism "culture" that Alastair Crooke's written about on several occasions over the past months and Pepe Escobar made the focus of his most recent essay. Crooke argues that Wokeism is the peculiar and singular outcome of the American Malaise prominently exposed by Christopher Lasch in his 1994 Revolt of the Elites, which we've seen in the trenches as the war being waged against the State and citizenry by the Neoliberal Rentier Class that was explained well in this Renegade Inc interview from last year. The Outlaw US Empire is clearly trying hard to get its Neoliberal vassals to adopt the Woke insanity, which proves beyond doubt Putin's assertion that the Liberalism of the West has died or worse evolved into something profane and loathsome.
@ Posted by: Jörgen Hassler | May 5 2021 16:19 utc | 39
Now you have me wondering if maybe my mom was in the CIA.
Posted by: jared | May 5 2021 16:26 utc | 44
Uhm...just more 2nd rate disinformative pablum...gotta feed something to congress that they can swallow whole. The Agency has got to keep it's congressional support under one big inclusive tent to deflect from it losses and pyrrhic victories*.
Look for Alexandria Cortez, who pretends to be FDR...AOC get it[?]..and her cadre] to sycophantically speak of her eternal love for the Agency.
*Which is the real reason why the Agency can not talk about it's "victories"...if the public knew..they'd demand it's closure. It's easy enough to assassinate a president, to pay-off the media whores to run a slow motion coup but, not so easy to defeat the entire nation with much of the military at it's back.
Posted by: S Brennan | May 5 2021 16:37 utc | 45
I went lateral
in researching today's b-post
and in so doing
came across a Goebbels quote:
“If the day should ever come when we must go, if some day we are compelled to leave the scene of history, we will slam the door so hard that the universe will shake and mankind will stand back in stupefaction..”
― Joseph Goebbels
And I was sure that I had read something like that before:
'We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that that will happen before Israel goes under'
― General Moshe Dayan
Posted by: librul | May 5 2021 16:41 utc | 46
@ Posted by: karlof1 | May 5 2021 16:25 utc | 42
re. Wokism
I think that there is an on-going effort to create fads/movements in which the public becomes caught-up and distracts the from reality. The more binary and controversial the better. Red/Blue. I used to be a big fan of sports but have the opinion it is a pointless waste of time and my life is better for that realization.
Additionally/tangentially, I feel there is a habit in the english language in particular to create new words to describe things these words are not well define and generate a lot of discussion and heat about things that nobody knows what they are actually talking about and end up arguing the meaning of the words. People who dont know the new words must try to catch up or be left out of the discussion. I dont direct this at your discussion. I just wonder how we might see things if we were constrained to a limited vocabulary - as I am as a programmer of sorts.
Posted by: jared | May 5 2021 16:50 utc | 49
Of course the concepts referenced in that CIA ad are legitimate concepts. You are all just too stupid and too depraved to understand them.
You might try to understand that propaganda often exploits real ideas and real grievances - the exploitation of ideas is what is wrong with propaganda and cultural/intellectual manipulation. The ideas themselves are not always at fault, maybe rarely at fault.
Posted by: paul | May 5 2021 16:50 utc | 50
Mayo Clinic
GAD
Symptoms
Generalized anxiety disorder symptoms can vary. They may include:
Persistent worrying or anxiety about a number of areas that are out of proportion to the impact of the events
Overthinking plans and solutions to all possible worst-case outcomes
Perceiving situations and events as threatening, even when they aren't
Difficulty handling uncertainty
Indecisiveness and fear of making the wrong decision
Inability to set aside or let go of a worry
Inability to relax, feeling restless, and feeling keyed up or on edge
Difficulty concentrating, or the feeling that your mind "goes blank"
Posted by: librul | May 5 2021 16:53 utc | 51
NonPartisanRinsed | May 5 2021 16:03 utc | 30
Characteristics of the Woke: They always attack, especially with insults, like "paranoia nonsense". They never address the actual point made, instead they reinterpret the point to make it appear pure evil. Which allows them to attribute the worst possible motivations on the person they are attacking. Naturally they invent things the other person hadn't even mentioned, like climate change.
I congratulate you on providing us with a first hand example of Woke hysteria.
I'm sure you are an intelligent person. A shame you couldn't have addressed my point. Perhaps you've never heard any of the vaccine passport talk. I am bemused at how I got from people being targeted for non conformist positions to being accused of wanting family members dead and the economy ruined.
Posted by: EoinW | May 5 2021 16:57 utc | 52
Posted by: Jörgen Hassler | May 5 2021 16:19 utc | 39
an old surgeon told me once, that a surgeon who does not worry is not a good surgeon
Posted by: bystander04 | May 5 2021 17:02 utc | 53
Again the whole woke 'identity' culture that cancels dissent and promotes 'minorities' in positions of power is simply woke fascism. Just as military recruitment is about turning violent video games real for young men, so too is CIA recruitment about inviting the 'woke' for murder and mayhem in the name 'freedom' without which the woke could not wake.
Posted by: gottlieb | May 5 2021 17:06 utc | 54
I will believe that any of this is worth a shit when Snowden wades in with his opinion...until then its just another distraction
The CIA is why we can't have "wokeism" about the right issue like global private/public finance.....where is Occupy 2.0?
The current wokeism is like the pet rocks of old days.....would want folks to focus that woke on the inherited class structure of the private property West, would we?
Posted by: psychohistorian | May 5 2021 17:17 utc | 55
"A less effective CIA will be a plus for the rest of the world."
Define 'effective'.
Posted by: ian | May 5 2021 17:28 utc | 56
jared @48--
Thanks for your reply. In response, I suggest you and fellow barflies read this Glenn Diesen op/ed while being mindful of how it connects to the current discussion and how propaganda is used to promote Wokeism and other belief systems, particularly as this paragraph suggests:
"As the world has become more complex, people have relied more and more on stereotypes and simplifications to help them interpret and filter events around them. Propaganda manipulates this desire for simplicity – handing people easy answers rather than winning them over with rational arguments. Society then rallies around these stereotypes and squashes dissents with ‘herd mentality’, an irrational set of psychological behaviors where individuals are swept along with a group, overriding their own rational assessments."
Societal atomization, the attack on traditional culture, growing inequality, and related anomie all help make irrational stereotypes rational in the minds of those searching for a life-ring to cling to within Neoliberal nations whose internal cultures are being made dysfunctional. In contrast to the motives behind the agenda Diesen details, Putin's United Russia has led most of Russia's political parties quest to revive and strengthen what they agree is a unique Russian Culture that has withstood centuries of relentless Western assault. So, his policy to defend and advance what is seen as the fundamental foundation of Russian Culture--the Russian Family regardless its ethnoreligious basis--finds almost unanimous support that cements national unity across the vastness of Russia's territory and ethnography. China is also very similar in that regard which is why attempts by the Outlaw US Empire to sow division have repeatedly failed. Ironically, such attempts have succeeded best within North America thanks to the ongoing Divide and Rule policy of English speaking elites.
The USA has never come to grips with its history and related contradictions. Instead, it papers them over and tries to airbrush them from its collective memory; however, those attempts always fail and generate further contradictions--Wokeism being the latest.
US Military intelligence chief: Russia poses existential threat from North to South Pole
https://politnew.com/politics/4844-us-military-intelligence-chief-russia-poses-existential-threat-from-north-to-south-pole.html
I wonder how this "woke" individual will be regarded by her "unwoke" colleagues in the testosterone saturated CIA workplace. My guess is that it won't be very pleasant, and she will be spending much of her time in meetings with Human Resources. However, if she serves as a pebble in the gears of the most evil institution on the planet, then more power to her.
Posted by: Rob | May 5 2021 17:46 utc | 59
hahahaha
that video makes me laugh at the utter idiocy and hypocrisy of the CIA and their bullshit language. These kinds of younger people either don't know what the cia does in the real world, or they don't f*cking care. I wish someone would give them a good History lesson.
caitlin really dives into this one, which is right up her alley. In an article rightly entitled "Intersectional Torturers"
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/05/04/intersectional-torturers/
"....This would after all be the same CIA that has inflicted many murderous and catastrophic interventions upon the world in general and Latin America in particular. The same lying, drug-running, warmongering, propagandizing, psychological terrorizing institution whose extensive use of torture has reportedly included “Rape, gang rape, rape using eels, snakes, or hard objects, and rape followed by murder; electric shock (‘the Bell Telephone Hour’) rendered by attaching wires to the genitals or other sensitive parts of the body, like the tongue; the ‘water treatment’; the ‘airplane’ in which the prisoner’s arms were tied behind the back...."
I totally agree with b in his final sentence:
"...A less effective CIA will be a plus for the rest of the world."
bingo! bring it on!! :)
FYI - some of the utterly terrible history
10 of the Most Lethal CIA Interventions in Latin America
https://www.telesurenglish.net/analysis/10-of-the-Most-Lethal-CIA-Interventions-in-Latin-America-20160608-0031.html
Posted by: michaelj72 | May 5 2021 17:57 utc | 60
re: Wokism
My two cents.
People are mimics. It is fascinating when you realize this.
People don't muse, contemplate and chew over the circumstances and issues in their environment
and then resolve - "aha! I have got it." That is not where people get their belief systems.
For example, a million and more people didn't all independently study the Bible and then realize
that their interpretation was fully consistent with those of the Roman Catholics and therefore they should go
join the Catholic Church. No, people get their belief systems (religious, political, economic, cultural)
from their identity groups. **Then** (if called upon) they apply the intellect to rationalize the beliefs that
they **already** hold.
The epiphany came to me when I observed intelligent people falling for Russiagate.
WTF !! I thought intelligent people would get it. Russiagate would be a flash-in-the-pan that would disappear
in a few days (or less!). Boy was I wrong. The intellect does not rule, group identity does.
Those that identified Democrat (generalizing here, of course) fell in step with the beliefs common to Democrats,
including Russiagate. Rationalizing the Russiagate nonsense was seemingly inevitable with the 24/7 help of the MSM,
and the continuous chirping of Democrat politicians. The intellect was not a lighthouse beacon that led intelligent
Democrats through the fog of 24/7/52 issued propaganda, rather; the intellect was the tool that solidified vaporous forms into false-reality.
To find one's identity in groups is deeply human. People are dominated by their need to be group-accepted.
It is unsurprising that group acceptance and group identity produce what we call fashion - fashion in style,
fashion in vocabulary, fashion in beliefs. This applies to Wokism. People are mimics.
You can even get them to wear Pussy Hats.
Posted by: librul | May 5 2021 18:00 utc | 61
@ karlof1.. first link... clearly cia is involved in a hiring campaign and want to find the right dolts for the job which is one which requires a degree in doublespeak..
Posted by: james | May 5 2021 18:04 utc | 62
b says:
"A less effective CIA will be a plus for the rest of the world."
Actually it is a double-edged sword. A less effective CIA could also mean a more dangerous CIA - especially if we don't reduce the power/funding/authority that CIA currently possesses.
It is certainly dangerous if you give a grenade to an evil person, but it may be worse if you let a monkey have it.
Posted by: d dan | May 5 2021 18:13 utc | 63
Former DCIA Pompeo has emerged to criticize and self-congratulate:
"When I was Director of the CIA, we valued individuals based on their talent and skill, not their race or sexuality. I’ll never forget what one female analyst said to me: 'Thank you for valuing me for my work. I want my abilities and achievements to define me, not my sexuality', Pompeo recalled in one of his tweets."
Apparently, he didn't view/listen to the ad closely enough as his recollection embodies Wokeness. Pompeo also fails to realize his own promotion of "liberal agendas" and his own contribution to enabling Wokeism's rise via his dysfunctional polices while in power.
The CIA is not "testosterone saturated". Quite the opposite. From its inception it has recruited an unusual number of closeted homosexuals. This somewhat makes sense in that a gay who is in the closet, particularly the less LGBTQWERTY-friendly culture of the 1950s that the CIA arose in, will already have experience being being less than forthright with their intentions. Such individuals can also be blackmailed more easily should their employer find the need.
While things have changed in American society and being outed as gay is no longer the social death sentence that it used to be, the gayness had already established itself as part of the internal culture of The Company and so it persists.
Do not equate a psychotic enthusiasm for harming others with testosterone. They are not a bunch of Rambos; more like a gang of Norman Bates.
Posted by: William Gruff | May 5 2021 18:13 utc | 65
Posted by: jared | May 5 2021 15:49 utc | 27
Tor browser was developed by United States Naval Research Laboratory int mid 1990's...reason to have second thoughts...
Posted by: notlurking | May 5 2021 18:14 utc | 66
I suspect the CIA isn't trying to hire these loons. Rather, it's trying to look like they're composed of blacks and lbgt types to ward off criticism.
"Don't blame me for bombing Syria. I'm black! Saying I'm murderous is RACIST!"
Posted by: Anony | May 5 2021 18:19 utc | 68
I walk along a much wore soothing trai than all the above comentatrors: Isn't it a reassuring thought that the CIA now acts like this? Was once married with a former female US soldier who had deserted to my Ulthima Thule homeland, Her mother came to visit us -- turned out she was a CIA recruiter in that most serenissima republica (or that serene state of Virginia), found ´me "not reliable" --to my great satisfaction! The more strange USians they recruit or recreate, the better for the remaining members of humanutias that are true humans. -- Good riddance!
Posted by: Tollef Ås/秋涛乐/טלפ וש | May 5 2021 18:23 utc | 69
William Gruff @65:
Testosterone level has nothing to do with sexual orientation. Psychiatry tried dosing male homosexuals with testosterone in the 1950s and 1960s to make them "manly"; this served only to increase their (homosexual) sex drive and, not surprisingly, their aggressiveness. Similarly, there's no correlation between where one lies on the Kinsey scale and one's sexual orientation.
Your description of the CIA's use of homosexual agents during that time period, however, is spot on. One might add that the CIA (and other agencies; just consider the kind of character who ran the FBI at the time) may have valued the kind of talent for duplicity and secrecy that the homosexually-inclined had to nurture from an early age.
Posted by: corvo | May 5 2021 18:23 utc | 70
myself @70:
Oops! First paragraph should've ended "Similarly, there's no correlation between where one lies on the Kinsey scale and one's testosterone level."
Posted by: corvo | May 5 2021 18:27 utc | 71
Jackrabbit #14, it is increasingly visible that they are affected by their own bullshit, especially over the last decade or so. I think degradation of competence in deep state organs is a clear sign of the rot in state apparatus.
Posted by: kemerd | May 5 2021 18:29 utc | 72
@ Posted by: librul | May 5 2021 18:00 utc | 61
We are a very imperfect species - and easily manipulated.
One does not sway people with logic alone, requires a willingness to be swayed.
Bernay's was all over this.
It's not a characteristic of stupid people and smart people should come to terms with that - we are all suseptible even if in varying degrees.
Also a naked women helps.
Posted by: jared | May 5 2021 18:31 utc | 73
About half a year ago I asked a feminist old friend -whom for geographical distance I have not seen for years-, to explain to me all these new concepts and I sent her this picture, at first I was shocked but now it has become the new normal, today in the previous OT I posted an excerpt from an article in La Stampa in which the sanctioned president of the EU Parliament avers:
The Russian political system is technically trespassed upon by a dictatorship of the majority, as Tocqueville explained, while democracy is founded on the rights of minorities.
So there we have it, screw the majority, long live minorities, but I think it is way simpler than that, it comes down to "paypal me"
Posted by: Paco | May 5 2021 18:50 utc | 74
Some Twitter commentary on this CIA recruiting video with some actual quotes from video below:
https://twitter.com/aishaismad/status/1388963034274701316
"I am a woman of color"
"I am a cisgender millennial"
"I have been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder"
"I am intersectional"
Unfortunately, however, the CIA official featured in the video forgot to mention the following recruiting points:
"I arm and support jihadi terrorists."
"I help regime change sovereign governments"
"I aid in naro-trafficking around the world."
"I support assassinating citizens and leaders of other countries."
"I am complicit in torture like my former boss Gina 'Torture Queen' Haspel."
This recruiting video is merely reflective of America's new Intersectional Imperialism and Woke Makeover.
CIA Wokeness helps to provide a propaganda facelift to disguise the same old crimes that the American Empire continues to commit throughout the planet.
It's old wine in Woke bottles.
Lipstick on an intersectional cisgender millennial pig.
Intersectional imperialism: A wholesome menace
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/518645-intersectional-imperialism-wholesome-menace/
Posted by: ak74 | May 5 2021 18:51 utc | 75
@ Posted by: EoinW | May 5 2021 16:57 utc | 52
"Perhaps you've never heard any of the vaccine passport talk."
While i appreciate legit concerns about control, conformity and splitting society among haves and have nots, here is a basic fact of note:
Where a vaccine is so far being provided, it is free for all and prioritised base on age, health status and employment nature. Nothing is ever perfect and there will be the odd ones left out and some queue jumpers etc, but broadly speaking, those who will miss out are primarily the ideologically opposed, that is their choice.
So, what is the point of implementing a vaccine strategy, if those vaccinated are not then excluded from the preventative measures which are damaging society and hurting the economy, as well as to motivate those not yet vaccinated, and to reward those who are, considering a portion of them may have done so with some concerns (valid or not) about their health and safety?
Do you have a better strategy? It seems to me that you either
A-vaccinate
B- dont vaccinate
If you do vaccinate, then those who have been vaccinated should be allowed to return to some level of normality under the assumption they are both A) not going to get sick or B) get others sick, which basically is the whole point of these annoying restrictions.
As for vaccine passports, I am very well aware, as they are currently being implemented in my region and am expecting to get one myself soon, or its equivalent. What is your problem exactly? How else do you propose to identify and differentiate those who have been vaccinated, from those who have not, through some centralised system that is secure from fraud?
Are you sure you are not projecting, when calling others out for being hysteric my friend?
My father was a doctor, he vaccinated me personally on some of the standard ones, i never had a reason to doubt he and the rest of his colleagues had my best interest at heart. I am glad i did not get polio like my grandmother's brother for example. I get the whole bad pharma thing, but i also try not to let my skepticism cloud my judgement...
Posted by: NonPartisanRinsed | May 5 2021 18:55 utc | 76
Followed the link... saw the video... hilarious. I am this, I am that, blah, blah, blah... but I am also a low-down dirty rat who has no qualms working to overthrow freely elected governments, carrying out assassinations, supporting terrorist organizations… all to advance the objectives of the organization I work for whose victims literally number in the millions... innocent men, women, and children all around the globe... and all this on behalf of powerful elites who couldn't give a flip about anything I'm saying in this video... other than to whitewash their criminal activities. I've got no moral compass.....and really, in spite of everything I've said in this video, no self-respect...I mean, how could I.. if I allow myself to be shamelessly prostituted in this manner? I am the new face of evil. A kinder, gentler face... that serves to enable Empire in all that it does. And frankly, I should disgust myself for having anything to do with any of this... but then, there are no decent jobs in this stinkin' country I live in anymore... and hey, you gotta do what you gotta do to get by. And that picture of my immigrant parents? Well, they had to come here because the organization I currently work for helped to turn their home country into a lawless, violent hell-hole and their escape was just a matter of survival. And now I've been given the opportunity to rise through the ranks of the very same organization that f*cked up their world and forced them to flee for their lives. How's that for equal opportunity employment? Where else but America could this happen? But excuse me while I slither away back under the rock I just crawled out from... too much exposure to sunlight.. might make me melt… or something.
Posted by: The Joker | May 5 2021 19:01 utc | 77
"I am tired of feeling like I’m supposed to apologize for the space I occupy,"
Yeah i know that feeling....every time I fart.
Posted by: Ike | May 5 2021 19:02 utc | 78
And for some levity, here's some much deserved satire on the CIA vid.
https://twitter.com/blaireerskine/status/1389313897304399877?s=20
Posted by: Skuppers | May 5 2021 19:06 utc | 79
@ Posted by: EoinW | May 5 2021 16:57 utc | 52
To recap, if you (presumably) live in a society where option A) VACCINATE has been chosen, and not B) CANNOT VACCINATE YET option.. then let me be blunt.
What you are essentially saying is, you don't want to be vaccinated and resent the fact you will be called out on it.
But you would rather live in a society where everyone else takes on the risks (real or not) of vaccination, so you still benefit from both the reopening and return to normality and decreased risk of getting sick yourself.
Or is it that you would rather risk the death of millions of people who are not as fit and strong as you are, just for your own personal convenience, and you are both ideologically opposed to lockdowns and vaccines, confident that you will not be negatively affected by Covid19?
some brave new world you must live in...
Posted by: NonPartisanRinsed | May 5 2021 19:14 utc | 80
It would be interesting if 'em spooks started cancelling each other for some 10 yo tweets, or for not being transsexual, or for the white supremacist mindset demonstrated by remembering the multiplication table.
Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | May 5 2021 19:17 utc | 82
Below is a repeat of a Glenn Diesen quote from karlof1 comment # 57
"
"As the world has become more complex, people have relied more and more on stereotypes and simplifications to help them interpret and filter events around them. Propaganda manipulates this desire for simplicity – handing people easy answers rather than winning them over with rational arguments. Society then rallies around these stereotypes and squashes dissents with ‘herd mentality’, an irrational set of psychological behaviors where individuals are swept along with a group, overriding their own rational assessments."
"
Think about the vaccine situation and what just happened to the medical profession in the West....they got railroaded into agreeing that there was not an off the shelf "ivermectin" to the virus and guaranteed future income to Big Pharma is more important.
Hey docs!!! Do no harm! Your complicity in this war crime against humanity is noted. What are the responsible and humanistic actions to take now and why does the public not see evidence that you are organizing to do them?
Posted by: psychohistorian | May 5 2021 19:47 utc | 85
NonPartisanRinsed @76--
Yet even the vaccinated seem to be dying from mutant COVID strains.
ak74 @75--
Until the reality of the CIA--to undermine peaceful relations and promote wars required for Military Keynesianism--is taught in grade school, it will always find recruits. As with the FBI, government sponsored propaganda was and remains required to manufacture the reasons for their existence. Nations that promote an equitable polity have no need for a secret police force, but do need some force to counter attempts from the outside to foment destabilization. For example, today's Russia is freer than at any previous time in its history as only extremist ideologies are banned while Communism--still deemed extremist by the West--is relegated to a normal ideology with status as a normative political party. Indeed, I'd argue that Russia remains the only genuine Liberal Western nation, which is a reality Russophobes are unable to accept or even contemplate. The same also applies to the concept of Communism thanks to the unwillingness to even attempt to understand Marx. And as Western thought gets subsumed by Wokeness, the ideological divide between Neoliberal nations and all others will continue to grow.
@ 86 karlof1... thanks for the link.. there are a number of unresolved questions in that story..
Posted by: james | May 5 2021 19:56 utc | 87
https://twitter.com/ColumbiaBugle/status/1389754812174987266
Tucker Carlson & @ggreenwald
Discussing The Woke CIA Recruitment Ad & The Ideology Of The Ruling ClassGlenn: "Wokeness, this ideology is not about subverting power centers,
they never talk about power centers...it's about turning citizens against one another."
[emphasis added]
Posted by: librul | May 5 2021 20:05 utc | 88
More nonsense and new rhetoric meant to confuse and disorient ass-wipes with no moral or social compass. Which, by the way, describes most of the American public.
You're right b, just total BS...
Posted by: vetinLA | May 5 2021 20:13 utc | 89
@ William Gruff | 65 “Do not equate … enthusiasm for harming others with testosterone.”
@ corvo | 70 “may have valued [gays] for duplicity and secrecy that [they] had to nurture”
@ ak74 | 75 “a propaganda facelift to disguise the same old crimes”
@ The Joker | 77 “the new face of evil. A kinder, gentler face”
The CIA uses blackmail to gain power, and needs gays to solicit such acts. The “woke” accuser can even claim to have no malice due to sympathy. Still most will be harmed by such accusations and so can be blackmailed.
Posted by: Sam F | May 5 2021 20:21 utc | 90
If I could talk to that woman I'd tell her to try to do something constructive with her life.
Posted by: Steverino | May 5 2021 20:22 utc | 91
I had to look up the bolded jargon in the initial post:
Impostor syndrome refers to an internal experience of believing that you are not as competent as others perceive you to be. While this definition is usually narrowly applied to intelligence and achievement, it has links to perfectionism and the social context.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder is characterized by persistent and excessive worry about a number of different things. People with GAD may anticipate disaster and may be overly concerned about money, health, family, work, or other issues. Individuals with GAD find it difficult to control their worry.
Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege.
I see someone else already posted cisgender definition - which cracks me up, that 'we' need a new word to define what only a few short years ago needed no definition as it was just considered normal!
Thank all of you who have posted here,and especially for the links to various interesting articles. And an especially large thank you to Juliana and libral for the TS Eliot excerptand link. And to James for being unfailingly courteous!
One thing that always puzzles me, is why media and commentators classify 'woke' culture and imperatives as being a 'left' phenomenon, or coming from a 'left' viewpoint or culture. Maybe it is because there do not seem to be agreed upon definitions for what is 'left' or 'right' anymore, but I always thought of left as speaking for or empowering the commons, as opposed to the elites. I thought of 'the left' as being an outlook, practice, poltics, etc. that unified us 'commoners', not that which tends to divide us.
And what could be more elitist and divisive than encouraging us to seek out and proclaim every slight difference from each other? To view our comrades and neighbours as our oppressors, and give the powerful a pass?
How, in any way is 'cancel culture' leftist? Aren't censorship and persecution the tactics of authoritarianism and fascism? How is that possbly related to or seen as 'liberal'?
Maybe it is time to retire the concept of 'right' and 'left' in terms of political and social ideology.
Posted by: Lorna MacKay | May 5 2021 20:24 utc | 92
On the contrary, if a super efficient CIA can assassinate people at will and destabilize governments all over the world, imagine what incompetent CIA agents can do!
Posted by: Tiago | May 5 2021 20:25 utc | 93
Impostor syndrome comes from the software developer world. It's said a developer can have impostor syndrome. It means he feels like his skills are not up to par with what is expected of him.
As for the CIA it has been propping up the gay community for many years now, trying to use it to destabilise its enemy nations. All this LGBTQWTF nonsense is only the rudder going full throttle.
Posted by: Stephane | May 5 2021 20:47 utc | 95
Seward #24
Well said. Here is Steve P, still going strong. I liked this rant for its information (if correct), myriad pronunciation errors and yet he remains on message and simply maintains his rage against the Dem machine. Brief video from the 'rightist' pov.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | May 5 2021 21:14 utc | 96
The American "Left" and the American "Right" were zeroing in on the same problem and finding that the cause is the same. This is a deadly serious issue for the power establishment because if working people from the left and right join forces then that power establishment's days are numbered and the guillotines are not far behind. Society must be kept divided and mutually antagonistic.
In 2016 Sanders campaigned for PotUS. Whether intentional or not that sparked a genuine "awakening" on the left to the real issues of oligarchic control of the economy and political system in the US. Those for whom this awareness was dawning felt they were waking up to a reality that had been deliberately obscured to them, and they were. This awakening actually started shortly after Obama squandered the historic victory that the American workers handed to him, but it really coalesced in the Sanders campaign.
Obviously the oligarchs will do literally everything in their power to prevent that awakening to develop, and by literally I mean they will even resort to genocide right in the US if they feel they have to. But that genocide is only an option for them if the population is divided, as the oligarchs only number a few thousand.
First, the oligarchs needed to derail the "wokeness". As james pointed out with his reference to pet rocks, the power elites are extremely adept at and have all of the needed tools for creating fads and megatrends. This they did with Identity Politics and succeeded in superimposing it over the actual class consciousness that was starting to develop in 2016, much like how the Nazis co-opted socialism in Germany before WWII. In a very real sense Identity Politics is 21st century fascism with American characteristics.
The American left never intended to end up here. They were just caught up in the hysteria excitement and before they realized it identity had replaced class consciousness in their perception. They were slowly steered towards fascism, boiling frog style.
Well played, capitalist oligarchs. Well played! You definitely won that one.
In any event, to answer Lorna MacKay @92 the mass media is casting this revised version of "wokeness" as left ideology because it is a perversion of traditional left ideology that is necessary for the establishment to stay established. The left must be turned away from ideas that are a real threat to the power elites and towards ideas that will target other members of their own class.
Basically, there was the beginnings of an awakening among the left in the US but they have successfully been anesthetized. Now "woke" is just a label for 21st century fascism.
With that said, though, it is important to remember that fascist movements, while always artificial and created by the power elites to smash the working class, are notoriously difficult to control. Those movements very frequently bite the hand that holds their leash.
Posted by: William Gruff | May 5 2021 21:24 utc | 98
Lorna at 92:
The terms "Right" and "Left" and "Liberal" seem to have completely different meanings than they did 50 years ago. The term "Liberal" has been been co-opted by so-called "neo-liberals", as well as traditional conservatism has been co-opted by "neo-conservatives."
Antoinetta III
Posted by: Antoinetta III | May 5 2021 21:27 utc | 99
With respect, I think this is a legitimization device. The idea is the increase the domestic prestige and political clout of the organization and in so doing reduce its political risk. Remember, these Agencies are at risk from entities like the ICC. If the governing party was to decide it was in its interests to be multi-lateralist again some people might be at risk of visiting the Hague. Even if not one woke lesbian (and I believe the Torturer in chief may be a lesbian), were to be hired this advert would still be doing good service.
Posted by: Harry | May 5 2021 21:33 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
Oh! You definitely should learn that NewSpeak. Yes, it's ridicelous, knowing this babble hasn't any intrinsic value. It is ,however, the current ruling ideology of the USA and by extension the broader West. It's like understanding the babble of some obscure theoretician or the basic terminology of some remote religion. You can safely ignore all of this as nonsense - as long as such people don't run a country!
Posted by: m | May 5 2021 14:13 utc | 1