You think the problem with spy agencies is that they are clandestine organisations that get up to nefarious things in secret with little oversight, and that’s true.
What if all German nationalists just started using their own politicians names on social media and caused a civil war? One would think that's not how it would go down but judging from this story that might be exactly what happens.
I have to wonder if Annalena Baerbock got the term "360" from her days as a trampolinist. Or, perhaps from her alleged performances on her trips to Africa.
Which is why I read the last sentence, "2024, which was the height right-wing extremism hysteria," with the "was" sticking out as a sore thumb. If that proves to be true then the view of it from the rear-view mirror will be blessedly accurate.
I can't say as though I have good reason to believe it's going to disappear in the distance of the rear-view mirror.
Reason dictates that without accountability it is more likely to appear larger and larger through the front windshield until it is violently smashing through it, than it is to become a smaller and smaller disappearing dot in a the rear-view mirror.
I can hope my reasoning is inaccurate. And hope is rarely a good strategy where reason says action is more prudent.
Recent revelations of super secret FBI files of random domestic spying for no apparent reason puts us right there with the Germans. There is an oligarchy but it’s not made up of rich fat cats; rather it’s sneaky and entitled bureaucrats
This goes back to the ridiculous tiresome talking point that the Nazis were right-wingers. The fact is, even though they despised each other, Bolsheviks shared much more in common with Nazis than even the farthest right ideologies.
This incident would verge on the laughable if the implications weren't so dangerous. The reality is "fascist" is now "fashion". The Left is trying to rewrite history, while they project the charge that the pro-freedom right is actually writing history. They don't get that dehumanizing is among one of many characteristics shared with the Nazis...and they don't get the irony.
Even in the US, if you have a flag in your yard you're considered a right-wing extremist by leftoids. If you don't believe me, try it. Seriously, that is their current Nazi lie criteria. Trump drinks water...you know who else drank water!...
It's a meaningless trope setting the bar lower than Hunter Biden sniffing parmesan from a dirty carpet floor.
This is just Marxism 101: demoralize people so much they don't even recognize they're being demoralized. As long the message is consistent, no matter how false, it becomes a standard by which they "measure" the world. If not, they'd have to face the tough realities of reality.
When you trade self for ideology, you can't even see the ridiculousness of the trans movement making allies with goat fuckers that would happily lop of the head of a trans person.
“They finally informed the real Heide that their ‘suspicion had been confirmed that another person with the name Liv Heide had appeared in this context.’”
I love that: they didn’t “realize they had been completely wrong”; rather, they were “confirmed in their suspicion” … that they had been bonkers incompetent.
Most intelligence agencies are full of ass-covering bureaucrats. They occasionally do something good, but it is rare. The best recent series about intelligence services is the Apple TV show "Slow Horses". It's about a bunch of incompetent fuck ups who have to bail out MI-5's stupid, self serving operations. Having worked with the CIA as a senior US military officer, I can tell you that MI-5 is probably the worst of the lot.
I must revise a previous comment of mine on your Stack. The wall came down and the most retarded version of the Stasi won.
This is really a heartbreaking post. But it's true everywhere that the small person unknowingly and unparticipatingly caught up in the unrelated machinations of others often never does get his or her life back. It's one of the reasons we must so urgently hope for an Afterlife and that justice is somehow rendered on the cosmic plane because otherwise there's hardly any way to keep moving forward in this life.
Commenting before reading. I know Germany is pretty stupid but I'm going to take a guess and say they aren't quite this stupid
> How German political spies mistook a random Berlin woman for a white nationalist troll, surveilled her for two years and got her fired for no reason
TPOASIWID: The Purpose Of A System Is What It Does. They didn't mistake this woman for anything, and they didn't get her fired *for no reason*. They wanted to get her fired. Why did they want to get her fired, I don't know. But if the German spy system didn't want her life ruined, it wouldn't have. It wanted her life ruined. It did it on purpose. It had a reason. Might have been a retarded reason, like for example "I catch one more hate crime in this quarter and they pay me a bonus". That would be *a* reason. Not a good one, but *a* reason.
They did this for their own reasons, and you should assume that it was successful, because you should assume society is always at equilibrium unless it's very obviously not. Equilibrium means they've done this before, successfully, and so its not a coincidence or a one-off, but an intentional feature of the system
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and hence clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
This case means that the people at the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution have made a solid Prima Fascie case why none of them should be employed in law enforcement or intelligence. I am sure Germany can use more public sanitation workers (trash and graffiti removal) or road maintenance crews, as that is a better use of government resources than what they are currently doing. Want to undermine people’s faith in and respect for government? This is how you do it.
Maybe these are DDR fax machines. I'm inclined to think that the man in the white coat suggests that this is peak technology - maybe from the 5-year plan of VEB Robotron?
“Another even greater problem with spy agencies, however, is the fact that they very often turn out to be full of totally incompetent idiots who have no idea what they’re doing or to whom they’re doing it.”
It’s amazing how far a somber look and black turtleneck will take you.
Moral of the story: she should have made her online name “Olaf Scholz” or “Annalena Baerbock” and thus caused the German government to topple itself.
Joke of the year !
What if all German nationalists just started using their own politicians names on social media and caused a civil war? One would think that's not how it would go down but judging from this story that might be exactly what happens.
I have to wonder if Annalena Baerbock got the term "360" from her days as a trampolinist. Or, perhaps from her alleged performances on her trips to Africa.
Great idea John.
These wretched agencies are never held to account for the lives and reputations they destroy.
Can't 'like' that comment ZZ, but its - sadly, very true.
Bureaucrats make mistakes.
Horrible life altering, soul destroying mistakes.
But their victims pay.
And the bureaucrats get promoted - and rewarded with faucie-esque pensions.
Which is why I read the last sentence, "2024, which was the height right-wing extremism hysteria," with the "was" sticking out as a sore thumb. If that proves to be true then the view of it from the rear-view mirror will be blessedly accurate.
I can't say as though I have good reason to believe it's going to disappear in the distance of the rear-view mirror.
Reason dictates that without accountability it is more likely to appear larger and larger through the front windshield until it is violently smashing through it, than it is to become a smaller and smaller disappearing dot in a the rear-view mirror.
I can hope my reasoning is inaccurate. And hope is rarely a good strategy where reason says action is more prudent.
Failing upwards. That’s how public servants do it in Australia. 🙄
And, unfortunately, it seems everywhere else too.
So far, they're not. But someday they'll piss off John Wick.
One could only wish!
“urgent high-level intelligence that they got from Google…”
🤣🤣🤣
'It’s one reason literally every other liberal democracy on earth, aside from Germany, keeps their spies away from their own citizens.'
I have a really strong urge to insert a 'purportedly' somewhere in there.
Recent revelations of super secret FBI files of random domestic spying for no apparent reason puts us right there with the Germans. There is an oligarchy but it’s not made up of rich fat cats; rather it’s sneaky and entitled bureaucrats
Yep, Matt Taibbi is doing a live broadcast at this very moment about that.
https://www.racket.news/p/50-years-of-secrets-why-you-should
Exactly what I was referring to. The FBI should be dismantled
Good urge. Me too.
Looks like Germany is on its way back to go full on DDR again - did all the Stasi clowns get jobs for the government.
Germany is becoming a joke and while trying to fight imaginary Nazis the country becomes a surveillance state with people ratting each other out.
Keep on voting green and leftist idiots.
Stasi clowns, eh? I'm guessing your first name isn't Markus, Wolf.
The real Stasi were competent. They should never have admitted all the Wessies.
This goes back to the ridiculous tiresome talking point that the Nazis were right-wingers. The fact is, even though they despised each other, Bolsheviks shared much more in common with Nazis than even the farthest right ideologies.
This incident would verge on the laughable if the implications weren't so dangerous. The reality is "fascist" is now "fashion". The Left is trying to rewrite history, while they project the charge that the pro-freedom right is actually writing history. They don't get that dehumanizing is among one of many characteristics shared with the Nazis...and they don't get the irony.
Even in the US, if you have a flag in your yard you're considered a right-wing extremist by leftoids. If you don't believe me, try it. Seriously, that is their current Nazi lie criteria. Trump drinks water...you know who else drank water!...
It's a meaningless trope setting the bar lower than Hunter Biden sniffing parmesan from a dirty carpet floor.
This is just Marxism 101: demoralize people so much they don't even recognize they're being demoralized. As long the message is consistent, no matter how false, it becomes a standard by which they "measure" the world. If not, they'd have to face the tough realities of reality.
When you trade self for ideology, you can't even see the ridiculousness of the trans movement making allies with goat fuckers that would happily lop of the head of a trans person.
Fascist fashion? Transgender style? Cue Mel Brooks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmzPnpn63nA
LOLOLOL. That's just perfect!
“They finally informed the real Heide that their ‘suspicion had been confirmed that another person with the name Liv Heide had appeared in this context.’”
I love that: they didn’t “realize they had been completely wrong”; rather, they were “confirmed in their suspicion” … that they had been bonkers incompetent.
Most intelligence agencies are full of ass-covering bureaucrats. They occasionally do something good, but it is rare. The best recent series about intelligence services is the Apple TV show "Slow Horses". It's about a bunch of incompetent fuck ups who have to bail out MI-5's stupid, self serving operations. Having worked with the CIA as a senior US military officer, I can tell you that MI-5 is probably the worst of the lot.
Slow Horses is the single best thing AppleTV has done, and they have done quite a few really good series.
I must revise a previous comment of mine on your Stack. The wall came down and the most retarded version of the Stasi won.
This is really a heartbreaking post. But it's true everywhere that the small person unknowingly and unparticipatingly caught up in the unrelated machinations of others often never does get his or her life back. It's one of the reasons we must so urgently hope for an Afterlife and that justice is somehow rendered on the cosmic plane because otherwise there's hardly any way to keep moving forward in this life.
Commenting before reading. I know Germany is pretty stupid but I'm going to take a guess and say they aren't quite this stupid
> How German political spies mistook a random Berlin woman for a white nationalist troll, surveilled her for two years and got her fired for no reason
TPOASIWID: The Purpose Of A System Is What It Does. They didn't mistake this woman for anything, and they didn't get her fired *for no reason*. They wanted to get her fired. Why did they want to get her fired, I don't know. But if the German spy system didn't want her life ruined, it wouldn't have. It wanted her life ruined. It did it on purpose. It had a reason. Might have been a retarded reason, like for example "I catch one more hate crime in this quarter and they pay me a bonus". That would be *a* reason. Not a good one, but *a* reason.
They did this for their own reasons, and you should assume that it was successful, because you should assume society is always at equilibrium unless it's very obviously not. Equilibrium means they've done this before, successfully, and so its not a coincidence or a one-off, but an intentional feature of the system
The purpose of the system is to keep the populace scared, analogous to a state of constant low-grade inflammation that impairs the immune system.
Yes. Brilliant way of putting it
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and hence clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
--H.L. MENCKEN
This case means that the people at the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution have made a solid Prima Fascie case why none of them should be employed in law enforcement or intelligence. I am sure Germany can use more public sanitation workers (trash and graffiti removal) or road maintenance crews, as that is a better use of government resources than what they are currently doing. Want to undermine people’s faith in and respect for government? This is how you do it.
E this IS a crazy story. Too crazy to be believed. As if the imposter was helped by those monitoring her website to set up alter ego
A few theories like this are possible, maybe even probable.
I'm sure similar things happened here in the US. They are just covered up better, albeit certainly imperfectly.
Your illustration looks eerily similar to the opening scene in Brazil ;)
https://youtu.be/JsrB5Z_ng8Q
Maybe these are DDR fax machines. I'm inclined to think that the man in the white coat suggests that this is peak technology - maybe from the 5-year plan of VEB Robotron?
If you've never seen Brazil (by Monty Python member Terry Gilliam), I highly recommend it. Very appropriate to this article.
You will be contacted very soon by the Department of Information Retrieval.
"And here is your receipt for my receipt"
However, I still say the James Caan-version of Rollerball is what we're closest to, if we're comparing reality to fiction.
So you ruin someone's life.
And you're not held accountable.
Amazing.
But democracy is safe!
“Another even greater problem with spy agencies, however, is the fact that they very often turn out to be full of totally incompetent idiots who have no idea what they’re doing or to whom they’re doing it.”
It’s amazing how far a somber look and black turtleneck will take you.