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CIA and Gen Z

washingtonian.com

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Re: CIA and Gen Z

#111

Post by bitwize »

noahtallen wrote: post #58
bitwize wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then there are the democratic socialists, who are actually socialist (unlike the social democrats) but who disavow Marxism-Leninism. Problem is, assuming you set up a democratic socialist regime, if you want to keep the democratic bit, you risk losing the socialist bit (and vice versa). A lot of demsocs don't realize this; many believe that democracy and socialism are completely coterminous with each other.

One counterpoint is that a lot of social programs are hard to get rid of. Even though the right campaigns against new social programs sometimes, there’s no way they can convince their electorate to get rid of existing social programs. For example, there would be very little political will to get rid of government-provided unemployment insurance, even though right-wing rhetoric is often against that sort of program.

I'm not sure that social programs rise to the level of socialism (despite right-wing rhetoric that says they do). Socialism means no private business, no private ownership of the means of production. You can own things that you yourself might use, but as soon as you can produce more things, what you use to produce will be seized and collectively administered for the good of all.

Not everybody will be convinced that this will lead to the promised paradise of maximal creative freedom and abundance for all, so not everybody in a democratic system will vote to continue socialism and there's a risk that a majority will not! Well, that is, until the kulak purges begin.

Re: CIA and Gen Z

#112

Post by nebula8804 »

cesnja wrote: post #72
nebula8804 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gen Z/Gen Alpha grew up in a world with social media being already established and so they are aware of the pitfalls. Millenials are screwed because they starting using social media before fully understanding the ramifications(because most people did not know how this was going to play out in the early days).

Myspace and similar sites from that era disappeared pretty nicely, though.

I think the old pages are still around although at some point mySpace locked down all the profiles by default so that they are not public anymore and you have to be logged in and friends with the person to view them.

Re: CIA and Gen Z

#113

Post by sjs382 »

josefresco wrote: post #11
altantiprocrast wrote: post #4

> One would think it’s basically impossible to get millennials and zoomers into covert jobs. The youngest of this bunch of young people have spent their entire lives online, some since their parents blasted out their first ultrasound picture as a pregnancy announcement, before they’d even gained sentience. > how exactly are you supposed to achieve this level of anonymity when you’ve flung untold reams of identifiable…

Anecdotally my kids have their social media profiles set to "private" and don't have any motivation to make them public. In fact, most of their friends with a few exceptions have the same setup. They also regularly "wash" their profiles because they're kids and are constantly redefining themselves to their peers. Good luck finding any of that in a public archive.

Until they follow/friend an account to enter a contest, follow harrystylesfans, some influencer who's account is managed by an agency, or "sign in with " somewhere and give too much access.

It's a pretty large attack surface that can be subject to a lot of very cheap automation.

Re: CIA and Gen Z

#114

Post by aesh2Xa1 »

bruce343434 wrote: post #29
aesh2Xa1 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you using uBlock Origin? Try adjusting your filters.

if a site requires me to disable adblock, it's broken.

OK, but I suggested that you adjust the filter. You can read more about how to do that here:

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki

Re: CIA and Gen Z

#115

Post by novok »

geoduck14 wrote: post #108
ajcp wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Way back in the '90s, I had a friend of Indian descent whose sister worked for the FBI. She said her sister was always getting pestered about moving into investigative field work because no one would suspect she was undercover." I used to work in D.C. in/around DoD and Middle Eastern affairs. Not the Lords work, but in a geographic area and domain that people just associate with spooks. Even now, as a software engin…

I have some relatives who spent a year or so in Russia. The husband is REALLY good with a Russian-style hand gun. And they often talk fondly of their time in Russia. (They also have slight political leanings toward Russia). I like to pretend they are KGB sleeper agents. I know they aren't, but I like to pretend it is true.

What makes you really good with a few models of pistols vs others that it stands out in significant ways? It's like saying "he is REALLY GOOD at driving ford mustangs" vs just driving cars.

Re: CIA and Gen Z

#116

Post by mindslight »

mcny wrote: post #75
mindslight wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until there are laws putting a stop to the ongoing abuse of the current identification system by commercial surveillance (ala GDPR), a stronger identification system is a non-starter.

My ask is much smaller. Any document that the law requires you to carry has to be free of cost to the person and it must be convenient to get (or get again if lost or stolen). That means both the first issue and subsequent issues need to always be free of cost. If I need to visit some office to get it, such office must be at least as ubiquitous as a United States Postal Service office, and ideally more open hours, no…

If I'm reading you right, that's kind of a weird argument. Paraphrasing - removing fees for mandatory government services would cost too much for this one thing, and here is a better specific use for the money instead. Rather there is a whole spectrum of better and worse uses for public money, and we generally debate each on its own merits.

But either way it doesn't really address the core of what I said, in that the system currently mandated by the government has strongly benefited the surveillance industry. For example SSNs were never supposed to be used for anything besides Social Security, but a law prohibiting such abuse was never passed.

Re: CIA and Gen Z

#117

Post by novok »

heyda wrote: post #35

This entire article reads like a paid advert, it's so hilarious "Though you’d think a person accustomed to being super-active on the group chat would struggle with being separated from their phone all day, this analyst assured me, “The mission is so dynamic that you’ll rarely, if ever, be bored, and the longing for your phone and social media sort of dissipates.”" ya... sure... if we ignore all the time waiting for m…

Yup it's definitely a recruiting pr effort by the CIA.

Re: CIA and Gen Z

#118

Post by novok »

jjk166 wrote: post #54

> If the whole point of being a spy is that nobody knows who you really are and no one can ever find out, how exactly are you supposed to achieve this level of anonymity when you’ve flung untold reams of identifiable content across the digital world? When everyone has an online presence, the absence of such a presence raises huge red flags. I would expect every spy on earth nowadays has tons of pictures on social med…

Meh most people's social media presence is pretty locked down, and nowadays a lot also purge the public parts to only have 1-3 months visible.

Re: CIA and Gen Z

#119

Post by cwkoss »

geoduck14 wrote: post #107
cwkoss wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should be fine to broadcast SSN, the blame really falls to credit reporting companies and lenders treating it as a private and secure identifier. SSN's weren't designed to be secure, and after decades of leaks they certainly aren't now. Lenders have attempted to brand losses based on this as "identity theft" (putting onus on the person) rather than just "we failed to properly authenticate before handing this perso…

When banks do KYC, they use: Name, address, DOB, and SSN. SSN is the "least" public of those. If all 4 are publicly available, it is trivial to impersonate you and launder money with your ID.

Banks should do better authentication so they aren't accomplices in related crimes.

Re: CIA and Gen Z

#120

Post by babypuncher »

handrous wrote: post #27
babypuncher wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You keep saying 37% as if that is the most relevant number when it's not. the 31% from last year is both more indicative of recent trends and cuts deeper into the Gen Z demographic. I think a good chunk of people who were 18-24 in 2016 would still be considered Millennials.

OK, but are you arguing against the substance of it? 2020, that age range would have all been Gen Z, I'm pretty sure. Still 31%. Do you think the breakdown of Gen Z political opinions, ordered by prominence, is "socialist (51+%) -> Trump supporter (~31%) -> everything else (less than 18%)"? My educated guess would be you could flip those "socialist" and "everything else" numbers and that'd be way closer to correct—wh…

I think it makes a difference in perception, because 31% is less than a third. Left-leaning Gen-Z voters essentially form a super-majority in their demographic.
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