CIA to Sunset the World Factbook • Hacker News Board

Re: CIA to Sunset the World Factbook

#181

Post by pseudalopex » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 4:57 PM UTC

drstewart wrote: post #178

dmschulman wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's part of a multi-pronged approach to intentionally cede US soft power. To what ends I'm still fuzzy on, but this discontinuation follows a pattern we've seen with this administration knee-capping or outright dismantling many of the ways this country spreads soft power such as through humanitarian services via USAID, broadcasts from Voice of America, ending international research opportunities and divesting us fro…

Soft power is just a buzzword to give value to things that have zero demonstrable value. The CIA Factbook has played zero role in giving the US any measurable power.

The McNamara fallacy (also known as the quantitative fallacy), named for Robert McNamara, the U.S. Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1968, involves making a decision based solely on quantitative observations (or metrics) and ignoring all others. The reason given is often that these other observations cannot be proven.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McNamara_fallacy

Re: CIA to Sunset the World Factbook

#182

Post by dougb5 » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 4:59 PM UTC

Not to be confused with The World Almanac and Book of Facts, which is still publishing after 140 years. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Almanac)

Re: CIA to Sunset the World Factbook

#183

Post by ChrisArchitect » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 5:00 PM UTC

pseudalopex wrote: post #173

ChrisArchitect wrote: post #79

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46891794

Your comment was more duplicative than the article.[1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46899292

And yet here we are

Re: CIA to Sunset the World Factbook

#184

Post by MaxfordAndSons » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 5:01 PM UTC

dmschulman wrote: post #163

Havoc wrote: post #123

Of all the organisations you’d think the CIA would understand the value of soft power and having some level of control of facts being published

It's part of a multi-pronged approach to intentionally cede US soft power. To what ends I'm still fuzzy on, but this discontinuation follows a pattern we've seen with this administration knee-capping or outright dismantling many of the ways this country spreads soft power such as through humanitarian services via USAID, broadcasts from Voice of America, ending international research opportunities and divesting us fro…

The ends are to create vacuums for big businesses to come in and provide the same services, for private profit rather than public benefit

Re: CIA to Sunset the World Factbook

#185

Post by lazide » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 5:05 PM UTC

philipwhiuk wrote: post #103

lazide wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which nobody does (really) because it turns into a giant narcissist shit fight then for who can come up with the most absurd ‘truthy’ answer for publicity. Everyone has to end up filtering at some point or it’s all just noise.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Mexico_naming_controve... There's an entire article on it.

Now imagine that for toilet paper over the top, or over the bottom, or sitting on top of the toilet tank. And everything in between.

We have plenty of bits, at least.

Re: CIA to Sunset the World Factbook

#186

Post by graeme » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 5:08 PM UTC

drstewart wrote: post #178

dmschulman wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's part of a multi-pronged approach to intentionally cede US soft power. To what ends I'm still fuzzy on, but this discontinuation follows a pattern we've seen with this administration knee-capping or outright dismantling many of the ways this country spreads soft power such as through humanitarian services via USAID, broadcasts from Voice of America, ending international research opportunities and divesting us fro…

Soft power is just a buzzword to give value to things that have zero demonstrable value. The CIA Factbook has played zero role in giving the US any measurable power.

Millions of people around the world looked at the CIA world factbook. It was useful. It gives you a warm feeling about the USA and the CIA. Warm feelings are useful.

If you deny this argument do you claim:

1. No one used it or it wasn't useful, or

2. They used it robotically and formed no feelings, or

3. It is of absolutely no use to have people like your organization or country.

Re: CIA to Sunset the World Factbook

#187

Post by systems_glitch » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 5:10 PM UTC

End of an era. We used to get it on CD in school.

Re: CIA to Sunset the World Factbook

#188

Post by philwelch » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 5:10 PM UTC

tyre wrote: post #147

hexagonsuns wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There's nothing at all wrong with Wikipedia Well, except for the very obvious political bias https://manhattan.institute/article/new-study-finds-politica...

Looking at the underlying study, this isn’t evidence of bias. It’s evidence of correlation between Republicans and negative sentiment. If you look at the sentiment for public figures given, the bottom one is, for example, Brett Kavanaugh. Well, he was credibly accused of sexual assault during his confirmation hearings, which was a huge deal at the time. Someone with that on their record will probably be read as negat…

The accusations weren’t particularly credible and similar slander campaigns against people like Joe Biden aren’t nearly as prominent.

Even notorious dictators like Mao Zedong get treated with kid gloves as long as they’re on the left: https://www.tracingwoodgrains.com/p/how-wikipedia-whitewashe...

Re: CIA to Sunset the World Factbook

#189

Post by runjake » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 5:13 PM UTC

xphos wrote: post #120

detourdog wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CIA World Factbook was one of the major sites to access for information using Gopher. I discovered it using Gopher and it was proof to me of the usefulness of Internet. I would cite it as a reason that someone might want to access the internet.

Can you add context on what Gopher is for the unknowning? I searched for it but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_(protocol) is the only seemingly relavent thing I found not sure if thats exactly what your refering too?

Gopher was a text-mode, menu-based, hypertext-based precursor to the World Wide Web. It's what we used before the Web and web browsers came along.

Here's a good image of your typical Gopher page: https://img.sysnettechsolutions.com/What-is-Gopher-Nedir-EN....

Re: CIA to Sunset the World Factbook

#190

Post by throw263586 » Thu, Feb 05, 2026, 5:13 PM UTC

constantius wrote: post #122

It seems like it won't be a popular opinion given the comments, but: a three-letter-agency, especially the CIA, maintaining a "factbook" always seemed like an oxymoron to me. Indeed it was an oft-cited source in research and school essays, and for the most part it was certainly accurate, but, as many tools of propaganda, that veneer of accuracy could be a useful cover for the small portions of reality where truth was…

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