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US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

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Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#541

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course there is, but what difficulties can you possibly have finding it? Part of the problem with events like these is people's "incredulity", which is fundamentally rooted in them not being force-fed with the topic by the media despite the importance . The other way around, while people baselessly believe to be told everything of importance by their news-feed, in reality they are entirely being left in the dark a…

I ctrl-Fed for "http" in this post and looked through the 61 links, following several of them that seemed like they may be relevant. I didn't find anything that appeared talked about what you've mentioned in your posts. Some talked about deaths, but I didn't find anything that even insinuated that they were carried about by or on behalf of the intelligence community. I also did a web search for "intelligence communit…

Thanks, that's actually valuable feedback.

You missed, for instance, this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormwood_%28miniseries%29

It's (perhaps surprisingly) based on true events and might give some idea of the difficulties with even discussing the topic.

There are also various links like this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_scientists_conspiracy_...

If you dig there, you'll sooner or later hit upon the weird discrepancies from reality that Wikipedia article has. It mixes unrelated cases with genuinely disturbing ones like McCasland. Who wasn't demented at all.

"Housecleaning" refers to the practice of killing prospective leaks. It doesn't make much sense to kill them once they've talked.

Killing is a last resort, mundane leaks are retaliated against by revoking clearances and destroying careers that way.

Note that the Espionage Act of 1917(!) allows to treat whistleblowers like foreign spies and deprives them of arguing, their leak would serve the common interest.

Actual cases are usually ruled "suicides" or "accidents", but obviously aren't:

Danny Casolaro (1991): "The Octopus" Investigation

Gary Webb (2004): The "Dark Alliance" Expose

Dr. David Kelly (2003): Iraq War WMD Leaker

John P. Wheeler III (2010): Pentagon Insider

... there are many others. You only find what you look for.

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The winning Presidential campaign message would be this: I promise to work to reduce the power of the Presidency via supporting and campaigning for legislation and Constitutional amendments. It is time for Congress to once again be ascendent like it was in the first century of our great Republic. We need a G. Washington, who refused more power than he was offered, setting precedents and expectations.

No, that is your wishful thinking. Based on recent years and the power of personalized AI influence campaigns, the winning Presidential campaign message (after 4 years of 'change nothing substantial Democrat' would most likely be 'I need real, full (silently: fascist) power, to finally drain the swamp'.

That is an incredibly annoying answer that only puts forward learned helplessness and cynicism, and besides, altogether missed the point.

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#543

Earlier quoted context omitted.

venting is a form of talking about mental health. there are other forms that the problem statement doesn't apply to, like your examples. but the statement does apply to my example, therefore we can't say that talking about mental health is exclusively a positive behaviour.

Can you think of anything you can do that is exclusively a positive behavior? Drinking water in excess kills you, excess breathing kills you, excess exercise kills you, I think the logic here can be used to sow the seeds of uncertainty in nearly anything, honestly.

your argument is like mayonnaise, liberally applicable in many situations, but it's a bit bland and not the condiment I'd choose for this dish

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really depends on how you define "cure". What most people cannot comprehend, for some very bizarre reason, is that many chronic problems do not have one-time solutions. They require chronic solutions. Take alcoholism. The "cure" for alcoholism is never drinking. You never stop being an alcoholic, you can only manage it by not drinking. Take obesity. Obesity has no "cure" either in that sense. The "cure" for obesity i…

I would caveat by saying today. Today we don’t know how to cure alcoholism or gambling, but nothing is there to say we won’t. As for obesity, there is GLP-1 that is a likely cure and will perhaps eventually lead to an in-body cure.

Yes, true, although for GLP-1s the current status-quo is still "chronic solution" category.

Although, and this is controversial, I view GLP-1s as a more "root cause" solution for obesity than diet and exercise. The "root cause" of obesity is not overconsumption, that's the symptom. The root cause is a propensity to over-consume, which GLP-1s address, whereas diet and exercise alone do not. We do not fully understand why some people have a greater propensity to over-consume.

But, if I had to speculate a little, I would say overconsumption has had an evolutionary advantage for humans for all of our existence, until right now. And, indeed, I would say the evolutionary advantage extends to almost all organisms, so it might be baked in at very "low levels" of our anatomy.

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#545
post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in the military and in my experience people that chose to go into war zones, it's optional, are fucked in the head and literally enjoy killing people, I've seen it a dozen times. They want to kill.

You are absolutely fucking full of shit. I chose to "go into war zones" many times and none of it was to "enjoy killing people".

So, did you? Look what they made you do, right?

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#546
post #459

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I talked about the CIA very negatively after having a top secret clearance (never actually used it but it gives useful context). They then showed up in my commune and after a while of unusual behavior and psyops and pretending to be hippies (they couldn’t quite get that right) they resorted to drugging me to get answers they were convinced were true. I never ordered off the dark web, I do believe my [usa] government…

Has a psychiatrist or clinical psychologist ever evaluated you for paranoid schizophrenia?

That's insulting. And offensive. I think you should be the one asking the psychiatrist or psychologist to diagnose you whatever I deem fit - but, since I'm the one who shared something weird and you hide behind insulting others I don't have the speciality down for to recommend your psychologist.

edit: I can see through your comment history you make a lot of offensive bad faith remarks to people. This is a forum of showing good faith, have you demonstrated that? Maybe you should ask your psychiatrist why you frequent a forum where you can't follow the very clear ruleset of showing good faith.

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#548

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conspiracy theories thrive in environments of silence. If no one can talk about their time in government organizations (military, CIA, etc.), speculation is all we have left.

the real problem you seem to be describing is a lack of faith or trust in the institutions, rather than the silence. if we had faith and/or trust in institution X, Y or Z then the silence wouldn’t be a problem. in my experience; speculation fuels distrust, which fuels more speculation, which leads to a spiral. similar thing as gossip. why would i trust you when you’ve been gossiping with me about our mutual friend? t…

Omitting truth also has consequences, hence the speculation.

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#549

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's just that there's really not a lot of evidence that this is rampant Not sure what is "rampant" in your view, and what is not. There's been multiple attempts of murder, multiple linked assassinations, across multiple nation states with multiple different jurisdictions. > Yes, but these articles are over a year old. this is really scratching the bottom of the barrel, no? You asked for verifiable sources, I provi…

Look, I know you'll accuse me of being a soviet stooge and all that, and that you value your time as purple team nato guy immensely. THis is not about whataboutism. I'm just pointing out that if you make big claims like (emphasis mine) """There's lots of people working for NATO and federal agencies in Europe that have been assassinated by the luckystrike branch of the FSB. The name comes from the Telegram account wit…

While I agree with the premise of your argument, I don't think this is the correct platform to do so. And I also have to state a fun fact: I'm not a journalist.

If you expect more founded research put together into an investigative report, you have to pay someone to do so, one way or the other. Well, or do it yourself.

Investigative journalism has been dead before the peak of AI, which makes the game of deception even easier for bad actors.

PS: If you post something critiquing about Russia online, I'd expect at least -100 downvotes for each comment, because that's usually what happens. It takes quite a bit of moral courage in the misinformation age to not give in to the bot armies online. Bots rule platforms like this (reddit/chan boards/HN/etc). Mods can't keep up with the amount of information, therefore human moderation efforts are pretty much a lost cause, too.

But that's just my two cents, having been on the receiving end of bot-automated shitstorms a bunch of times already. Check my website if you're interested in how I'm trying to fight back, and for more details about how they operate behind the scenes. Well, or don't.

Either way you seem to not be aware of which actors even play the game online. I'd recommend to brush up about that, a good starting point is this playlist [1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xGawJIseNY&list=PLJA_jUddXv...

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#550

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

You can't hand wave "do your own research" when you make a bold, and frankly obviously incorrect, claim. You can only do that hand waving when you say something most people already know to be true. "The sky is blue" -> okay, do your own research. "Pigs can fly" -> either show a research paper or shut up, you're wasting everyone's brain cells.

In the same way that the sky is blue, talking about one’s own mental health, especially for boys and men, is a net negative.

It’s obvious once you see it.

You’ll come round.

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