Talkin about Tumblrs, man

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  • i feel more condescended to by the CIA, which joins social media to make jokes rather than to address any of the million issues with them

    This, pretty much.
    I don't really see a major government agency using a social media website for tackling the public's issues with them. Also, considering they've only made two tweets, I'm inclined to believe that it isn't just for the purpose of making jokes.

  • edited 2014-06-08 13:42:41
    kill living beings
    more than likely it will be like @TheJusticeDept or @DeptOfDefense or the other billion government agencies. occasional jokes, lots of picked news. people following them will see links to the CIA Memorial Wall or an agent distributing candy to sick people or whatever the hell, so they'll be more normalized in the minds of followers

    the CIA has no interest in tackling any issues with them, anyway. they just go sorry that time we kidnapped italian citizens because they looked funny didn't happen, classified, classified
  • I really don't understand what the expectation/want is here, though. 

    What government agency in the history of ever has made tackling issues within itself a public affair? I'm not saying they shouldn't tackle their own issues but doing so publicly just seems like it would bring little more than bad PR.
  • I actually just assumed that that was a joke account.
  • Smee, Maiman, Doktar, Pavelier, Button-Lee, Juan Ovyu
    Kexruct said:

    http://atane.tumblr.com/post/88164230914/this-is-where-we-are-the-cia-can-join-twitter-and


    There's something fucking stupid about this but I can't put my finger on it.


    TELL ME ABOUT ATANE WHY IS HE SO MAD
  • And yeah, of course normalization is a goal. Normalization isn't an inherently bad thing. Like sure, if they were using social media to normalize their more unscrupulous tactics that would be a problem, but I seriously doubt anyone's using the CIA Memorial Wall to counter drone strikes. 
  • kill living beings
    Kexruct said:

    I really don't understand what the expectation/want is here, though. 


    What government agency in the history of ever has made tackling issues within itself a public affair? I'm not saying they shouldn't tackle their own issues but doing so publicly just seems like it would bring little more than bad PR.
    i want the CIA to confront its problems, obviously. the fact that the rest of the government is also chickenshit is irrelevant.
    Kexruct said:

    And yeah, of course normalization is a goal. Normalization isn't an inherently bad thing. Like sure, if they were using social media to normalize their more unscrupulous tactics that would be a problem, but I seriously doubt anyone's using the CIA Memorial Wall to counter drone strikes. 

    normalization of "ha ha can't tell you that it's classified" and the agency as a whole

    also, wrong.
  • edited 2014-06-08 14:03:09
    Ugh... I'm in a pretty unsalvageably irritated mood today. Take what I'm saying with a grain of salt but "cynicism towards x =/= enlightenment towards x" is still basically my worldview regardless of my mood.

  • Kexruct said:

    I really don't understand what the expectation/want is here, though. 


    What government agency in the history of ever has made tackling issues within itself a public affair? I'm not saying they shouldn't tackle their own issues but doing so publicly just seems like it would bring little more than bad PR.
    i want the CIA to confront its problems, obviously.
    I'm not saying that this is funny or OK, but expecting a government agency to publicly discuss its own faults on a social media account is, in the world we live in, completely ridiculous. That's not how politics work.



  • Kexruct said:

    Ugh... I'm in a pretty unsalvageably irritated mood today. Take what I'm saying with a grain of salt but "cynicism towards x =/= enlightenment towards x" is still basically my worldview.

    I think cynicism towards the fucking CIA is the correct view though.

  • Kexruct said:

    I really don't understand what the expectation/want is here, though. 


    What government agency in the history of ever has made tackling issues within itself a public affair? I'm not saying they shouldn't tackle their own issues but doing so publicly just seems like it would bring little more than bad PR.
    i want the CIA to confront its problems, obviously. the fact that the rest of the government is also chickenshit is irrelevant.
    Kexruct said:

    And yeah, of course normalization is a goal. Normalization isn't an inherently bad thing. Like sure, if they were using social media to normalize their more unscrupulous tactics that would be a problem, but I seriously doubt anyone's using the CIA Memorial Wall to counter drone strikes. 

    normalization of "ha ha can't tell you that it's classified" and the agency as a whole

    also, wrong.
    I don't understand how that link in any way is supposed to disprove what I'm saying.
  • kill living beings
    i don't think i'm enlightened, i think i hate the CIA. simple.

    I'm not saying that this is funny or OK, but expecting a government agency to publicly discuss its own faults on a social media account is, in the world we live in, completely ridiculous. That's not how politics work.


    surely this sort of giving up is cynical
  • Not really. It's just an approach that doesn't work. 
  • kill living beings
    Kexruct said:

    I don't understand how that link in any way is supposed to disprove what I'm saying.

    a bunch of CIA employees getting intel for drone strikes get murdered. US and Afghanistan and so on talk about how they were heroes. the fact that they were murdered makes it hard to talk negatively about what they were doing without looking like a douche (hi). simple
  • Urk. I'm seriously out of my depth here.
  • My dreams exceed my real life
    Kexruct said:

    Urk. I'm seriously out of my depth here.

    I sort of get where you're coming from, but I disagree.
  • i don't think i'm enlightened, i think i hate the CIA. simple.

    I'm not saying that this is funny or OK, but expecting a government agency to publicly discuss its own faults on a social media account is, in the world we live in, completely ridiculous. That's not how politics work.


    surely this sort of giving up is cynical
    If you have any ideas on how to make them be frank and honest, I'm all ears.
  • Yeah I guess that's sorta my thing

    Like, of course a lot of this stuff is bad, but what's the alternative? I don't doubt that one exists, but it has to be known before it can be implemented. 
  • kill living beings
    well let me lay this out.

    current happenings: CIA is terrible. CIA launches twitter account that is meaningless at best and mild propaganda at worst. several news agencies write meaningless articles about this twitter account. people get mad at CIA for this twitter account. you get mad at these people mad at the CIA because I don't know honestly. i guess they're possibly kind of annoying?

    what i would like: rather than meaningless gestures like a twitter account, the CIA confronts its issues due to high public pressure from the US and abroad. (whether they do this through public conversation on twitter is irrelevant.) CIA draws down its operations, shuts down black sites, is no longer allowed to conduct military operations (drone strikes), does not singlehandedly create polio hotspots, stops flagrantly violating international law. a few people are arrested maybe, i don't much care to be honest. in the end the CIA does not exist in its current form, becoming less like a state terror (hate this term but) organization and more like an intelligence agency, perhaps. international tensions are reduced, things are on the whole a bit better for everyone.

    current happenings: i am called cynical somehow. no intelligence/terror agency has ever demilitarized and everything is doomed to continue as it has and the people complaining are condescending and that's so annoying.
  • yeah I mean that would be awesome

    but I don't see how we get to there from where we are now.
  • kill living beings
    here let me help you out there yarrun
    1. complain about twitter
    2. complain about news agencies being vapid for not even complaining about twitter
    3. news agencies shape up a bit (or newer agencies that are terrible in their own ways but at least do more reportage than CNN show up)
    4. more snowden type things happen
    5. volume is enough that the CIA has to tone down their shittiness a bit
    6. it still happens, but less so. they spend more resources on hiding what they've already done and less on doing new terrible things
    7. civil rights

    hth

  • kill living beings
    i can give historical examples of this happening already if you want. CIA hasn't done anything quite as direct as Operation 34A since the Pentagon Papers broke; they farm out the especially terrible things to foreign intel now (e.g. black sites).
  • kill living beings
    seriously, if we want to talk about condescension, reducing things somebody says to a 1 2 ??? 3 joke is way up there
  • Klino you're conflating what Kexruct said with what everyone else said.

    I, as I already explained, thought it was just a joke account and have since unfollowed it (it'd not be the first time someone's impersonated a government agency on twitter for comedy purposes).
  • Well, I don't think anyone wants condescension to happen.

    Also I was in a pretty sour mood when I saw that original post and that more than my opinion is reflected in the posts I made; I apologize.
  • I keep reading that as condensation.

    I really felt like my water vapor had coalesced into liquid when I read that post.
  • kill living beings
    i don't understand condensation at all, so that works
  • The "Your Fave is Problematic" attitude is quickly becoming just about my least favorite thing that I have to deal with on a regular basis.
  • Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
    So this is a thing that happened.

    (for the record, fishingboatproceeds is Green's personal blog)
  • Yeah but like

    who the fuck cares

    Oh noooooo the author is proud of something that's just kinda eh stop the presses
  • Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
    I kind of care. Sort of. I'm amused by the presumption, and the people defending that presumption.

    Select quotes (from people who are figuratively helping with the dick-sucking).

    song-for-lonely-giants
    Okay no. Just leave the man alone and let him be excited about something he made. There’s nothing wrong as an artist (that includes all forms of art like writing) with being excited about your work and trying to say “look look, did you notice this part that I added?” There is NOTHING wrong with that and you should all be ashamed for trying to tear this man down and mock his excitement. Why are you people constantly trying to ruin other people’s happiness?

    chudleycanon
    this man is one of the biggest authors at the moment and he has just had his best selling novel turned into a hugely successful movie so for gods sake shut up and let him be proud of it its not like he doesn’t have cause to be

    vulcandroid
    I keep seeing comments like these under John’s, but I must say I wholeheartedly disagree. He created these characters and this story and now he is getting to see it on the big screen and share it with the rest of the world and he’s perhaps noticing the little things that may well just make his work unique. Why is it that self-praise is so looked down upon? he is obviously happy and excited about this so just stop bashing him for being proud of something that he did. He was the one who gave us this story, so he should be able to do what he wants with it.
  • Counterpoint:

    • why the fuck does this matter
  • More people have said that and been killed than there are thorium decay products.
    ^ My entire philosophy on tumblr. :D
  • edited 2014-06-09 08:20:18
    Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
    It doesn't. I'm just having a mildly amusing time.

    I have resolved that my entire output on my blog is going to be just mildly humorous trivial claptrap. This one is humorous enough for me to share.
  • Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
    thecatantichrist
    Yeah I mean if people were getting mad about it being in the Anne Frank memorial I’d understand it, but you guys are just going too far for the wrong reasons
    There is that.
  • and you don't find all the knee-jerk backlash, what with Tumblr's love of misinformation and outrage based on that misinformation, just as presumptuous?
  • BE ATTITUDE FOR GAINS
    "My feels"
    -Thumblr
  • edited 2014-06-09 09:28:36
    Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
    It's all presumptuous. This source of it gives me some amusement, instead of frustration.

    That said, "But what about X" is I believe a fallacy argument.
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022

    So this is a thing that happened.


    (for the record, fishingboatproceeds is Green's personal blog)
    That is kind of hilarious
  • THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    Oh, tumblr, don't ever stop being ridiculous.
  • It'd be a lot funnier if there weren't people who honestly thought saying that helps prove he's a terrible person.
  • honestly this is the first thing i've seen from the dude that makes me like him
  • edited 2014-06-09 16:50:11
    We can do anything if we do it together.
    To me, this post shows that John Green is a man who'd rather focus on writing what he wants to write than on trying to please critics who would never like him anyway.

    I can whole-heartedly get behind people who have this sort of attitude.
  • Dude does seem to be genuinely kind of full of himself

    that doesn't make him a bad person, just, you know, not an inhumanly perfect android.

    Buuuut tumblr is solidly half people who get off on the idea of putting other people down, so the "John Green sucks his own dick" meme will continue.
  • as will the "Macklemore is racist and thinks he saved the gays" meme, and several others like it.
  • More people have said that and been killed than there are thorium decay products.
    It's a good thing that about the only things on my dashboard are pretty things that make me happy now. Random tumblr bloggers are a bad source for news, social justice, or... accurate information of any sort, really.
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