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The weirdest thing about American culture
(lemmy.ml)
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this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2026
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My daughter sent me a TikTok about the government using counterintelligence techniques against left wing groups. I sent her the wikipedia page on Cointellpro with the comment “Sadly this is not new”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO
Nothing about this is new. The authoritarianism, the concentration camps, the dispossessions, the witch-hunt of immigrants and people with a darker skin, the fearmongering. the robber baron oligarchs. We’ve all been here before. And not just once.
The truly astonishing cultural trait is that Americans keep on living in lalaland and pretend it isn’t happening, it never happened, and it COULD never happen cuz yada yada the Constitution and We The People and the second amendment.
Americans are one shortsighted bunch willing to swallow any and all propaganda.
I think what made COINTELPRO stand out was how weird it was (experiments with LSD, etc.)
ETA: Never mind, I think I'm getting that confused with MKUltra.
COINTELPRO: surveil and oppress and facilitate violence towards black folks for daring to not want to be quite so oppressed
MKUltra: jerk off dolphins while playing with acid