[HN Gopher] FBI 'honors' Martin Luther King Jr., 50 years after ...
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       FBI 'honors' Martin Luther King Jr., 50 years after plotting to
       'neutralize' him
        
       Author : nagums
       Score  : 30 points
       Date   : 2021-01-19 18:30 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (thegrayzone.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (thegrayzone.com)
        
       | CincinnatiMan wrote:
       | Are any of the FBI staffers of modern day also ones that were
       | present 50 years ago? Is it possible the people that compose the
       | FBI currently have different morals and viewpoints from the ones
       | from 50 years ago? The organization known as the FBI is just a
       | collection of people, and the members that make it up can change
       | over time, it's not an everlasting entity itself. Thus it seems
       | unfair to say/imply the FBI is being hypocritical in their
       | message.
        
         | hulitu wrote:
         | No. No. No.
        
         | t-writescode wrote:
         | A large amount of the American way of thinking is to believe
         | that people cannot and will not change, and so that's not a
         | question that would traditionally be asked.
         | 
         | It's wrong, but it powers a lot of American thinking.
        
           | machello13 wrote:
           | Do you have any sources for that, or is it just prejudice?
        
             | t-writescode wrote:
             | It's an analysis of what I've seen.
             | 
             | People hate Biden for stances he has in the past and they
             | bring them up regularly.
             | 
             | Same with Harris.
             | 
             | People are thrown in prison for decades to keep them away
             | from everyone and then they're denied jobs on then basis
             | that they were once a criminal.
             | 
             | People mocked John Kerry on the very basis that he _did_
             | change his mind on an issue, and so on.
             | 
             | The very basis of a lot of relationship advice on Reddit,
             | at least, is that "people never change", therefore 'you
             | should dump the person'.
             | 
             | I'm sure that if you asked a person about a specific person
             | that they know and have known, they'll say how this person
             | isn't the person they were; but then that same person will
             | go on and talk about someone they don't in absolute terms
             | about how a change is not genuine or cannot happen.
             | 
             | I don't have sources, I'm sorry, just life experience and
             | an attempt to understand the world I live in.
        
         | LatteLazy wrote:
         | Does that actually follow?
         | 
         | If you run an organisation and recruit people who think on a
         | certain way, train them in a way that makes them more likely to
         | think that way, and promote the ones that think that way,
         | wouldn't the organisation stay pretty similar even as actual
         | humans join and leave?
         | 
         | Lots of organisations (political parties, religions, whole
         | classes of people) have remained largely the same for very long
         | periods this way.
         | 
         | Im not saying the FBI is the same today as it was 50 years ago.
         | I'm just saying institutional memory is a thing (as is
         | institutional racism...).
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | umeshunni wrote:
       | I read the title as FB instead of FBI and assumed it was yet
       | another hit piece by the NYT or Guardian blaming Facebook for
       | MLK's assassination.
        
       | akimball wrote:
       | The US government was found guilty at trial of conspiring to
       | assassinate King. They paid an award to the estate.
        
         | tehlike wrote:
         | I am reading it right that they were awarded only 100$?
        
       | cwkoss wrote:
       | Does the US have a mechanism for retroactively stripping people
       | of rank?
       | 
       | Seems like there have been a lot of old white dudes who did evil
       | things for intelligence services, retired with honors, died, and
       | then declassified knowledge of their crimes is made public.
       | 
       | Would be nice if he had something like a posthumous dishonorable
       | discharge to apply in these cases.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | refurb wrote:
         | Yeah, this wouldn't be abused in the least.
        
         | JumpCrisscross wrote:
         | > _Would be nice if he had something like a posthumous
         | dishonorable discharge to apply in these cases_
         | 
         | This is a politician's dream. Rally your base over a dead guy's
         | stickers and jewelry so you don't have to tackle the problems
         | of today.
        
       | wezen wrote:
       | thegrayzone, I never thought I would find this socialist
       | propaganda site on Hacker News.
        
         | polka_haunts_us wrote:
         | I've found that in terms of content, pretty much everything
         | gets posted here. The big difference between HN and other
         | places is the HN community at large does a much better job of
         | filtering out the total garbage.
         | 
         | Not perfect, but better.
        
         | shrimp_emoji wrote:
         | It breaks up the monotony of all the capitalist propaganda.
        
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       (page generated 2021-01-19 23:02 UTC)