[HN Gopher] How the FBI targeted Camus, and then Sartre after th...
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       How the FBI targeted Camus, and then Sartre after the JFK
       assassination (2013)
        
       Author : pablode
       Score  : 81 points
       Date   : 2024-01-28 19:58 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.openculture.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.openculture.com)
        
       | 082349872349872 wrote:
       | > _... there must be some kind of conspiracy between communists,
       | blacks, poets and French philosophers._
       | 
       | If you can connect these dots, then
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminati_(game) might be for you!
       | 
       | (but see also
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jackson_Games,_Inc._v._U... )
        
         | zozbot234 wrote:
         | I'm pretty sure that " _... there must be some kind of
         | conspiracy_ " is the literal definition of a Conspiracy Theory.
         | Nice to see that even the FBI is into that fun stuff.
        
           | pstuart wrote:
           | The FBI has a checkered history. We do need federal level
           | policing but, like all policing, it needs to be buttressed by
           | accountability and oversight.
        
             | hughesjj wrote:
             | Rip Fred Hampton. Hoover, he was a body remover.
        
           | Exoristos wrote:
           | Wait till you learn about RICO.
        
         | neovialogistics wrote:
         | At what point in history did the FBI first begin to require
         | aptitude tests to become an agent?
        
         | throwaway8877 wrote:
         | There is necessarily no cross-links between all of them, but
         | there is a link. If you can't imagine that a state that is
         | obsessively dreaming about the world revolution and has a wide
         | spy network and large group of naive sympathisers doesn't try
         | to infiltrate all the possible influential counter cultures
         | then you are a little too naive.
        
           | pessimizer wrote:
           | "If you can't imagine" is a bad start. If you're imagining
           | people obsessively dreaming about destroying you, and using
           | the naive "blacks" to do it, you're about a millimeter away
           | from joining the fight against "Judeo-Bolshevism."
        
             | froggysnail wrote:
             | Well, before spreading fake news (aka lies), read Wikipedia
             | and who's behind the revolution
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolution
        
           | hk__2 wrote:
           | > If you can't imagine that a state that is obsessively
           | dreaming about the world revolution and has a wide spy
           | network and large group of naive sympathisers doesn't try to
           | infiltrate all the possible influential counter cultures then
           | you are a little too naive.
           | 
           | How are Blacks, communists and poets "counter cultures"?
        
             | mhitza wrote:
             | Because it was the counter culture, eg Black Panthers,
             | youth communist parties
        
             | throwaway8877 wrote:
             | I take the most favorable interpretation and I presume that
             | the young age is in play in such large ignorance.
             | 
             | Obviously the notion of poets doesn't contain all of them
             | like the ones who write rhymes for children but poetry has
             | since Age of Enlightenment been a tool of political
             | critique if not earlier. The same applies to philosophy.
             | I'm hope that you for sure have heard of Marx.
             | 
             | I also hope that you have learned about civil rights
             | movement of the black people and Martin Luther King.
             | 
             | So which one of all of the four has the support of a large
             | superstate with an extensive spy network?
        
               | throwaway8877 wrote:
               | And what comes to McCarthy then he had every right to be
               | extremely paranoid about the activities of Soviet Union
               | in attempts to secretly influence American politics from
               | the within. The work of American counter intelligence
               | agencies is a clear proof of it.
               | 
               | Recommended read https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/o
               | pinions/1996/04/14/w...
        
               | mistrial9 wrote:
               | no because a healthy politics does include alternative
               | views. It is the unhealthy security mindset that becomes
               | inflexible @! and does anyone now support the activity of
               | Senator Joe McCarthy, honestly?
        
         | gosub100 wrote:
         | so anything is falsifiable if you create a board game using its
         | components? Moon-landing conspirators unite!
        
           | pfdietz wrote:
           | Conspiracies can be dismissed if they are presented without
           | convincing evidence. After all, the space of possible
           | conspiracies is vast; all but a tiny fraction must be
           | nonexistent.
        
       | thriftwy wrote:
       | French philosophers were huge fans of Mao, so they would have a
       | great deal of explaining to do.
       | 
       | But they're not the worst, I've heard that some English writers
       | were great fans of Stalin and contemporary Soviet regime.
       | 
       | I _suspect_ there was a great deal of famous people who were fans
       | of Hitler (at least before WWII) but that topic became so toxic
       | that they probably made sure that any incriminating sources would
       | be corrected.
        
         | pessimizer wrote:
         | > I suspect
         | 
         | You can just read. The most surprising thing about WWII, at
         | least to many Nazis, is that the US and Britain didn't join the
         | Axis. German theories about race were largely drawn from
         | British and American sources. The US fought WWII with a
         | racially segregated military.
        
           | jimbob45 wrote:
           | Ooooh time to drop my favorite WW2 quote
           | 
           |  _When Pearl Harbor happened, we [Roosevelt 's advisors] were
           | desperate. ... We were all in agony. The mood of the American
           | people was obvious - they were determined that the Japanese
           | had to be punished. We could have been forced to concentrate
           | all our efforts on the Pacific, unable from then on to give
           | more than purely peripheral help to Britain. It was truly
           | astounding when Hitler declared war on us three days later. I
           | cannot tell you our feelings of triumph. It was a totally
           | irrational thing for him to do, and I think it saved Europe._
        
           | asveikau wrote:
           | White American culture is also kind of dominated by
           | descendants of German immigrants. I recall seeing some
           | historical racist media that was praising Anglo-German
           | supremacy in contrast to Irish, southern and eastern
           | Europeans etc. People forget this because the latter groups
           | are all considered white now.
           | 
           | I personally think this puts some weight into the "race is a
           | social construct" theory. That and the existence of mixed
           | race people, and the stories of how they and their families
           | have been arbitrarily treated based on varying perceptions.
           | It's all pretty absurd.
        
             | mistrial9 wrote:
             | stop, stop right there. There was no single "White American
             | culture" .. that is a misrepresentation with a purpose!
             | 
             | The original collection of States were formed exactly to
             | let groups divide. There were vastly different cultures,
             | both culturally bonded, and also diverse, that were
             | included from the earliest days.
             | 
             | source: anti-war, anti-slavery "whites" from that time
        
           | toyg wrote:
           | That is more an indication of how fundamentally naive many
           | Nazis were. British rulers always aimed to break up any
           | significantly large European power, it's been their obvious
           | geopolitical imperative from before Elizabethan times. That
           | necessity trumps any vague sympathy or political affinity _du
           | jour_. They would never have allowed Hitler to take over the
           | whole continent.
        
         | gilleain wrote:
         | For examples of famous Hitler fans, one good example was Unity
         | Mitford, one of the 6 Mitford sisters, daughters of an English
         | baron.
         | 
         | Unity (and her sister Diana) were so close to Hitler that they
         | were part of his inner circle of friends.
         | 
         | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unity_Mitford
        
       | jjackson5324 wrote:
       | Funny enough, if you look at polling data of Americans... amongst
       | people who actually lived during the JFK assassination & later
       | investigation and kept up with all the details.... only about 11%
       | believed the official narrative. More than 80% thought the
       | official narrative was a lie.
       | 
       | Nowadays (when most Americans have just read about it in history
       | textbooks), it feels like most people believe the official
       | narrative and dismiss conspiracy theories as "crazy".
        
         | rootusrootus wrote:
         | > Nowadays
         | 
         | This makes sense to me, because after all this time if we don't
         | have anything which backs up the conspiracy theories it is
         | sensible to believe that the results of the official
         | investigation are largely accurate.
        
           | jjackson5324 wrote:
           | The House Select Committee on Assassinations was established
           | to investigate the assassinations of JFK and MLK.
           | 
           | After their investigation, they concluded that the official
           | narrative was most likely wrong and they found a high
           | probability that two gunmen fired at President John F.
           | Kennedy.
           | 
           | There were no investigations after that..
           | 
           | > Scientific acoustical evidence establishes a high
           | probability that two gunmen fired at President John F.
           | Kennedy. Other scientific evidence does not preclude the
           | possibility of two gunmen firing at the President. Scientific
           | evidence negates some specific conspiracy allegations.
           | 
           | > The committee believes, on the basis of the evidence
           | available to it, that President John F. Kennedy was probably
           | assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. The committee is
           | unable to identify the other gunman or the extent of the
           | conspiracy.
           | 
           | https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-
           | repor...
        
             | l3mure wrote:
             | For me the real kicker from the HSCA is George Joannides:
             | 
             | > At the HSCA, Joannides had been specifically assigned to
             | handle queries about the DRE and its relations with the
             | CIA. The Agency had assured the committee that he had no
             | connection whatsoever to the matters under investigation;
             | that, in fact, he was merely an Agency lawyer and had not
             | been "operational" in 1963. These assurances were self-
             | evidently false. At one point, Joannides informed the
             | committee that the identity of the DRE's case officer at
             | the time of the Kennedy assassination -- Joannides himself
             | -- could not be determined.
             | 
             | https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/jfk-assassination-
             | do...
        
             | pvg wrote:
             | The House Select committee didn't do a very good job and
             | did not have access to accurate information. There has
             | been, of course, plenty of investigating done on the
             | assassination since then. A well-known overview is Gerald
             | Posner's _Case Closed_ , it goes over the deficiencies of
             | that and many other assassination theories with a fine-
             | toothed comb.
        
         | woodruffw wrote:
         | > Nowadays (when most Americans have just read about it in
         | history textbooks), it feels like most people believe the
         | official narrative and dismiss conspiracy theories as "crazy".
         | 
         | A significant confounding factor here is the encompassing and
         | totalizing nature of modern conspiracy theories: there's a
         | substantial difference in breadth, depth, and assumed priors
         | between a JFK assassination conspiracy (painted against the
         | backdrop of 1960s social and political upheaval) and something
         | like QAnon.
         | 
         | Put another way: American culture is prone to conspiratorial
         | beliefs, but isn't (yet) prone to Big Lies.
        
         | LtWorf wrote:
         | Well I'm quite convinced that the crazy conspiracy theories are
         | there to dismiss all of them in block. And of course some
         | conspiracies ARE real.
        
       | Hikikomori wrote:
       | https://youtu.be/5u7euN1HTuU?si=G3HXkWKL3KeGJKQR
       | 
       | Worth a watch if you are interested in this. He reconstructs the
       | physical space and where the people were and moved over time
       | using witness testimony.
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Camus died in 1960. That title is making its comma work a little
       | too hard!
        
         | pvg wrote:
         | That comma went to Oxford, it can handle it.
        
       | hackandthink wrote:
       | "Despite gathering years of NSA-worthy surveillance on the
       | philosophers, Hoover's agents were never able to discern the
       | ideological program of the French. "I can't work out," wrote one
       | in a note in Sartre's file, "if he's pro-Communist or anti-
       | Communist."
       | 
       | I feel the same.
       | 
       | Levy often seems to be a manichean ideologue, but I found his
       | Sartre book revealing:
       | 
       | "Levy depicts Sartre as a man who could succumb to the twentieth
       | century's catastrophic attraction to violence and the false
       | messianism of its total political solutions, while also being one
       | of the fiercest critics of its illusions and shortcomings."
       | 
       | https://bernard-henri-levy.com/en/book/sartre/
        
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