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Comments (56)
- nxobjectOne consequence: The World Factbook is often used in immigration applications as a "you won't get hassled" source of information about conflicts, involvement with the military, etc. (The same is true about State Department assessments of human rights violations.)
- clintfredFacts are the enemy.I remember reading books like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 as a teen thinking, "Cool story, but the US will never look like that." Oof.
- scarecrowbobDamn I wish the waning of US soft power felt like a positive thing to me; the CIA, along with the DEA, has been one of the more powerful criminal networks on the planet since its inception in the mid 20th C.It doesn't feel like the US gov is moving away from the soft-power/understated action stuff because the US gov is somehow committed to being less evil.It feels to me like they don't feel like it's as useful as the application simple hard power.That feels a little horrifying to me.
- lvspiffI used the CIA factbook so much in college in the early 2000's when looking at so many things. When researching countries to support and travel to it made sense to vreview it beforehand. Its insane that this as a resource would be taken down.
- ks2048This is surely just the tip of the iceberg of what is going on in the CIA at the moment. Senator Ron Wyden just sent a mysterious public letter about concerns about what they are doing.https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5724300-ron-wyden-cia-le...
- recursive4Counter-argument: why are my tax dollars replicating Wikipedia?
- deafpolygonWikipedia next? I hope not.
- dundariousThere was a website redesign under the Biden administration that lost a lot of important historical information as well. For example, the CIA in-house historian had a book review about the overthrow of the Mosaddegh government in Iran in the 50s, and the CIA/MI6 role in that coup.
- abdelhousniTruth is a danger for the ruling oligarchy.
- ChrisArchitectMore discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46891794
- Swoerd[dead]
- SilverElfin[flagged]
- macinjoshThe irony of an intelligence agency publishing a "fact book" in the first place is thick.