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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 4, 2024

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Obviously they do have it, and obviously US is not up to task to rooting this particular kind of spy out.

How would you know? The best thing the US could do with such a spy is hire them into a top secret program designed specifically to feed bullshit to the Chinese.

The best thing the US could do with such a spy is hire them into a top secret program designed specifically to feed bullshit to the Chinese.

a) something like that has never happened. Disinfo was usually fed through agents who were turned. You can pass disinfo onto an unwitting agent, but no way you could have an entire program.

b) US spooks just aren't very good at the moment, so, unlikely.

For B, compared to whom?

Feels like saying “the US military isn’t very good at the moment” or “the US economy isn’t very good at the moment.”

It doesn't matter whether there's someone better out there or not.

If you're bad you can't play a game where you keep stringing along some reasonably competent guy with an entirely fake program.

I’m questioning by what metrics or standards, absolute or relative, you label “US spooks” as “not very good at the moment.”

These things are hard to judge for insiders, let alone outsiders, and typically becomes evident only with the passage of time and significant declassification.

The points you make in A are sufficient to explain why it would almost never make sense for anyone to ever attempt it anyway.