Does it seem to anyone else that this “Deep State” nonsense is just the ultimate end to years of BS theories being shot down because they had no basis in facts? When in doubt claim it’s all a giant conspiracy?
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Top of Trumps Christmas reading list for sure
“my list is huge, the greatest books by the bestest minds, most words. Joe’s in it. love that guy. grate guy. won an election recently. so proud, very busy to be both in a book and leed a province. not as busy as I tho…sad”
At it’s most basic level, the “deep state” is a elaborated “power behind the throne” theory that attempts to explain why ostensibly democratic states aren’t responsive to the demands of the electorate. Wikipedia suggests that the Turkish deep state is one of the more popular variations.
Mark Armbinder’s book Deep State argues that certain aspects of the national security state are insulated from public critique, and that’s why we have mass surveillance, secret wars, torture, etc.
The Nation reviewed several books on the subject earlier this year
a broader, older critique of government acting because of entrenched interests may be found in
Donald Trump’s invocation of the deep state can be (charitably) read as a critique of those aspects of the administrative/regulatory apparatus which rely on expert knowledge instead of political considerations to formulate policy.
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I’m kind of surprised to see people here ridiculing deep state paranoia on the right- it’s always been pretty split politically. Wasn’t that long ago that the deep state was a lefty excuse for why Obama couldn’t change things (or at least that was one theory that apologists threw out)
And remember, you’re not being paranoid if you’re actually being followed. Stuff that used to be tin-foil hat territory has been shown to be true. The idea that bureaucracies defend their turf or act in their own self-interest should hardly be controversial; I think what happens is people are observing the behavior of individuals and individual orgs responding to the circumstances around them (someone trying to reduce their power, reduce budget, change mission, etc), and mistaking it for a pattern that indicates a conspiracy.
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Seagal sitting at typewriter on top of Snoopy’s dog house: “The Arizona desert sky was full of color…”
Ghostwriter: Steve, that’s a little vague. Can we be more specific?
Segal: Fine. “The clouds, a brilliant orange, were hanging on the horizon.”
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Color me naive, but the deep state theory seems to rely on a information asymmetry. As in, the “the intelligence community and the administration are privy to information which you do not have access to, and therefore your misinformed opinions are not welcome here.”
The right wing version of this seems to extend this to agencies which deal in public, scientific information. (information that requires a scientific education to really understand.)
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I learned a lot about the fascinating world of Seagal through Film Brain’s review series Bad Movie Beatdown. Like counting the number of times “Seagal” in these movies is really a body and/or voice double, with maybe five minutes of him actually “acting”. Amazing that somebody who looks like a bloated addict shuffling through their scenes still tries to pass themselves off as a martial artist - nevermind an actor.
Here’s a playlist of six reviews:
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Top Ten List of Things Worse Than Steven Segal:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=8REihYxB5Y0&t=3m15s
(Video is cued.)
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Featuring Steven Segal’s energy drink.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=iJN5vPslElc&t=1m30s
(Video is cued.)
Regarding Turkey, there’s a prominent theory that the assassination of Kurdish activists Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez in Paris in 2013, was the doing of factious elements within the Turkish intelligence services.
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The thing i find odd is that the basic description of the “deep state” is basically more accurately a description of Trump’s administration than it is an explanation for why people oppose him. He’s the one who’s unresponsive to the needs and wants of the electorate, and of course reality in general.
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