• SacredExcrement [any, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    13 hours ago

    Really furthers my belief that a lot of these natsec freaks aren’t especially bright

    Managed to accidentally radicalize someone they were probably suspecting of being a communist by using a (for them) particularly stupid choice of words

      • alexei_1917 [any]@hexbear.net
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        9 hours ago

        I mean, this would absolutely work on nonconformists who break rules for the sake of breaking rules, and kids/teenagers. Want a kid, or someone with a childish mindset, to study something, the best way is to convince them they’re not supposed to and they’re getting away with something. Use that on people with demand avoidance tendencies or who break rules to break rules, and use “the government doesn’t want you to read this” to reach a broader group. But yeah, if you want to get teenagers reading ML theory, this would probably work better than anything a lot of young commies are doing to radicalise peers…

      • HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org
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        11 hours ago

        It’s the same marketing genius saying “your electric comoany doesn’t want you plugging this 39-cent-BOM magic-beans box in” or “buy generic boner pills online with this lEgAl LoOpHoLe”…

        except they’re making bank.So I guess it would work.

        • alexei_1917 [any]@hexbear.net
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          9 hours ago

          To use this exact tactic, we’d have to hand out theory as “the government doesn’t want you to read this”, but that would absolutely work. Especially in places where current public trust in government is at an all time low.

    • tamagotchicowboy [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      8 hours ago

      Cause and effect isn’t exactly their strong suit, though in some cases maybe a little manufacturing an enemy you can box in easily to keep funding going.

    • darkcalling [comrade/them, she/her]@hexbear.net
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      13 hours ago

      Probably. On the other hand they do like radicalizing people so they can use them as an excuse to outlaw or further surveil or attack organizations so it’s not impossible they were really hoping to paint MLK with the communist brush and if they had to literally turn people into communists around him to get that to work they were quite willing to do so. Hoover in particular was desperate for it so absolutely wouldn’t have been beyond trying to create some communists if it meant giving him more ammo to take down the civil rights movement and MLK.