honestly, my take on the fbi is that anyone that works for or with them is a cop, because they are
i like my simple non-nuanced take. it helps me keep perspective
i know some peeps are talking about technicalities, but do you think that the feds give af when they come after oppressed communities?
there's a lot of history there, and lots of valid reasons for the bad vibes. to ignore it all bc someone is only "affiliated" with a horrifically bad organization seems like a pointless distinction
@scarly they (not the FBI specifically but a lot of 3 letter agencies) advertise on campus every now and then, but promising unquestioning loyalty to any sort of government doesn't sit well with me. Let's reverse this; anyone who thinks these are good jobs is most certainly a nationalist patriot. Your assessment is more than accurate. This is all based on the things we know, who knows what even more horrifying things the feds are doing.
@wolfcoder yup, that's pretty much my position on things.
i think about it like this (and someone else said something similar here in comments) - if someone is "affiliated with" a white power organization, for example, then i give them the same wide berth that i give actual white power organizations
also, it's often too risky from many avenues to not have this lens.
@scarly (it changes a lot since the university keeps the funds in an account but its funding from NSF, NRI, etc.)
@scarly I'll reiterate what you hear a lot about getting copies of research papers for "free"- some of these actually belong to you anyways. Its totally fine and I encourage it wholeheartedly that more people want to read scientific literature.
@scarly not all of the three letter organizations are bad. I get paid (indirectly) by other three letter agencies to do research entirely under the direction of my advisor and myself to help understand diseases, improve automation safety, and understand how humans and automation attempt to cooperate with one another. Technically the results of our research belong to all of you, so it gets published publicly at the end. The alternative is working for Google or Amazon..