this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2024
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History

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Philip Agee, born on 19th of january in 1935, was an ex-CIA officer who became a prominent critic of CIA policies, detailing his experiences in the text "Inside the Company: CIA Diary". Agee ultimately defected to Cuba, dying there in 2008.

Philip Agee (1935 - 2008) served as a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer for eight years, joining the organization in 1960. He was assigned posts in Montevideo, Mexico City, and Quito, Ecuador.

Agee resigned from the CIA in 1968 following the Tlatelolco massacre in Mexico City, in which the U.S.-supported government engaged in mass shootings and arrests of a crowd of more than ten thousand protesters. The same massacre also played a role in the political radicalization of Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatistas.

Agee moved to London and published "Inside the Company", a tell-all text that, among other things, detailed his work in spying on diplomats, engaging in illegal activity to force a diplomatic break between Ecuador and Cuba, naming President José Figueres Ferrer of Costa Rica, President Luis Echeverría Álvarez of Mexico, and President Alfonso López Michelsen of Colombia as CIA collaborators, and exposing the identities of dozens of CIA agents.

For the exposure of agents, Agee was expelled from the United Kingdom. Agee was also eventually expelled from the Netherlands, France, West Germany and Italy, and was compelled to live under a series of socialist governments - Grenada under Maurice Bishop, then Nicaragua under the Sandinistas, and finally Cuba under Castro. Agee died in Cuba in January 2008.

"I don't think we have ever had real democracy in this country. Anyone who studies adoption of the constitution will understand quite clearly that; democracy - as we understand that on today; was the last thing the founding fathers had in mind when they wrote the constitution....it was: to establish strong central authority responding the elitist interests in United States.

That's private property. And those men who wrote the constitution were representatives of the elites. They were the lawyers, bankers, merchants, the land owners, slave owners and so forth. And they write the constitution for their own private interest$. That is how government has served ever since. And that is why we have so little democracy in United States."

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Inside the Company: CIA Diary cia

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[–] DragonBallZinn@hexbear.net 12 points 10 months ago (5 children)

Sorry, need some place to ramble.

I'm finally moving out of my parent's basement and re-enrolling in college. In my mid twenties I have even less of the luxury of time than I do before. I'm worried I'm picking the wrong major and I'll just end up where I started with a degree I loathe, friendless, and no one who will hire me. I've spent most of my life with very undeveloped "friendships" and I've never been able to put down roots. I'm mostly doing this degree for practical reasons. In reality, I just want to be an artist or do acting but I know that it's unlikely to ever get paid for it so I never bothered. Going back just makes me hate myself even more because it reminds me of how so far behind I am for my peers. Sure, everyone 'moves at their own pace', but my pace is glacially slow. I've wasted so much of my life literally doing nothing but sitting in my parents basement because "woe is me".

I'm not dropping out and sulking back to my parents basement though, they're happy for me and I don't want to burden them again with this bait-and-switch. I need to brave this even though I have MASSIVE FOMO. If there's anyone else out there that has had a similar experience, how do you cope with these emotions of a "manchild in recovery" who's also worried that they will end up as another miserable cog in the machine. It may be an improvement, but still makes me realize how much I've wasted my life.

[–] ElectronNumberSeven@hexbear.net 9 points 10 months ago (2 children)

This is almost word-for-word how I feel and what I've done, like with some details swapped I could have written this. I'm currently mid twenties and spent my early twenties being a NEET living in what what suppose to be my dad's office but I'm now back in college. Also just doing a degree for practical reasons, my real passions are art and cooking but I know I can't make careers out of either, and I constantly think about changing my major but I think it's too late at this point. I have tried to find and take some classes that I'm passionate about though which has helped make things better

I don't really cope with the manchild in recovery feeling, it just eats away at me every day. It makes it hard to want to interact with other students because I'm like 4-5 years older than a lot of the students I run into and I don't really fit in with them, but also at the same time I don't fit in with the "older going back to school midlife" kind of people either. But as a trans woman I have the same missing out fears and anxieties about a ton of experiences in life so it really isn't a new feeling for me. I normally just stress drink or stress eat to cope, either of which are healthy though. I'm really really really trying to push myself to ingrain with college this semester and have taken way more classes than I normally would and am trying to go to clubs even if it feels weird and awkward and like I'm out of place, I'm trying to power through it

I wish I could provide more advice but I'm just as lost as you are on all of this stuff, maybe knowing someone else who's right where you're at might make things better a little. I hope things improve for you though meow-hug

[–] DragonBallZinn@hexbear.net 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah definitely, that thought of being older than everyone is chilling. But I try to tell myself to just not give a shit, because anyone who matters won't care.

Likewise, I hope things turn out well for you too meow-hug

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