• Tachanka [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      To be nuanced on the question of AOC in Niger, while I suppose it’s not impossible that a 19(?) year old AOC was a CIA agent that helped carry out a coup, I think it’s much more likely that she played a peripheral role, simply working for neoliberal NGOs. She seemed to be part of some kind of Gates-Foundation style project to lower the birth rate and encourage contraceptive use. Not to suggest that NGOs aren’t often CIA fronts with a decidedly reactionary role in geopolitics, just that her imperialist role in Niger was more passive than active.

      • SimulatedLiberalism [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        I think these types of program (e.g. USAID) are a means to select for idealistic youths who are amenable to toeing the State Department lines and cooperate with intelligence agencies, and to induct them into a broader political-intelligence network.

        In other words, a grooming process for future ghouls.

      • while I suppose it’s not impossible that a 19(?) year old AOC was a CIA agent

        I think this is a really salient point, not just in reference to the NGO work but in terms of her being a turncoat in general. I think there’s a natural tendency to reframe how we look at someone’s past when we grow disillusioned with someone because of their actions, but I don’t think AOC set out to get elected with the express goal of misdirecting revolutionary sentiment into support for the future Biden Administration.