this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2026
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[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 83 points 1 month ago (7 children)

It's incredible how many things have gone from "insane conspiracy theory" to "yes, declassified documents prove that the CIA actually did this".

Makes me wonder what things they're doing right now that might be declassified in a few decades... Makes me wonder what things they've done that were so fucked up that they still haven't declassified them.

[–] otacon239@lemmy.world 30 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

I regularly wonder how much of the dark sci-fi we’ve been cooking up over the years is just unaware documentary.

[–] terranoid@lemmy.cafe 24 points 1 month ago (2 children)

There's this reporter, Ross Coulthart, started going off about aliens and UFOs and telepathy and weird shit recently. He is an award winning investigative reporter who got turned into an alien reporter.

Well I noticed one day he starts talking about the GATE program (gifted and talented education) and testing children for psionic ability... Then i remember my parents trying to get me to try out for GATE and taking me to some weird building where they gave me weird psychic tests...

I failed them, but it proved to me that life is way stranger than we give it credit for. Yes, there are secret government programs looking for telepathic children. I've seen proof. That's probably just the tip of iceberg if so.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

It honestly sounds like you dodged a bullet there

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[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

going off about aliens and UFOs and telepathy and weird shit recently

Anybody going on about UFOs in the modern day loses me.

The real final nail in the coffin about UFOs is that after it became common for people to have cameras (phones) in their pocket at all times everywhere, reports of UFO sightings went significantly down, not up. In ye olden days (yes, I was there, 3000 years ago), people with a UFO sighting often had the excuse that they didn't have a camera on them at the time, and that's why they didn't capture proof of it. Because most people didn't carry a camera at all unless they specifically planned to go out and take pictures. In the modern day, though, "pics or it didn't happen" is a more common sentiment, and reports of UFO sightings have gone way down.

If UFOs were real*, you'd expect to see a lot more reports and more evidence of them as quick and easy camera access became ubiquitous. People would be taking pictures and videos of them all the time! But the opposite has happened -- having easy and available means to collect evidence has reduced the number of claims.

*Okay, in the strictest technical sense, UFOs are real. In the sense that people sometimes see flying objects that they can't readily identify. But -- especially in the modern day, with camera evidence -- those tend to be pretty explainable by more knowledgeable people who can identify them, and the more evidence there is, the less likely it seems for them to be associated with any sort of extraterrestrial origin.

[–] leg@leminal.space 4 points 1 month ago

I dunno how true your claim is. I've seen a lot of UAP footage, as well as tons of claims from people in passing that they've seen something. Hell, my partner has a couple stories of her own.

I can't speak on the legitimacy of the footage or claims (I tend to assume it's bullshit, but I've an open mind), but I can say there was a period of time where I saw 10s of reports a week, oftentimes the same event being documented by different people from multiple angles. I'm assuming you must be referring to official reports or something, but unofficial reports are still reports, so...

[–] Arcka@midwest.social 3 points 1 month ago

Of course reports of UFO sightings would go down after everyone has smartphones - nobody spends time staring up at the sky anymore since they have their faces buried in a screen.

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[–] BillyTheKid2@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago

Sure, yeah, absolutely. Plausible deniability.

[–] BillyTheKid2@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 month ago

If you tell people about declassified CIA ops they will often call you a conspiracy theorist.

Like, no theory needed lad, this is official documentation.

[–] OrganicMustard@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Most of it is probably about mass surveillance and their propaganda machine.

I wonder if they have an evolved version of mkultra, maybe testing it right now on Maduro.

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I doubt mkultra was ever about individuals rather than mass mind control.

Also, why be afraid of an evolved version of mkultra when social media is brainwashing people into believing literally anything? Well, anything as long as it conforms to your personal biases. Social media companies have achieved what the CIA could never do.

[–] Wirlocke@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

It's a funky cognitive dissonance in my head. On one hand, conspiracy theories are deliberately engineered for propaganda and distractions. On the other hand, everything surrounding Epstein makes Pizzagate look like a mundane theory in comparison, both oddly involving the Clinton's.

It feels like damned if you do damned if you don't. In a lot of cases Occam's Razor is the only thing that makes a conspiracy obviously wrong, but reality is so strange that the simplest answer doesn't cut it anymore.

[–] just2look@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

So this is a bit not picky, but Occam's razor isn't just about the simplest. It is if two hypotheses both equally explain a phenomenon you should choose the simplest. It also could be explained as choosing the explanation the requires the fewest assumptions. So it still allows for complexity in the hypotheses, but aims to reduce complexity when a simpler answer will suffice.

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[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Can you please give an example

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah, people are like "But MKUltra was shut down and declassified!"

Rrrriiiiigghhhttttt...

"But what about second MKUltra?"

"I don't think he knows about second MKUltra..."

But mention that and they'll be like "EvIdEnCe?!?!?!"

As if the CIA would be open and forthcoming with documentation proving that MKUltra has a successor program...

[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Yeah, people are like “But MKUltra was shut down and declassified!”

And not voluntarily, either. It's not like the CIA willingly gave up on it -- they only did that after it was discovered and there was widespread public outcry over it. Also, the CIA didn't declassify it -- the CIA destroyed most of the documents related to it, and Congress declassified (most of) what was left.

Given that the CIA was very much against shutting it down and declassifying it, I think it's very likely that they replaced it with a similar new program that's still running and still secret.

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 36 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (6 children)

The MK Ultra program being real is fucking insane.

The fact they still employ "far seers" is also insane, and I don't know if it's insane because they use absolute bogus things seriously, or if that shit is actually real somehow. Like there has to be reason they have 'em still, you know?

[–] owl@infosec.pub 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Do they still employ them? I thought they stopped doing remote viewing in the 90s

SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_Project_(U.S._Army_unit)

[–] AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Didnt they try to summon dieties and demons from several large religions just in case they were real? The cia was fucking insane(still is prolly, we just have to wait 30 years for them to reveal what they were doing)

[–] nomy@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I hope they tried to summon stuff, that's hilarious and great and I can kind of respect that they were hedging their bets.

"Yeah it's probably not real but what if the Russians summon Hagarg Ryonis?"

[–] SystemDisc@feddit.org 2 points 1 month ago

That's legitimately hilarious

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[–] Aeri@lemmy.world 34 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It is openly terrifying how The stance of the American government is basically yeah we did that what are you going to do about it?

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Also frustrating that it isn't even the same people because the ones that did that shit already retired and/or died before it was declassified. There isn't really much to do about it, even if the government is willing. Any apology isn't from those who actually did it. Any reparations are paid for with taxes. Any promise to do better could be a lie and probably won't be known for sure until the ones making it are dead and their documents are declassified.

[–] anewfox@lemmy.zip 23 points 1 month ago

i remember one time at work we were talking about this stuff, and one of our bosses straight up said the cia has never done anything like that. i really mean it when i say every working class employee busted out laughing.

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago

Most of the MKUltra documents were destroyed, we only have what we have because some were stored at a different location unbeknownst to those ordered to destroy them. We only know a small part of what they did.

[–] CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago

Heh heh, good times

[–] jabberwock@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 1 month ago

Recommend the book Safe for Democracy by John Prados. It's a damn doorstop and gets pretty dry at parts (think a full outline of the obtuse bureaucratic names various covert working groups gave themselves), but it's an exhaustive record of the CIA from their founding up to their adventures in Afghanistan.

It mostly focuses on armed conflict rather than the cloak and dagger spy games, but still shows the lengths the agency has gone to just because a world leader leaned a little too far left for their liking.

[–] NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

A family friend that my mom grew up with was considered crazy for a number of years until the MKUltra documents came out. He was a repeat subject they gang stalked and kidnapped multiple times when they would go out to the bars and dosed the fuck out of him and did weird Clockwork Orange shit. He got much better afterwords just by knowing what he went through was real and having other people finally believe him. I can’t imagine the psychological torture of actually having that level of shit happen to you and nobody believing you, because it actually does just objectively sounds fucking ridiculous, had those documents never came out he is 100% sure he would have ended up killing himself.

This was just one of the many things they have done and are actively doing that they fully planned to hide away forever.

[–] Unpigged@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Can't believe none asked yet: what's your favorite four? I in the comments I see Pokemon Go, MK Ultra, Project Stargate. Not even four!

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago (3 children)

MK Ultra on its own could count for several.

Was the experiment where they released some "harmless pathogen" (assuming your immune system is all good!) in major cities to see how they spread, resulting in some deaths/complications part of MK Ultra? Can't remember if it was under that project or part of a different one leading up to it.

The Iran/contras were CIA.

Oh also the Iranian revolution, or at least the instability that led to it.

Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden both started as CIA assets that got tired of being used.

A lot of attempts on Fidel Castro's life.

That's off the top of my head. There's also a bunch of fuckery in central and south America, though if I had to guess, I would guess that there has been fuckery in every single country on this planet, including countries some would have called allies. Iirc they targeted some Canadian cities for that "release the pathogen" experiment, too.

[–] kgbbot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago

I read a great story about the Cuban "ASSETS" the CIA had we're all double agents. I can see how Fidel Castro could backflip away from so many assignation attempts.

[–] trebor_project@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

On the subject of MK Ultra we shouldn't forget Canada also has some culpability there.

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[–] Strawberry@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 month ago

There's the fuckery in Australia, like with Pine Gap and that one prime minister they had fired

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

Were the Tuskegee experiments them?

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Hey replying here in case you didn't see the rest of the chain on the other reply, but no, that wasn't the CIA (see the other reply chain for more details).

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[–] CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I like their chatbot experiments personally

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 month ago

And only crickets went to jail for all of that

[–] toxicbubble@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

MLK Jr, Black Panthers, Malcolm X

[–] boaratio@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Pokemon Go.

[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 month ago

"Airplane crashing" democratic leaders who wouldn't allow parasitic American corporations to rape their country's resources.

Also, smuggling a shit ton of coke into the US.

Nope. It's the gubment so they obviously have authority iand are good nstead of being an entitled bunch of psychopaths.

[–] stringere@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 points 1 month ago
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