oh shit, you were making a Pratchett reference

now I guess I have a genuine reason to be ashamed

haven't got around to discworld yet, tried it a couple of times about 8 years ago but couldn't quite get into it back then

unless he's a what now

please go easy on me, I am oblivious to much pop culture mumbo jumbo and whatnot

The only way someone gets away with being a genuine assassin forever is if they have the power of the state behind them. Period.

We can fantasize about antiheroes who kill the villains, but they don't exist and can't exist in a world like ours.

If you're affiliated, there are gang members tasked with such things. If you're connected to law enforcement or certain gov orgs, you can find a state sponsored one pretty easily.

But if you're not in the organized crime game (gangs, law enforcement/FBI) hitmen really don't exist

That netlfix film about the fake hitman actually has a good line. "hitmen don't really exist"

Well, they don't for poor/middle class folk who want to get rid of their pesky spouses, etc..

Some things are worth dying for. I've learned that. I suppose it's easier to think otherwise if you're prone to thinking that this world is all there is.

It'll be easier to see the truth when everyone with an agenda in the matter is dead. But when it really mattered, the nazis did their nazi thing, disguised the truth, authored injustice, and assuaged their consciences with the fact that they'd likely be dead if they didn't do their master's will.

But it's all just spec fic. Don't worry. The world isn't that dark, and there's no reason to think a catastrophic failure of intelligence is on the horizon. But maybe it's something that only gets told 50 years from now. It'll be easier for EVERYONE to see the truth when "everyone was against this."

The spec fic writer in me wants to ask the question, "what if these two Lebanese queer people once had feelings for each other. How much more tragic does it make the story?"

And how much more tragic does it make the story if the FBI queer has to deny that was ever true to sway people?

Being in the FBI means that you're a professional liar. There is no integrity in the position. There is a public face of the org that gives it respectability, and then there's what the org is really actually all about. Lies. Propaganda. Swaying the public for those in power.

Being undercover like that, even publicly, affords you privilege to tell the truth about your political views while playing a political game against those views behind everyone's backs. You feel bad about it, sure, but you know your life is at risk if you don't do your job.

I'm the type of person to say, "while what you're doing is entirely messed up, I can understand why." What the world will think in 50 years, however, is that they're the worst type of race traitor. The equivalent of a Jewish nazi.

And it's going to be a premature death for something that the whole world knows was the stupidest move a human being can ever make (whenever the whole world finds out about it).

Idk, it just bugs me this old friend is fine with being in those files and playing the role in them that they did.

lol I've lived an absolutely insane life. Part of me really thinks that people are only going to get the truth 50 years from now when some COINTELPRO style docs are released

I don't say that to brag. I'm an open book. I'm heckin disabled, dude. I'm probably gonna die a very premature death.

I'm a spec fic writer. Speculation is part of who I am. "What if?" What if they truly are in the FBI like I think--what if the FBI has to make them prove that they'll stay quiet given their identity and their past association with me?

Yeah, if that happens to be true, it's pretty damn tragic.

Like, this person may very well be following me around, digitally speaking. I wish I could be in their head. Sadly, if my suspicions are correct, they've been put in the position of "I know an old friend who's going to die, and talking about it means I have to die, too."

I also think it says something about our society that millions will turn out when they don’t like the president but won’t show up for Palestine.

Americans are passionate about hating the president, but they apparently dgaf about all the slaughter the US is authoring around the globe.