Quote · Modern Wisdom
Ex-Military Hacker: The Secret World Of Government Surveillance - Bill Thompson - #1131
Where this was said
Who Is the Most Surveilled Person in the World?
At 51:44 · chapter starts 47:15
The conversation shifts to what Bill calls the fundamental pathology of government: the self-licking ice cream cone. Once a division is funded to fight a specific threat, that division cannot survive the threat's disappearance — so it manufactures the threat's continuation. Bill claims that at certain KKK gatherings, 60% of attendees were federal agents, because a division funded to counter white supremacy needed visible white supremacy to counter [1] — Bill Thompson "Government divisions built to fight a threat can't exist once the threat disappears — so they manufacture it. Bill Thompson claims that at …" 50:50 . He extends this to Al Sharpton, whose brand was built on fighting racism in the 1980s and 90s, and who had to 'go searching for racism' once conditions improved. Chris draws the pharmaceutical parallel: Big Pharma has little incentive to cure patients because cured patients stop buying. Bill agrees, but offers a nuanced view — GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic are a case where the incentive structures happened to align with patient benefit, making them a better model than trying to overthrow the entire system. The section closes on a meta-point Chris and Bill land together: flooding the public with so much contradictory information that they become apathetic and confused may itself be the intended strategic outcome.
Bill Thompson nominated Elon Musk as likely the most surveilled individual on the planet, though he clarified he would actually target people close to Musk rather than Musk himself due to accessibility constraints.
Elon Musk is probably the most watched human on the planet — but Bill Thompson says he'd never try to recruit him. The reason: accessibility. Even if you're friends with someone that powerful, you can never actually get them to show up for a debrief. You recruit their inner circle instead.
Government divisions built to fight a threat can't exist once the threat disappears — so they manufacture it. Bill Thompson claims that at certain KKK meetings, 60% of attendees were federal agents. When you fund a whole division to fight white supremacy and can't find it, you have to go find it.
Bill Thompson claimed the FBI allocated approximately 25% of a relevant division's budget to countering white supremacy, creating institutional pressure to find or manufacture threats to justify the spending.
