Police states recruit good people by framing harmful actions as routine duties. The FBI presents prosecutions and investigations as fighting disinformation and protecting democracy, masking coercive power behind ideological cover.
How do you think the average FBI agent will react to your film? I think the problem, and this is a problem of bureaucracy, and it's a problem that we see in all police states. Police states rely on recruiting good people to do very bad things, and they do it by framing the very bad things in very bureaucratic, mundane ways, and then setting up very complex bureaucratic measurements of advancement and career success that are tied to achieving these goals. And the goals are always framed benignly, fighting disinformation, upholding the law. That's why we're going after Trump, Dinesh, 'cause no one is above the law, or upholding democracy. We gotta do this stuff. It may be distasteful, but we gotta save democracy by going after these white supremacists. And so what you have is an ideological camouflage The police state is marching behind the benign banners of law and freedom and democracy.
Life, Legacy, and a Dangerous Mission in the Soviet Union | Sunday Fireside Chat
