How did the FBI regain its credibility with white conservatives after the events of the 1990's? This confuses me greatly. During the 90's many right-wingers hated 'the feds,' and even had militia groups which explicitly opposed federal power.
Those all seemed to vanish during the 00's. The USA-PATRIOT Act sailed through Congress with almost no opposition in 2001, and militia groups were silent. The FBI and other agencies were given huge budget increases by Republican members of Congress, and right-wingers were fine with this.
Anyone who acts surprised at recent FBI misconduct is completely ignorant of modern history. And yet, many Boomers ARE surprised. Why? How did they forget the lessons of Waco/Ruby Ridge/etc.?
9/11, country was super patriotic after it for a good 5 years
Luis Gray
They got all of their news from cable television and probably just heard "religious extremists shot at fbi agents then committed mass suicide after a lengthy standoff."
Aaron Rodriguez
I've heard that explanation, but it doesn't actually make sense. '9/11' was an intelligence FAILURE by the FBI and other agencies, at best. This should have HURT their reputation, if anything. They also botched the anthrax attacks around the same time. Anyone who put MORE trust into the FBI after the events of 2001 is just fucking stupid.
You're correct. The goal was not to put trust in the feds. The goal was to redirect the energies from these "dangerous insurgents" outwards to foreign threats How many zogbots died in Afghanistan that could have been here, organizing a coup?
