# Did the US secret police fail in its duty of maintaining regime stability during the 2016 election? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 21, 2018, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548 "2018-05-21T10:31:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548/181 "2018-05-23T08:33:33Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I’m going to go out on a limb here and go against the grain. I’m sure I’ll be flamed for this. > > I don’t like flan. _Flanflanflanflanflanflan_ Don’t cause a fuss. I’ll have your flan. I love it. I’m having flan, flan, flan, flan, flan, flan, flan baked beans, flan, flan, flan and flan! ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548/182 "2018-05-23T09:15:19Z")
“There are two things I know to be true. There’s no difference between good flan and bad flan, and there is no war.” ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548/183 "2018-05-23T12:03:15Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > What I don’t get about these whacked-out nut-job conspiracy theorists is why they are so concerned with who’s president? According to most of those nuts, it doesn’t matter since it’s always a big secret group that’s _really_ running the world. > > And Farnaby, you’re a moron. Never suggested a conspiracy. Another opioid addled Boomer? ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548/184 "2018-05-23T12:11:09Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > This times a hundred. The way he ignores direct questions makes me think he’s afraid to express his true views, if any. He knows his ideology is built like a house of cards. For example, consider the first sentence in his reply to me: > > His beloved dog-eat-dog Ayn Randism “kneecapped” the secret deep state he was hoping would save us from Trump? What does all this mean anyway? Oh! — _ **It was just a colorful “throwaway line.”** _ :eek: > > I got the following from [the Raving Loons ‘R’ Us website](https://mises.org/library/right-self-defense) itself. I had to hold my nose, but AFAICT **Will** is incapable of acquiring knowledge from any other source. > > So, yes, Rothbard does support torture by police. And in his worldview the police, secret or otherwise, are expected to be much more competent than any real-world secret police, since they have to guess guilt correctly first. > > BTW, what happens if police torture to get a confession and then claim the confession was uncoerced? I suppose it’s OK to then torture that policeman to get him to confess to torture? Reading comprehension is anathema to the aging boomer retiree. Any half-witted Robert Reichian would come away, after having read your link, with the conclusion that a Rothbardian police system would hamper virtually all police action and would result in a drastic decrease in violence and kidnapping. Police would only engage in “torture” (i.e. roughing up, capture, etc.) if they were 100% sure of the person’s guilt or else they would be legitimately tortured themselves. In your preferred statist system, the police are a special class with special treatment by the law. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548/185 "2018-05-23T12:34:37Z")
Boomer Boomer Boomer Boomer Boomer Boomer Boomer Boomer Boomer Boomer Boomer Boomer Sta-tist STA-TIST ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548/186 "2018-05-23T12:37:12Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Boomer Boomer Boomer Boomer > Boomer Boomer Boomer Boomer > Boomer Boomer Boomer Boomer > Sta-tist STA-TIST Somebody is mad. Why? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548/187 "2018-05-23T12:38:57Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Never suggested a conspiracy. Another opioid addled Boomer? The second you mentioned “US secret police”, you were full on into conspiracy territory. I may be a baby boomer, but I have never taken illegal drugs. You can still pull off the nut-job trifecta: go ahead and call me a leftist and then accuse me of being “part of the conspiracy” because I had been in the military and had family members working for the federal government. Personally, I think the Internet is spoiling you and the rest of the Tin Foil Hat Brigade. When I was a teen, your predecessors had to exert some serious effort to get some traction with their nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548/188 "2018-05-23T12:39:24Z")
Go on, **WillFarnaby** - say “opioid-addled aging Boomer retiree” again. Maybe it will help you pretend for a little longer that anything you’ve posted in this thread makes you sound rational and coherent. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548/189 "2018-05-23T12:47:03Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Police would only engage in “torture” (i.e. roughing up, capture, etc.) if they were 100% sure of the person’s guilt or else they would be legitimately tortured themselves. > > In your preferred statist system, the police are a special class with special treatment by the law. Under your system of legalized torture, would everyone get to do it, or just the police? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548/190 "2018-05-23T13:02:53Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Somebody is mad. > > Why? Introspection? It’s a good first step for you. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548/191 "2018-05-23T13:04:59Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Under your system of legalized torture, would everyone get to do it, or just the police? If we’re living inside WF’s delusion, maybe HE gets to do it. He imagines the po-po bringing the Obviously Guilty over to his garage, where he gets to Pepsi-Board them (“You confess, _and_ refresh… with Pepsi!”). ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548/192 "2018-05-23T13:15:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Personally, I think the Internet is spoiling you and the rest of the Tin Foil Hat Brigade. When I was a teen, your predecessors had to exert some serious effort to get some traction with their nonsense I couldn’t agree more. Now they just cut and paste the hard work of some other crazy ass person and call it their own. Probably didn’t even buy their own tinfoil! This particularly limp example can’t even own what he’s really trying to say. Endless, ‘Just asking questions!’, and oily dancing around what they really believe. Back in the day it was creative, self produced stupidity and they were true believers gloriously shouting their _real_ opinions loud and proud. Shameless mincing looks bad even on the tinfoil hat militia. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548/193 "2018-05-23T13:37:52Z")
Opioids, forsooth. **Warnaby** ’s right, that shit’s just for loser Boomers. As a Gen Xer, I’m only into the _good_ stuff. Like that anarcho-capitalism. Now _there’s_ a hell of a drug. . ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548/194 "2018-05-23T13:43:07Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > The second you mentioned “US secret police”, you were full on into conspiracy territory. I may be a baby boomer, but I have never taken illegal drugs. You can still pull off the nut-job trifecta: go ahead and call me a leftist and then accuse me of being “part of the conspiracy” because I had been in the military and had family members working for the federal government. > > Personally, I think the Internet is spoiling you and the rest of the Tin Foil Hat Brigade. When I was a teen, your predecessors had to exert some serious effort to get some traction with their nonsense. Secret police exist and have existed in various forms for quite a while. Dispute? They act in secret against regime opponents. Dispute? The US government has a police force and intelligence community. Dispute? In the past these agencies have spied on and committed acts of aggression against regime opponents. Dispute? They have also manipulated media and pushed pro-regime propaganda. Dispute? Many leaders of these agencies have disgraced themselves through their connection with a policy of torture, mass surveillance and perjury. Dispute? Recently, they acted through intermediaries like Steele and Halper to meddle in the affairs of regime opponents. Dispute? Calling these agencies secret police, while perhaps hyperbolic, is not a conspiracy theory. Dispute? ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548/195 "2018-05-23T13:44:35Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Go on, **WillFarnaby** - say “opioid-addled aging Boomer retiree” again. Maybe it will help you pretend for a little longer that anything you’ve posted in this thread makes you sound rational and coherent. Shouldn’t you be sniffing for Russians in an attic? ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548/196 "2018-05-23T13:47:32Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Under your system of legalized torture, would everyone get to do it, or just the police? Anyone can do it with justification, nobody can do it without justification. As opposed to your system where some can do it without justification, and in fact it is in their job description to do so. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548/197 "2018-05-23T13:57:23Z")
Who is being tortured? ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548/198 "2018-05-23T13:58:45Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Shouldn’t you be sniffing for Russians in an attic? We have a team on it. You’ll be amazed what they find. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548/199 "2018-05-23T14:06:31Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Who is being tortured? The victims of police. Never been locked up for causing no harm I suppose? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548/200 "2018-05-23T14:10:12Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Who is being tortured? Anyone reading this thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-us-secret-police-fail-in-its-duty-of-maintaining-regime-stability-during-the-2016-election/814548.md?page=11)