It's weird watching a show like this living in the Washington, DC area.
The conspiracy theories covered in the show really aren't anything I subscribe to, but it's interesting to see what the perception of Washington is by people in the rest of the country, especially those writing television shows.
I fully believe the FBI is as bureaucratic and political as it's portrayed in this series, and probably then some. There are bound to be different groups competing for funds and attention and importance, and everyone wants the good investigators and profilers and no one wants the bad ones or the problematic ones. Like Mulder. In a real corporate setting, a non-team player like Mulder would likely be let go. But the government doesn't work that way. It's hard to be fired from a U.S. government job, which is probably where a lot of the stereotypes about government employees being slackers comes from. (To be fair, there are plenty of slackers within the federal government taking advantage of just that. They are not the norm, I'm sure, but they do contribute to inefficiency.)
In the context of the show, there's definitely a lot of back room dealing and manipulation to discredit the people (Mulder, and possibly Scully) those other groups find difficult. It's kind of horrible, really, but unsurprising. Mulder even said it himself in the very first episode - 'the FBI's most unwanted'. He may be working on cases he likes and sees potential in, but he's also where he is because no one else wants to deal with him and they can't figure out a way to get rid of him. In his case, it's probably too risky for them to reassign him because he's such a firm believer that the cases he's working need to be investigated. He'd probably just go rogue, which I'm sure is less what they want than him actually staying on and working for them.
The other thing is, given all the coverups and conspiracies, no one would want to claim credit when he was right, which also runs kind of counter to the way government agencies, especially those in intelligence and law enforcement.
Prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks, there were horrible communication problems both within the FBI and in the intelligence community regarding information sharing. The stories are that the FBI, CIA, and NSA all had their pride and wanted to be the ones to get the credit for rooting out terrorists and as a result, neglected to provide each other with enough information to prevent attacks. At least, that's what we've been led to believe - I suspect it's probably a slight exaggeration because I can't believe our government would be quite that incompetent, but we know the ball was obviously dropped.
OK, wait, I'm mostly talking about general stuff. I initially framed this as being from the perspective of someone living here. The thing is, I think my perspective on government and politics is tremendously influenced by the fact that I grew up in the area and have spent most of my adult life here, so I naturally want to pay more attention to what's going on in my back yard. (It's why I'm enjoying The West Wing so much, too.)
And that's the thing. I think most people don't care that much beyond their own representative and Senators and the President. But those in elected office really don't make up that much of the government. The FBI's assistant directors aren't elected. Nor are any of the players in these plots. They're all the behind the scenes people in organisations that most Americans just see as functional operations, the inner workings of which aren't that important.
And we haven't really seen anything overtly political in The X-Files, mostly just bureaucratic to the point of absurdity. Well, and influenced by forces outside the FBI that may or may not even be part of the government in the first place. I'd assume the Smoking Man is at least somehow connected directly to the government. Even if you assume a vast conspiracy between the government and private military contractors, the idea of him having direct Pentagon access as an ordinary private citizen is sketchy at best.
Given the way certain parts of Washington work, though, I could believe that some of the interactions we see are possible in real life. While outright bribery is technically illegal, lobbyists can exert their influence in all sorts of ways, mostly with the promise of campaign donations and fancy gifts. After all, if you knew that you had a million dollars in campaign cash coming if you just voted for one particular bill, you'd probably take it. If you were a corrupt Congressman, that is, and I think most of them are at least corruptible enough to have a hard time resisting that.
So imagine that the Smoking Man's organisation has that kind of influence. They can have things classified, leaked, covered up, or otherwise dealt with for not too much extraordinary effort. They've surely got the money for it, though I'm guessing there are occasional threats involved, too.
And they have access to enough information that their threats have to be taken seriously, rather than prosecuted, since the people they're threatening are most likely already complicit in something illegal and can't afford to bring the group to light.
So they're basically terrorists. Well, that's comforting.
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