They are called mercenaries and the practice is as old as war.
this post was submitted on 26 May 2026
75 points (95.2% liked)
World News
56254 readers
2014 users here now
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF OCTOBER 19 2025
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
There are tons of mercenary companies working for the US Government too.
Mercenaries are professionals, though. This phenomenon is about ordinary or at least commonly criminal people.
Anyone who does this type of work for money and isn't employed directly by a government is a "professional mercenary." What's the difference between some ex-Marine who gets hired as a mercenary after a 4 year tour and an "ordinary" or "commonly criminal" person?
You're using "professional" to mean "ethical and skilled" but anyone who takes a job killing people for money from the highest bidder is far from that.
The non/semi-professional mercenaries have to start somewhere before they get promoted to the big leagues.
They usually start as foot soldiers in a formal state military before moving on to mercenary work.
If they are paid they are professional and not all mercenaries are paid in coin.
Mercenaries are definitely not all professionals - who do you think are the boots on the ground for all the proxy wars happening today?
Turkey and Russia were flying out Syrian mercenaries to north Africa to fight each other over Libya.
It's extensively published in military research papers that guns for hire (mercenaries) are becoming much more ubiquitous in today's proxy wars.
Look up the definition of professional in the dictionary. If you get paid for a job, your are a professional. Level of experience or skill is not part of the definition.
I think the key term being used is "mercenary" though
TLDR: terrorism as a service. A new form of terrorism in Western countries: “disposable terrorists.” Instead of trained ideological extremists, hostile states and proxy groups recruit ordinary people online for money to carry out attacks, sabotage, or intimidation. Using encrypted apps, cryptocurrency, and criminal networks, organizers can quickly hire low-skill operatives who are easy to replace and difficult to trace. The article links this trend to Iran-backed networks and describes it as part of modern “hybrid warfare,” combining espionage, cyber tactics, propaganda, and deniable violence.
> creates conditions that cause millions of people to be economically desperate, lacking access to basic human needs
> some economically desperate people turn to increasingly violent crime as a way to make ends meet
> shockedpikachu.jpg
Once, a hostile secret service had to send a skilled and experienced operative to commit assassination, sabotage or terrorism thousands of miles away, or activate networks of sleeper agents, or find and train ideologically committed recruits ready to betray their country. Such schemes took years to prepare.
Nope. This is not how spy work works. Want you want is a bunch of turned deniable assets. ~~The skill operative is an invention of the American movies~~
I don’t say that « super spies » don’t exist, what I’m saying is that they aren’t the norm
There’s more George Smiley that they have James Bond
I have edited my first post
Crinkle cut fries also aren’t the norm. Super spies are an asset that get trained when they are needed.
Yeah. Volume is good as it degrades the enemy's trust and increaes defence costs.
One extra smart guy is fine if youve already got a load of greedy fools running amok.
This is not a new menace, nor is it just Western countries who are dealing with it.
Mercenaries have been around forever and everyone is using them. I would say that the entire continent of Africa has been menaced far more than 'Western' countries.
Everything old is new again.
Every country operates similar systems. The Israelis have the perfect one - honey trap operators like Epstein and Mossad assassins using fake foreign passports
https://www.wired.com/story/ai-generated-maga-girls/
The Indian medical student who created a MAGA amazon could have just as easily used 'her' to recruit an army.
Russia started this in Ukraine.
Blaming encrypted messaging and cryptocurrency. Great.