Thread:The S/@comment-995426-20180723091844/@comment-995426-20180724015516

So less about the mundane nuts and bolts of government (teachers, mailpeople, desk clerks), and more the rarer, more flexible agents operating on a need-to-know basis? Though the same is true of police detectives during criminal investigations...but there's a separate Police category anyway. Thing is, I think I have a good idea of what you're saying, but I myself am struggling to come up with accurate nomenclature that isn't long-winded. A lot of men-in-black tropes are highly dependent on cultural context, depending on the openness and flexibility of the society involved. During much of Japanese history, ninja were the equivalent secretive men in black, particularly when working as agents of the shogunate or various daimyo. And some men in black are not government agents at all, but organized crime groups&mdash;it's arguable that the IDW EPF is both a government agency and an organized crime group, as many of Bishop's acts have been highly illegal but shrouded in secrecy. And what of contract and mercenary groups that work with government, like Blackwater or Splinter's Foot Clan? They are deputized to carry out black ops on behalf of a government agency, but does that make them government agents even if temporarily? Under the common international legal definition, that does make them agents, no matter the nature of their contract or compensation. Intelligence services in particular often rely on a network of informants who are not (and really can't be) hired under any kind of formal employment contract and may indeed have no formal civil service training, but the task they carry out still makes them agents and spies in the eyes of legal jurisdictions around the world.

I must admit, I've been deeply read on history and other social sciences from a young age. In some areas this may give me an acute that makes it harder for me to think like a lay person, but I also like to think I raise issues that do need to be considered.