{"id":40409,"date":"2015-05-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/40409\/how-to-tell-if-someone-is-a-spy-or-just-an-asshole-in-lebanon"},"modified":"2023-08-11T04:05:53","modified_gmt":"2023-08-11T04:05:53","slug":"how-to-tell-if-someone-is-a-spy-or-just-an-asshole-in-lebanon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/40409\/how-to-tell-if-someone-is-a-spy-or-just-an-asshole-in-lebanon\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Tell if Someone is a Spy (or just an Asshole) in Lebanon"},"content":{"rendered":"\u201cShe must work for the CIA.\u201d This is usually the first thing people think when you\u2019re an expat living in Beirut. Why else would you come to a city like this? Certainly it couldn\u2019t be for the awesome weather, the cool people, or the absence of anyone related to George W. Bush in the halls of government, could it?

Naw. You must be a spy. <\/big>


(Image via christianpost.com<\/a>)

It\u2019s important to be able to distinguish between people who are potential spies, and randos who just decided to move to Beirut because it sounded fun. You don\u2019t want to be constantly suspicious. Being in a constant state of suspicion actually makes you less likely to pinpoint things that are real threats. <\/big>


(Image via cinetropolis.net<\/a>)

Here are some signs a person may be a spy. Or maybe they\u2019re just an asshole.<\/big>

1. They are shady about what they do for a living, but want to know everything about you.<\/big><\/big><\/b>

a. If they\u2019re a spy, they\u2019re doing this to collect information on you while maintaining their own clandestine status. It\u2019s likely they\u2019ll accompany this closed lip-ness with an incredibly smug air of \u201cYou\u2019re not important enough to know what I do for a living.\u201d Or \u201cIf I told you, I\u2019d have to kill you. But you\u2019d almost think it was worth it to die, because what I do is that impressive.\u201d <\/big>


(Image via vignette1<\/a>)

b. If someone isn\u2019t a spy and they do this it means they\u2019re either a drug dealer or a Machiavellian ass-clown. Refusing to divulge any personal information while pumping someone else for theirs is a classic manipulation tactic. Don\u2019t fall for it. <\/big>

2. They\u2019re paranoid.<\/big><\/big><\/b>

a. CIA agents see threats everywhere, especially in Beirut. They may give you all kinds of unsolicited advice like, \u201cChange up your route every day on your walk home,\u201d as though someone is watching you every second and really gives a fuck to watch you debate over which toilet paper to buy at Co-Op. <\/big>

b. If a visitor to Beirut is this paranoid and they aren\u2019t a CIA agent, it means they are just obnoxious or high. You can be friends with them if you want, but it means putting up with a lot of whining and stress in the meantime. <\/big>


(Image via quickmeme.com<\/a>)

3. They\u2019re Orientalist to the extreme<\/big><\/big><\/b>

a. Do they act like they think they know everything there is to know about the Middle East, as though early on in life, God handed them the Bible and it was \u201cEverything the White Man Needs to Know About the Middle East\u201d?

But when you think about it, it sounds like they learned everything they know from the second Sex and the City movie and the State Department Travel Warnings?

If so, they may be a spy. <\/big>


(Image via matrixgames.com<\/a>)

b. Or maybe just an asshole. <\/big>
\"\"<\/figure>
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\u201cShe must work for the CIA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":417837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_preview_accessed":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"media-embed-type":[],"class_list":["post-40409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"authorship":[38],"yoast_head":"\nHow To Tell if Someone is a Spy (or just an Asshole) in Lebanon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cShe must work for the CIA.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/40409\/how-to-tell-if-someone-is-a-spy-or-just-an-asshole-in-lebanon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How To Tell if 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