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I 100% agree. Anyone can use the Sagan quote to justify why they lost. The quote is just used as a fancy way of calling people with different views stupid. "So

I 100% agree. Anyone can use the Sagan quote to justify why they lost. The quote is just used as a fancy way of calling people with different views stupid. "Society is failing because people are dumber, and thats why they voted for X, when a smart person like me would have voted for Y!"

__loam 2y ago
This is such a reductive view of what happened in 2024. Oligarchs openly supported a political candidate that has attacked experts time and again on things that are provably true because it's inconvenient to their narrative. We know Musk spent hundreds of millions of dollars supporting one side because it was in his interest. Mark Zuckerberg loves that side because they're not going to regulate his objectively harmful platform. Since this administration entered office, it has attacked agencies and organizations that do things like prepare for climate change, educate our children, provide essential Healthcare to 10s of millions of Americans, do basic scientific research, and protect consumers from financial fraud. Even if you get rid of these organizations, climate disasters will still happen (and insurance companies will still pull out of states like Florida and California), kids still need basic education to function in a high technology society, people are still getting sick, China is pulling ahead on public research, and fraudsters are still stealing from the American public. This administration is bad because it's attacking the career public servants and agencies that are a net positive for our society. We get back more than the investment here in innumerable ways. It is stupid to try and dismantle the parts of government that work and work well. So shut the hell up with this if they were smart they would have voted for Y bullshit as if this was ever a good faith alternative to the liberal program the dems ran on.
- xvector 2y ago
  I pay about 50% in taxes. These agencies are a net positive at an unjustifiably high cost. Most tax dollars are wasted/grifted. Have you ever worked at a government contractor? Those that have will laugh at your statements here. $80 screws, $250 staplers, the list goes on. I've had n>1 friends that flipped their political alignment after seeing the sheer wastage here. There is so much wastage and grift going on, and someone needs to come in, shock the system, and reduce it to the bare minimum.
  - __loam 2y ago
    The correct way to do this is through congressional oversight, not through unelected and unaccountable billionaires illegally cutting programs they personally don't like.
    - xvector 2y ago
      Congressional budgetary oversight has been a complete and utter failure for anything budget related for the past few decades. It is truly a broken and non-functional system that cannot be repaired. I and most other Americans have totally, completely, 100% lost faith in the system. At least Musk is making progress.
freen 2y ago
The United States elected someone who seriously thought drinking disinfectant was a good treatment for COVID. Also “shining a very bright light inside the body”. The obvious response: “it was a joke you humorless liberal!” It was not a joke. 1. It not his style of jokes 2. No one laughed. It was not funny, he said both statements fully straight faced, in a row. 3. As a joke, it’s in incredibly bad taste: people are dying of Covid. Drink disinfectant? Don’t insult my intelligence by trying to claim it was a joke.
AdieuToLogic 2y ago
> I 100% agree. Anyone can use the Sagan quote to justify why they lost. Like I informed the person to whom you replied, the quote has nothing to do with an election. > The quote is just used as a fancy way of calling people with different views stupid. No, it is a quote from an insightful person. Where you took it from there is a form of projection.

__loam 2y ago

This is such a reductive view of what happened in 2024. Oligarchs openly supported a political candidate that has attacked experts time and again on things that are provably true because it's inconvenient to their narrative. We know Musk spent hundreds of millions of dollars supporting one side because it was in his interest. Mark Zuckerberg loves that side because they're not going to regulate his objectively harmful platform. Since this administration entered office, it has attacked agencies and organizations that do things like prepare for climate change, educate our children, provide essential Healthcare to 10s of millions of Americans, do basic scientific research, and protect consumers from financial fraud. Even if you get rid of these organizations, climate disasters will still happen (and insurance companies will still pull out of states like Florida and California), kids still need basic education to function in a high technology society, people are still getting sick, China is pulling ahead on public research, and fraudsters are still stealing from the American public. This administration is bad because it's attacking the career public servants and agencies that are a net positive for our society. We get back more than the investment here in innumerable ways. It is stupid to try and dismantle the parts of government that work and work well. So shut the hell up with this if they were smart they would have voted for Y bullshit as if this was ever a good faith alternative to the liberal program the dems ran on.

xvector 2y ago
I pay about 50% in taxes. These agencies are a net positive at an unjustifiably high cost. Most tax dollars are wasted/grifted. Have you ever worked at a government contractor? Those that have will laugh at your statements here. $80 screws, $250 staplers, the list goes on. I've had n>1 friends that flipped their political alignment after seeing the sheer wastage here. There is so much wastage and grift going on, and someone needs to come in, shock the system, and reduce it to the bare minimum.
- __loam 2y ago
  The correct way to do this is through congressional oversight, not through unelected and unaccountable billionaires illegally cutting programs they personally don't like.
  - xvector 2y ago
    Congressional budgetary oversight has been a complete and utter failure for anything budget related for the past few decades. It is truly a broken and non-functional system that cannot be repaired. I and most other Americans have totally, completely, 100% lost faith in the system. At least Musk is making progress.

freen 2y ago

The United States elected someone who seriously thought drinking disinfectant was a good treatment for COVID. Also “shining a very bright light inside the body”. The obvious response: “it was a joke you humorless liberal!” It was not a joke. 1. It not his style of jokes 2. No one laughed. It was not funny, he said both statements fully straight faced, in a row. 3. As a joke, it’s in incredibly bad taste: people are dying of Covid. Drink disinfectant? Don’t insult my intelligence by trying to claim it was a joke.

AdieuToLogic 2y ago

> I 100% agree. Anyone can use the Sagan quote to justify why they lost. Like I informed the person to whom you replied, the quote has nothing to do with an election. > The quote is just used as a fancy way of calling people with different views stupid. No, it is a quote from an insightful person. Where you took it from there is a form of projection.