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It's astounding that this is crystal clear, and yet you still have people like the sibling commenter trying to find ways of defending Musk. It reminds me of the

It's astounding that this is crystal clear, and yet you still have people like the sibling commenter trying to find ways of defending Musk. It reminds me of the quote comparing Libertarians to cats: > Libertarians are like house cats in that they are convinced of their fierce independence while utterly dependent on a system they don't appreciate or understand People like that shouldn't be allowed to vote. I don't actually believe that, but it's hard to watch Idiocracy happen in real time and watch low-information people cheer it on.

rl3 2y ago
While a lot of us both relate and agree, I’m not sure the rhetoric is helpful here. If the flame wars are kept to a minimum, the submission keeps trending, and awareness rises. This one in particular is very important for the tech community. I think the crux is that too many people are taking what’s being said at face value. The banner of cost cutting and lean government was chosen because it’s hard to argue with, assuming it’s true and done responsibly - which it isn’t. Randomly firing 200 people that worked at NNSA is one of the most profound examples of this, let alone gutting 18F. For anyone paying attention, it’s indeed crystal clear the move is being used to install loyalists while “saving” an amount of money that’s order(s) of magnitude less than the grift they’ve granted themselves, after cutting the very watchdogs setup to stop that kind of grift. Heck, even the word grift is charitable when it’s more like outright brazen corruption. However, convincing everyone of this difficult insofar that it requires them to a) not take these people at face value, and b) swallow the pill that not only were they wrong for trusting said persons in the first place, but they potentially even voted in the administration that’s doing the damage. Getting people to admit that they were wrong, even to themselves, is pretty hard these days. Hopefully it becomes too obvious to ignore, and that process becomes easier when it’s replaced by a feeling of betrayal. Because if there’s one things American love on either side of the aisle, it’s getting angry. 18F was one of the finest examples of a non-partisan agile tech organization that was highly efficient and effective. It was just trashed it for no good reason at all.
- foobarian 2y ago
  It's telling that all the cost cutting is happening in the 1% slice of the pie, not the defense slice of the pie. There be dragons most likely.
  - ryandrake 2y ago
    Exactly. It's like declaring you're going to lose weight and then just trimming your fingernails.
  - rurp 2y ago
    The fact that such an obviously false pretext is being used and accepted by so many followers is one of the most depressing parts of all of this. It is incredibly clear that this is not about saving money or balancing the governments finances, but so many people blindly believe whatever Elon or Trump tells them. At this point I'm not sure there's any limit to what their followers will believe and support, which is extremely chilling.
    - mattgreenrocks 2y ago
      You have to purge the people that are actually mission-oriented because they are not sufficiently subservient. Also, the voting base seems to hate the fact that federal workers tend to enjoy a lot more stability in their job than private sector workers do. What boggles my mind is that the feds were made into political enemies so quickly and the public had zero empathy for the callous method that they were fired in. Meanwhile, in Dec 2024, you didn't see the level of bile aimed at the feds like you see it today. And worse, very few people seem to realize that they've been politically hoodwinked. They'll simply retcon their belief that they've always disliked the feds that much, and their guy is finally giving them their just rewards.
  - mattgreenrocks 2y ago
    Supposedly, the DoD is next. I like to believe they'll end up kicking the proverbial hornets nest by angering the Northrop Grumman/Lockheed/PE firms owning defense contractors, but I'm not optimistic that will deter them.

rl3 2y ago

While a lot of us both relate and agree, I’m not sure the rhetoric is helpful here. If the flame wars are kept to a minimum, the submission keeps trending, and awareness rises. This one in particular is very important for the tech community. I think the crux is that too many people are taking what’s being said at face value. The banner of cost cutting and lean government was chosen because it’s hard to argue with, assuming it’s true and done responsibly - which it isn’t. Randomly firing 200 people that worked at NNSA is one of the most profound examples of this, let alone gutting 18F. For anyone paying attention, it’s indeed crystal clear the move is being used to install loyalists while “saving” an amount of money that’s order(s) of magnitude less than the grift they’ve granted themselves, after cutting the very watchdogs setup to stop that kind of grift. Heck, even the word grift is charitable when it’s more like outright brazen corruption. However, convincing everyone of this difficult insofar that it requires them to a) not take these people at face value, and b) swallow the pill that not only were they wrong for trusting said persons in the first place, but they potentially even voted in the administration that’s doing the damage. Getting people to admit that they were wrong, even to themselves, is pretty hard these days. Hopefully it becomes too obvious to ignore, and that process becomes easier when it’s replaced by a feeling of betrayal. Because if there’s one things American love on either side of the aisle, it’s getting angry. 18F was one of the finest examples of a non-partisan agile tech organization that was highly efficient and effective. It was just trashed it for no good reason at all.

foobarian 2y ago
It's telling that all the cost cutting is happening in the 1% slice of the pie, not the defense slice of the pie. There be dragons most likely.
- ryandrake 2y ago
  Exactly. It's like declaring you're going to lose weight and then just trimming your fingernails.
- rurp 2y ago
  The fact that such an obviously false pretext is being used and accepted by so many followers is one of the most depressing parts of all of this. It is incredibly clear that this is not about saving money or balancing the governments finances, but so many people blindly believe whatever Elon or Trump tells them. At this point I'm not sure there's any limit to what their followers will believe and support, which is extremely chilling.
  - mattgreenrocks 2y ago
    You have to purge the people that are actually mission-oriented because they are not sufficiently subservient. Also, the voting base seems to hate the fact that federal workers tend to enjoy a lot more stability in their job than private sector workers do. What boggles my mind is that the feds were made into political enemies so quickly and the public had zero empathy for the callous method that they were fired in. Meanwhile, in Dec 2024, you didn't see the level of bile aimed at the feds like you see it today. And worse, very few people seem to realize that they've been politically hoodwinked. They'll simply retcon their belief that they've always disliked the feds that much, and their guy is finally giving them their just rewards.
- mattgreenrocks 2y ago
  Supposedly, the DoD is next. I like to believe they'll end up kicking the proverbial hornets nest by angering the Northrop Grumman/Lockheed/PE firms owning defense contractors, but I'm not optimistic that will deter them.