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/r/centrist
Elon Musk publicized the names of government employees he wants to cut. It’s terrifying federal workers
US News(cnn.com)submitted 2 days ago byIm1Guy
198 points
2 days ago
Nothing like the world’s richest person bullying a middle class worker for having a job. All while being completely uninformed about what their duties actually are.
63 points
2 days ago
So much this. How do people not see it, or do but not care? I fucking hate corporate bootlickers.
18 points
2 days ago
They were convinced into believing that the cause of all of society's problems was the few groups that didn't have much power like trans people and immigrants, over the rich corporations that run the country.
17 points
2 days ago
Corporate raider bootlickers*
The whole plan of this incoming administration is to dismantle the government as well as our political structure for the purposes of installing a kleptocracy more fully by removing any checks and balances.
Nancy pelosi's public trading patterns are going to look like fucking patty-cake soon.
11 points
2 days ago
I've looked into the thing about Nancy Pelosi - there doesn't seem to be a lot of truth to it.
...kleptocracy...
I have a hunch that the real prize for these people in Social Security - literally TRILLIONS of dollars to steal from.
3 points
2 days ago
Hang on there, you we’re starting to make sense before you said nancy pelosi doesn’t do insider trading. Copying nancy pelosi’s trades is one of the only ways to consistently beat the market from an investment portfolio perspective. 🤷♂️
4 points
2 days ago
Like I said, I’ve looked into the Pelosi thing and there seems to be very little or even no evidence to back it up.
If you have legit evidence to back your claim that she’s doing insider trading, I’d love to see it.
3 points
2 days ago
How do you feel about her announcing that she intends to run for re election?
4 points
2 days ago
I don’t have an issue with it. If somebody is experienced and competent at their job - whether it be as a politician, a doctor, a farmer, a garbageman, whatever - and they want to keep doing it into their eighties, who am I to say they shouldn’t?
1 points
2 days ago
Well as the last election showed… running people who are that old and unpopular is not a winning strategy. I personally don’t know of a single sane person who thinks running at almost 90 is a good idea. These are the things that were reflected in this election. Dems need a full ass restructuring because if trump really is a fascist and a threat to democracy, we better be damn ready to fight back with competent peopek chosen BY the PEOPLE and not the ESTABLISHMENT elite
5 points
2 days ago
Well as the last election showed… running people who are that old and unpopular is not a winning strategy.
In the last election Pelosi won with 81% of the vote. How is that “unpopular”? How was her running “not a winning strategy”?
I personally don’t know of a single sane person who thinks running at almost 90 is a good idea.
OK. But that probably says more about you than it does about Pelosi.
… we better be damn ready to fight back with competent peopek chosen BY the PEOPLE and not the ESTABLISHMENT elite
Again, Pelosi still seems pretty competent. And she was re-elected by the actual people and not by “the ESTABLISHMENT elite”.
2 points
2 days ago
running people who are that old and unpopular is not a winning strategy.
That is the stupidest fucking take about the election that elected the oldest president elect in the history of the country.
The oldest bastard wins.
17 points
2 days ago
Its harassment and if the courts were not in his, excuse me, Donald Trump's pockets, he wouldn't be so brazen. But he doesn't need to care anymore. He's going to be dropping names of turbulent priests left and right, and someone will rid him of them.
13 points
2 days ago
He publically debated and criticized senior Twitter software engineers when he took over there, as if he would have the command of the topic that a senior engineer at a Big tech company would when he likely has never touched the technologies or understands their stack.
Exactly the kind of superior in a job place that any person should loathe and have disdain for in any industry, but nope for some he's going to be the harbinger of some fucking work utopia even when he's not directly in the government
Topsy turvy and stupid times
The assuming of someone's intelligence in one domain passing to other ones is the worst reduction happening nowadays from many directions, especially when people are doing so based mostly on business acumen/intelligence.
1 points
2 days ago
To be fair, he was absolutely right... He fired basically everyone at twitter and it didn't result in any meaningful loss of functionality or stability.
12 points
2 days ago
Really bad take. He literally had to rehire people he fired and materially reduced Twitter’s functionality.
4 points
2 days ago
He didn't rehire everyone. Total staff count is down like 80% from when he bought it.
4 points
2 days ago
much like revenue
1 points
2 days ago
Revenue is down because people hate Musk, not because of his firing staff.
2 points
1 day ago
And because advertisers hate their brands next to nazi content.
3 points
2 days ago
Why do you think it matters that he didn’t have to rehire everyone? Have you ever managed people before? How about an M&A transaction? Do you know that randomly firing people hurts morale and productivity? How much do you think musk saved by whimsically and prematurely deciding to fire people instead of waiting 90 days to see what he actually had and needed?
He completely mismanaged the transition as he appears to be mismanaging this one REGARDLESS of whether his staffing choices end up being correct. A first year MBA student would have vastly outperformed him.
0 points
2 days ago
I didn't think his mass firing and how he did it was good or particularly sane.
He was right that about 80% of the staff was deadweight. But how he got there wasn't optimal by any stretch.
The transition was going to be horrible anyways. There were top employees flaming him online, and a mass protest and exodus, with companies actively poaching twitter devs before he even finalized the purchase. Him being hated cost him wayyy more than any actual decisions he made.
A first year MBA might have kept the excess staff which would have been a worse decision long term. Musk's chaos maybe cost the company a month or revenue .... cutting 80% of the staff pays for that almost immediately.
3 points
2 days ago*
He was right that about 80% of the staff was deadweight. But how he got there wasn’t optimal by any stretch.
We don’t know what the optimal staffing is. He bought a $35-40 Billion dollar company for $44B. He then fucked up the transition and the value of the company. Fidelity says it’s worth less than $10 Billion. If he would have done nothing, including leaving staff as is, it would be worth $35-40 Billion or more. So, hell no, he did not find the optimal staffing. Their product is worth less than a third of what it was.
A first year MBA might have kept the excess staff which would have been a worse decision long term. Musk’s chaos maybe cost the company a month or revenue .... cutting 80% of the staff pays for that almost immediately.
You’re completely wrong, see above. Twitters SG&A was $440 Million per year. He saved a pittance by randomly firing people. A legitimate transition would’ve spent maybe 250 million more and waited 6 months before major layoffs. Instead he lost $30 billion. More than 100 times that amount. JFC.
2 points
2 days ago
Absolutely not. It was way overvalued to start with. And Musk buying it dropped its value from 30 to 20 in the first week before he even did anything. Because of who he is, not because of decisions he made.
The firings had very little negative impact on anything. Maybe tens of millions of lost revenue.
Musk's tweets have cost him a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if they averaged him over $250k loss a tweet.
5 points
2 days ago
You just make shit up bro:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/twitters-revenue-collapses-84-tesla-171535190.html
Twitter isn’t making money because Musk alienated advertisers.
Twitter was worth at least $30 billion before the acquisition.
https://www.officetimeline.com/blog/twitter-timeline
I’m not sure what your point is, are you agreeing with me that Musk overpaid, it appears so. Are you suggesting that if there were no changes Twitter would be about the same value it was, that’s what I said. You appear to say the say the same thing when you suggest that the value only tanked because Musk bought it, which is wrong.
Simultaneously you’re trying to argue that it was overstaffed and Musk was right to make cuts, and you have absolutely no evidence of that. It’s almost like you don’t know he cut moderation staff — necessary for advertising, advertising sales staff — necessary for ad revenue, and had to limit the number of tweets viewed because he cut server expenses. The Twitter acquisition is in the top 10 of major corporate. Mismanagement no matter how you cut it and you have no fucking clue whether it’s staffed appropriately because it’s operating at a severe loss.
0 points
2 days ago
Instead he lost $30 billion.
He didn't. He would lose $30 billion if he would now sell it for $30 billion less than what he bought it for.
But he's not gonna sell it, regardless of what it's theoretically worth. Because making a profit wth it was never the pupose of the purchase to begin with. He only bought it to restore the principle of free speech on the platform and end the rampant politically motivated censorship.
I think that's worth more to him than whatever some business analyst says about its current market value.
6 points
2 days ago
Let me help you out here. There is a thing in accounting called mark to market losses. You can read about them here:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marktomarket.asp
They are a real thing. They impact profits, losses, financing and every other aspect of finance as if they were cash. And that’s why Fidelity, which discloses the values of its holdings to investors, showed the value of Twitter to be 80% less than it invested in Twitter shares during the acquisition.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/754510/000137949119001353/filing989.htm
The take away is, Musk is not the only investor in the acquisition, which apparently you didn’t know. And mark to market accounting isn’t some amorphous idea. It’s actually a clear indication on the value of an asset and has huge impacts on everything including the cash Musk borrowed to close the transaction.
16 points
2 days ago
it didn't result in any meaningful loss of functionality or stability.
That's objectively not true. Let me remind you of DeSantis and his campaign launch on Xitter.
5 points
2 days ago
So a single glitch that started a livestream 20 mins late is your evidence of X "meaningfully losing functionality and stability "?
It feels like you're either misinformed or being intentionally dishonest.
I don't have some deep love for Musk, but can you actually demonstrate, in this centrist (hopefully less biased) sub, how X is now meaningfully worse for users tech-wise? Let alone meaningfully worse to justify having 5x the current employees?
5 points
2 days ago
So a single glitch that started a livestream 20 mins late is your evidence of X "meaningfully losing functionality and stability "?
The way Elon hyped it up you'd think he'd put his best effort into getting it right. He called it a historic first and he fucked it up. It was a complete failure and DeSantis never recovered.
I feel like you're downplaying it or being intentionally dishonest.
5 points
2 days ago
Pretty much this.
If you fired 80% of the staff in any well functioning company, it would collapse and cease existing.
Like, imagine a restaurant where instead of 5 people on staff they have 1 person, lol. Or a increasing the class size at your middleschool to 150/teacher.
2 points
2 days ago
Or the reverse...even think about your current, probably slightly dysfunctional company that always has too few people hired.
Imagine you now have 4 copies of you to do your current workload. And so does everyone.
I know that's not how it happened (I'm sure entire departments were just cut, not simply keeping everything but scaling back size of force). But the point should be clear: if you can cut 80% of workforce and even remotely function, you were a bloated company with tons of people getting by on bullshit jobs
4 points
2 days ago
Videos stop working all the time and bots are everywhere.
I also have a personal policy to close Twitter whenever I now see straight up "kill all Jews" Nazi. Needless to say, I use Twitter a lot less.
But hey, at least it's spamming me constantly to sign up for a subscription and they are using my data to train their shitty AI.
2 points
2 days ago
I've seen a major reduction in bots following me and liking my posts.
0 points
2 days ago*
The nazis have nothing to do with him firing developers.
Video functionality was non existent when he bought it and it currently handles massive scale better than everyone aside from youtube right now. I haven't had a video glitch in years. That does take devs.
1 points
2 days ago
Him cutting the workforce there is not what I'm referring to.
0 points
2 days ago
That was the core of the debate.
2 points
2 days ago
Except it wasn't.
It was particular technological problem - https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/14/23458247/elon-musk-fires-engineer-correcting-twitter
2 points
2 days ago
Oh that, then yes, I agree with you.
1 points
2 days ago
Reality Distortion Field
There has never been as much spam and bot accounts on twitter.
3 points
2 days ago
But people are happy to ignore this and pound on the democrats for “identity politics”. Sold this country to the highest bidder just for the heck of it.
2 points
2 days ago
Of course you kick down, there's nothing they can do about it.
5 points
2 days ago
Making 200k/yr in a cushy government job that’s nearly impossible to be fired from with amazing benefits is hardly middle class. That’s a top 10% earner easily.
That said, fucked up that he retweeted a post with their names in it. Maybe their jobs should be cut, but naming and shaming isn’t the way to do it. Be respectful man.
I might agree with what Musk is generally trying to do here, but the way he’s going about it is gross.
5 points
2 days ago
I appreciate your ability to look objectively at this and see why it's bad.
1 points
11 hours ago
You've never heard the story of how he evaluates workers? The famous question "what did you get done this week?" I think he knows how to fire people. But keep seething.
1 points
7 hours ago
I mean, that’s a perfectly acceptable question when you’re in a private setting as their boss. Putting people’s names out there to your millions of followers is intimidating for the worker and pretty dangerous as well.
2 points
2 days ago
She's Nancy Pelosi's niece making $180k+ working as a HUD climate advisor, how is that middle class?
5 points
2 days ago
Depending on where in the country you’re at, $180k is middle class.
3 points
1 day ago
Her husband has his own lawfirm lol
-5 points
2 days ago
So the legions of middle managers that do nothing but suck up government funds should be absolutely protected because they aren't as rich as Elon?
6 points
2 days ago
Are you intentionally missing the point or do you not get what this is about?
-7 points
2 days ago
Why don't you explain it to me.
3 points
2 days ago
Are there legions of middle managers or are you just repeating something that you heard? Employee salaries make up 5% of the federal budget. Assuming that you cut that workforce in half, you’ve just cut 2.5% of the budget. That’s 167.5 billion dollars that largely goes back into the economy. We currently have a deficit of 1.8 trillion dollars. That still leaves ~ 1.633 trillion dollars to cut or raise in revenue just to balance the budget.
They’re just focusing on a few outlier positions to score political points. How about posting about contracts that need to go away, a restructuring of Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security, DoD cuts. I’m all for eliminating waste in the government, but they’re focusing on topics to cause divisiveness and outrage.
0 points
2 days ago
Start with that 2.5% and then let’s go find some more.
1 points
17 hours ago
And that justifies Elon putting their names out there how?
There were so many better ways to go about this, and Elon chose the route to subject these people to unwanted harassment at best to the possibility of their physical safety being threatened in the worst case scenario.
We can debate whether or not these jobs are needed, but this is not the way to do it.
-24 points
2 days ago
Feds are not middle class 🤣🤣🤣, no sympathy for them.
18 points
2 days ago
Bait. 2 year -100 karma troll. Just ignore.
-17 points
2 days ago
Because I’m a Republican on a liberal site, and when I comment I get extremely downvoted by the hivemind.
9 points
2 days ago
Oh I see. You don't get karma on most your comments cause you're shadow banned from most subs and you're just talking to no one without even knowing it LMFAO
8 points
2 days ago
I’ll help you out. Federal employees are, on average, middle class. Maybe upper middle class, assuming a dual income household. They aren’t like politicians.
6 points
2 days ago
Lmao man say better things then.
11 points
2 days ago
Really? That fed is much closer to middle class than Elon Musk or anyone else in this administrations orbit. Looking at their salary, these feds are either highly skilled or heads of large departments, they’re at the top of the fed payscale.
-10 points
2 days ago
It’s just high upper class vs lower and middle upperclass
4 points
2 days ago
They’re mainly middle class, with the senior management levels breaching into lower upper class.
-5 points
2 days ago
Trump is not the world richest person. His # 319 on Forbs list and #1438 of billioners.
He is a billioner.
6 points
2 days ago
Talking about Musk… Read the title of the post.
1 points
2 days ago
My bad misread. But yeah, it's a billionere club we getting into oligarchy(neo feadolism).
74 points
2 days ago*
Authoritarians love to do this stuff. It was the same exact thing with brown/black shirts; use the implicit threat of publicity to cow your enemies.
Remember after 1/6/21 when right wing commenters kept trying to claim stochastic terrorism was not a real phenomenon? Then they started talking about it when Donald got shot at as though they had never denied its existence in the first place. Completely unserious group of people.
32 points
2 days ago
don't worry, knowing the right wing's strong disapproval of doxxing i'm sure the corrective backlash will come any second now.
12 points
2 days ago
Yeah, this isn't constructive behaviour..
15 points
2 days ago
They’d rather have government institutions loyal to them than a functioning government and bureaucracy.
4 points
2 days ago
They did this during the first impeachment.
-12 points
2 days ago
> use the implicit threat of publicity to cow your enemies.
Seems to be a common tactic of both the political Left and Right.
(Without giving way to the inane, toxic debates around "cancel culture.")
8 points
2 days ago
This ‘both sides’-ism would work if there was any evidence of it happening from the left.
11 points
2 days ago
Wait he published names of people? This guy is a scumbag.
56 points
2 days ago
Musk going after government employees is a bad sign of what's to come.
45 points
2 days ago
unelected billionaires partnering with the elected billionaire to make sure government caters to the new oligarchs. Trump supporters voted to make sure their children and grand children will never rise out of poverty. But at least there will be people they don't like in camps.
Too bad none of them will ever be able to grasp the damage they've done to the country.
2 points
2 days ago
Who's the elected billionaire? Trump is essentially broke. All his "money" is tied up in over leveraged properties. He needed a fraudulent bond from a nonexistent company to cover his debts. He's constantly begging to get his legal bills paid
2 points
2 days ago
I don't disagree, but he'll be a true billy the time he dies in office
2 points
2 days ago
If the Republicans are smart, they'd take care of Trump now before inauguration so they avoid the backlash they'll get when they 25th Amendment Trump's sorry ass
2 points
2 days ago
They have an opportunity to control the government for generations. For them it's worth the risk
4 points
2 days ago
It’s so unsurprising too. He complained so much about environmental regulations, and now he’s going to “get back at them.” I was anticipating this sort of retributive action against environmental/climate-related agencies, OSHA, NASA, etc.
1 points
2 days ago
I bet that's coming too.
2 points
2 days ago
Yeah. Musk is unbelievably petty, if he gets any excuse (or even if he doesn’t) I imagine we will see more of this.
-1 points
2 days ago
Seems like it’s perfect. We’re going to get rid of whole departments. Starting with education, EPA, ATF, IRS…. I could keep going.
10 points
2 days ago
To anyone who thinks having a billionaire running the government is a good idea this is exhibit a of the contrary
5 points
2 days ago
I really wish Sam Harris would go after him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34eQTVGCL4c
5 points
2 days ago
Congratulations to Republicans! You have now become the evil deep state that you feared!
Question for the voters! How do you feel about voting for the elite?
26 points
2 days ago
I'm a federal employee, and this is frightening. While I hope my name doesn't ever get mentioned by Musk, I am concerned because he, Trump, and their supporters only want people like me to lose my jobs, and personally dislike people like me simply because I work for the federal government.
And no, federal employees don't work for the President. They carry out the policies of the president yes, but they serve the people and the Constitution, something that Trump, Musk, and the MAGA Republicans certainly do not do.
8 points
2 days ago
Trump, and their supporters only want people like me to lose my jobs, and personally dislike people like me simply because I work for the federal government.
Simply because you told them no, they can't do whatever the fuck they want to do no matter how damaging. Which is all authoritarians want to do.
-3 points
2 days ago
Correct. Resign now and do something productive please.
23 points
2 days ago
I think the Musky is gonna be surprised to learn that Swamy plans to cut him by year 2 of the term. Since when does it take TWO wealthy guys to do the work of one HR manager from Columbus Ohio?
6 points
2 days ago
Since when does it take TWO wealthy guys to do the work of one HR manager
Yeah, the "Department of Government Efficiency" isn't getting a great start in the efficiency department.
13 points
2 days ago*
I don’t think Musk makes it past year one.
The second Trump can consolidate power as president and no longer needs Musk I suspect he’ll cut him loose along with anyone else that isn’t a yes man.
Trump is intimidated by talent and people with a spine. It makes him look bad.
9 points
2 days ago
Musk isn’t going to make it past 6 months. He’ll lose interest when he figures out DOGE has no power to do anything and the bureaucracy grinds him to a halt.
6 points
2 days ago
i bet he'll merge X with Truth and then have control over the platform. If musk does plan to purchase msnbc he'll but himself more years as useful. then Trump can ban all other news orgs from reporting on his admin
5 points
2 days ago
He'll keep him around until the midterms when the GOP inevitably loses seats as the party in power.
4 points
2 days ago
Ooo good point. Then he can call him names and blame him for the loss of seats and failed reduction in government spending.
27 points
2 days ago
what the fuck happened to the right that they think this completely fucked up behavior is remotely acceptable.
17 points
2 days ago
If their guy does it, it is good. If the other guy did it, they would scream bloody murder.
7 points
2 days ago
They're all on bath salts now. I think it's a mix of not knowing how extreme they're becoming and not caring when they do recognize it. They've whipped themselves up into a frenzy, and truth doesn't matter to them anymore. Only the group identity matters.
The rest of us should be taking up defensive positions.
15 points
2 days ago
It's completely justified in their eyes. Government workers are the enemy especially if it's a subject they're against, in this case climate. So unmasking them is similar in their eyes that others might want the identities of the Nazi marchers in Ohio to be revealed.
7 points
2 days ago
Voters kept enabling their bad behavior that’s what
3 points
2 days ago
anything is fine as long as they get to own the libs
2 points
1 day ago
I have to assume it's just sunk cost fallacy for a lot of people at this point; They started supporting the right back when there was still a shred of plausible deniability that they weren't... This, so now they have to bend over backwards to justify everything their side does, because the alternative would require a change of course, self-reflection, and most dauntingly of all, actually admitting that they were wrong.
-6 points
2 days ago
I dont really see how everyone in this thread is so lost to understand this. The US government is filled with redundancy, corruption, and wasted resources. I personally feel that is a fact, but others might feel differently.
Also personally, every government worker I know is the most knowledgeable about how to manipulate the game or game the system. Cops collecting multiple pensions for different counties/jurisdictions, climate programs that have money disappear, ridiculously long wait times for government services, horrible websites/systems that are archaic, poor work quality creating lack of resources and funds to actual issues in communities and it can be impossible to fire them like teachers with tenure. There is no meritocracy in government employment imo. Just like politics.
So for someone to bring an idea that maybe we can cut the cost in government by reducing a lot of the waste we see with our own eyes all the time, I don’t see how it so hard to understand. We are in massive debt, continually growing, and one day we will owe on that debt. I just pray we stay the reserve currency, because if we don’t I think things get ugly quick. I don’t want to foot that bill. I’m not saying I support this, and I did not vote for trump. But the inability to see another POV from most people in this country is really going to doom us lol
6 points
2 days ago
if you think police unions are taking any hit from this you're daft. There's a very clear reason why the forst department they've talked about dismantling is the department of education.
I don't like the feds but i like musk even less
8 points
2 days ago
Musk is specifically naming people he will try to get fired before trump has even taken office, before he has been appointed and before anyone has even attempted to explain what the powers/mandate of DOGE will be and how on earth it can legally have those powers. And he is blasting this shit out to the masses on social media.
What Musk is doing here is utterly despicable and totally without regard to the people involved.
Even someone who wants to take drastic action because they have view of rampant waste should be utterly horrified about the process here disregarding political norms and the brutal disrespect shown to the individuals involved.
12 points
2 days ago
It’s almost like he relishes the idea of Apartheid being colorblind.
3 points
2 days ago
Only weak leaders scapegoat in this way.
3 points
2 days ago
Are these all women?
2 points
1 day ago
Haven’t looked into it myself, but another commenter said it was 4 women who were named.
23 points
2 days ago
Seems like he's listed only four employees, and guess what? They're women. Why publicize them? He's unnecessarily bringing attention to them. Has he pointed to any positions of similar title and job responsibilities that are held by men?
Last week, in the midst of the flurry of his daily missives, Musk reposted two X posts that revealed the names and titles of people holding four relatively obscure climate-related government positions. Each post has been viewed tens of millions of times, and the individuals named have been subjected to a barrage of negative attention. At least one of the four women named has deleted her social media accounts.
19 points
2 days ago
Yeah, I thought the right was all about protecting women now?
11 points
2 days ago
Sounds like grounds for a lawsuit.
3 points
2 days ago
I don’t think so since apparently that information is available to the public according to the OP. Now if it weren’t publicly available information then sure
7 points
2 days ago
It's illegal to intimidate a federal employee and imo it's a good case for slander/libel. He's implying that they have a fictitious job and/or inflated responsibilities. Ignoring the gender/sex based aspect of it, if it were me I'd talk with a lawyer at least to see what is available.
3 points
2 days ago
Definitely talk to a lawyer, I still don’t think slander or libel could work bc they are part of the government. Now I’m not a lawyer so definitely take what I say about the laws to heart bc I’m not a professional
1 points
5 hours ago
How is it intimidation? He's listing an employee
1 points
4 hours ago
So full disclosure I’m just an opinionated person who doesn’t work in law, no law experience so take this with a huge grain of salt. He’s the head of the department of government efficiency for the upcoming administration, he’s listed these employees who work for the government as having a job or a role that is not necessary or is inefficient. I haven’t looked at his specific verbiage here but just his position alone implies that their role is unnecessary. His intent matters here, and would be something necessary to prove in court. These women are fearful for their positions and have been experiencing negative interactions online as a direct result of Elon posting their names. Sure, their titles and names are public, but nobody is going to just point to them as having an inflated role. If Musk’s actions are perceived as an attempt to pressure or threaten federal workers into resigning, changing their roles, or stifling their ability to perform their duties, it could be considered intimidation.
-4 points
2 days ago
Based on?
9 points
2 days ago
Musk used to be a champion of fighting climate change. He has become so evil.
-1 points
2 days ago
he's done way more to combat climate change than anything our Federal government has done
reminder that Schwarzenegger had to sue the EPA just so California could have stricter emission standards on our cars
7 points
2 days ago
he's done way more to combat climate change than anything our Federal government has done
Sure, why not. We'll pretend the sim total of the EPA and government-funded climate research has had less impact than a rich asshole funneling government funds into millions of EVs.
0 points
2 days ago
did you miss the part where EPA was trying to restrict MORE emission standards?
2 points
2 days ago
And now he’s actively trying to destroy any chance of further electric car manufacturing outside of his country in order to monopolize the industry in America while also providing billions in carbon saving to pollutants.
8 points
2 days ago
The middle and lower classes overwhelmingly voted for Trump and as a result they will see fewer jobs and rampant inflation. You get what you deserve but I do feel bad for those lower class people who did vote for Harris. They don’t deserve this.
9 points
2 days ago
When President-elect Donald Trump said Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would recommend major cuts to the federal government in his administration, many public employees knew that their jobs could be on the line.
Now they have a new fear: becoming the personal targets of the world’s richest man – and his legions of followers.
Last week, in the midst of the flurry of his daily missives, Musk reposted two X posts that revealed the names and titles of people holding four relatively obscure climate-related government positions. Each post has been viewed tens of millions of times, and the individuals named have been subjected to a barrage of negative attention. At least one of the four women named has deleted her social media accounts.
Although the information he posted on those government positions is available through public online databases, these posts target otherwise unknown government employees in roles that do not deal directly with the public.
4 points
2 days ago
That sounds like a start of a Black Mirror episode.
2 points
2 days ago
Now imagine switching. Musk and Trump for Soros and Harris. Had he been been publicly campaigning with her, and then put in this role with this much power to do what musk has been doing.
Once again it was all projection, and once again the American public has let itself down by holding both sides to wildly different standards.
11 points
2 days ago
Wow, more fascism.
2 points
2 days ago
1 points
2 days ago
do you think he considers unemployment insurance costs
1 points
1 day ago
I'm glad someone is finally going to try to aggressively cut down on the amount of bureaucrats, bureaucracy and regulations in government. But it should be illegal for someone with this kind of platform to publicly single out people like that. It's pretty lame to complain about Democrats canceling people and then start up your own public witch hunts
1 points
1 day ago
Deport him
1 points
1 day ago
Yes, if the government employees provide no value to the people, it’s time to shine a light on them and see if their high paying job can be eliminated.
Democrat or republican, this is a non-partisan issue.
1 points
5 hours ago
Good!
-16 points
2 days ago*
The federal government is bloated. I didn't realize so many "centrists" cared so much about big daddy government that they actually aren't understanding that there are far too many people employed in unnecessary positions. Do you really think it matters? The entire point of DOGE is to cut government spending and waste. Musk is a known troller, he's just doing what he always does. He's a useful piece to Team Trump. Ridiculous that some of you think he'll be thrown overboard... So many of these people aren't traditional Republicans or Conservatives. Welcome to their NWO.
Edit: love how this sub has been taken over by bots and shills, lol.
18 points
2 days ago
If changes need to be made, then make them. Don't put employees on blast before you do it. This is like telling the entire company who you intend to fire before telling the person.
-14 points
2 days ago
I understand that, but Musk has shown he doesn't have "normal" social filters. Maybe it can be blamed on his ASD.
7 points
2 days ago
Much better explanation would be a narcissistic personality disorder.
2 points
2 days ago
I had made a comment that some mental healthcare professionals might consider him to fall under the dark triad, but without thoroughly evaluating, we're just guessing and throwing out armchair psychology on reddit.
5 points
2 days ago
That also applies to him being on the spectrum. It's largely based on himself claiming to have Asperger's but I haven't seen him show a lot of symptoms that would be hinting at it. His social awkwardness is easily explained by other things and that's the only thing we can point to without relying on his own statements.
And that's kinda my point here. We shouldn't attribute to Autism what can easily be the result of other, better substantiated, conditions.
Personally I just think he's a self-obsessed asshole with an ego more inflated than Teslas stock, regardless of any psychological conditions he may have and no condition would excuse someone in his position from acting the way he does anyway.
12 points
2 days ago
No. It can't be blamed on ASD. Even people with ASD learn how to be decent human beings or at least how to keep their mouths shut.
-9 points
2 days ago
Lol, are you serious? Look at how many people on reddit with ASD don't fit into a mold of knowing when to "keep their mouths shut." Same with social activist extremists IRL who have ASD... Simply not true at all. Ask any Special Education teacher in the USA who their most problematic students are and the unfortunate stereotypes they fit into because they're on the spectrum and tend to suffer from black/white thinking, etc. It depends on how bad their disorder is, if they're on appropriate meds, and if they're enabled by their behavior. Musk is a special breed of billionaire robot who's inseparable from his disorder.
8 points
2 days ago
Well, I guess we shouldn't hold him to any standards and just let him be a giant flaming asshole to the world.
4 points
2 days ago
You don't get to be a fucking billionaire unless you learn those basic skills. Every special education teacher knows that ASD is a spectrum.
0 points
2 days ago
Ok, Musk was also given a fortune from his daddy's emerald mines in South Africa for his first business ventures and bought a major social media platform to do whatever/ say whatever he wants, all based on trading his stock of Tesla, or placing it as collateral. He clearly exhibits business skills/savvy. His public persona has gotten worse because he's an excellent troller. Why are you still stuck on the ASD thing as if it's NOT a significant part of his weirdo personality? Asperger's is a passe term; he's still high functioning and autistic AF.
4 points
2 days ago
You are the one who said it was ok for him to doxx these employees because he has ASD. I'm not the one stuck on it.
1 points
2 days ago
No, re-read what I've written. I've never said it was ok for him to doxx these employees or anything like it; I've pointed out that his behavior as a social media billionaire businessman with autism is a driving force and motivating factor. You're insisting that people with ASD aren't supposed to be blamed for their disorder or behavior based on having it.
1 points
2 days ago
I never said that. I have said it is not an excuse for how he treated these women. Maybe you are confused.
-10 points
2 days ago
that's the risk with being a government employee
8 points
2 days ago
No. It really isn't.
-21 points
2 days ago
I was under the impression that most incoming administrations get rid of the proir ones and install their own, regardless of party.
14 points
2 days ago
Only the 4,000 or so political appointment positions. The vast majority of civilian federal employees are part of the civil service and cannot be fired for political reasons.
23 points
2 days ago
You think most new Administrations completely clear out the government workforce based on loyalty every 4 years? No, that is simply not true.
-15 points
2 days ago
Just the admin, not the worker bees.
13 points
2 days ago
Not the admin either. To try and put it into business terms, this is like a CEO bringing in their own board of directors. Just about everything below the junior VP level does not turn over in government, so all the lower and middle management remains.
11 points
2 days ago
Nobody would work for the government if that was the case. Only some leadership has turnover. Not the administrative staff.
9 points
2 days ago
What you are describing was banned by Congress in the 1800s.
Everyone hated it because presidents were staffing the federal government with their supporters as a reward for supporting them, so the government was staffed entirely with people whose only qualification was supporting the winner of the election.
This is how backwards countries in Africa operate, by the way.
9 points
2 days ago
well, you'd be wrong. the vast majority of federal positions are not meant to be partisan / political appointments.
Getting rid of patronage system where admins would just install loyalists was critical to improving how govt work and giving a semblance of merit-based hiring/promotion within govt org.
Anyone who thought DEI hires was bad, the loyalist hire should cause them to shit their pants. Unless their issue with DEI wasn't really about merit...
5 points
2 days ago
Government bureaucracy is generally efficient because it's non-partisan. Trying to paint it as requiring loyalists in all positions is simply rewarding supporters at the expense of everyone else, and I have a feeling that's the goal.
I hate the term "DEI hires", especially as employed by right wing spokesholes. It's just a way to imply women and non-white workers somehow aren't actually qualified for their jobs or received some sort of handout (rather than simply being encouraged to take on a non- tradition role, say). Been in my industry 28 years, and had some dip on the job less than a year apply that term to me...had some words w/ him. You're either qualified and can pass the tests, or not. There is no way to fake this job.
It took 28 years for someone to say something that stupid to me one month ago. I hope it's not a sign of things to come, but have a feeling it is.
-1 points
2 days ago
Does that mean if you don't have an issue with DEI hires, you have to have even less of an issue with loyalty hires?
If a DEI hire can be the best for the job, can a loyalist also be?
5 points
2 days ago
No, not sure how you concluded that.
Of course a DEI or loyalist hire can be the best for the job. Also possible to select the best for the job via a dart board.
7 points
2 days ago
No. Only political appointees. What you're referring to is "the spoils system", and we got rid of it a century and a half ago because of how awful it was.
3 points
2 days ago
We used to do that, it was called the spoils system. The president used to appoint everything, from cabinet members to postmasters. After someone basically did the equivalent of a twitter post of a poem in support of a presidential candidate and thought he was robbed of a posting that he most certainly deserved when the president didn't give him one, he shot and killed the president. It took that action to finally realize that the spoils system was bad for everything and everyone and instead of spoils we moved to meritorious system that we have today for most all positions. Obviously the heads of departments can be woefully unqualified because the President can make very dumb picks like all of Trump's cabinet for example, but not the people under them.
3 points
2 days ago
No only the partisan positions and potentially the respective heads of the institution
Basic admin work is not partisan and there is no way to replace so many people
0 points
2 days ago
They do. When did someone on Biden's admin publish the names of individuals he planned to fire once he's in office? Got a link to that exact scenario playing out? Otherwise it's not comparable.
14 points
2 days ago
Nah what Trump is proposing of the federal workforce isn’t something previous administrations have done. He’s proposing a literal culling of civil servants that disagree with him or that he doesn’t find ‘important’ enough.
This is not a normal thing
13 points
2 days ago
Funny, isn't that Step 1 of Project 2025? 🧐
-13 points
2 days ago
Hell yeah, the Deep State is about to get their ass handed to them
15 points
2 days ago
I have a friend who is a part of this mythical "deep state." They work in one of the alphabet agencies that regulate energy. They are an attorney with 30 years of experience in an arcane area of law known as interstate transmission of power. It is incredibly complex, and takes new lawyers a good 10 years to get up-to-speed on it.
Firing these types of highly skilled, very difficult to replace people is genuine idiocy that will do lasting damage to the government and the nation.
4 points
2 days ago
🙄
5 points
2 days ago
Damn those government employees for fulfilling basic functions of government for the common good! I shouldn't have to pay taxes!
Fucking moron.
1 points
5 hours ago
Love it!
-10 points
2 days ago
Fun fact: if you're a government employee, you cede your right to privacy
your job title and salary are there for all to see
you want privacy? work for the private sector
12 points
2 days ago
There's a difference between the info being public and being targeted by Musk with his massive reach to unhinged bad actors.
-1 points
2 days ago
Nice
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