cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/28539608
Speculation of Tesla CEO’s possible departure comes as his influence in the administration appears to wane
Elon Musk is reportedly set to leave his government role because he’s tired of the what he sees as a litany of vicious and unethical attacks from the left, according to a report from The Washington Post.
It remains unclear when Musk will depart as head of DOGE; his special government employee status will expire at the end of next month. A person familiar with his thinking told The Post that Musk thinks that his work at DOGE won’t be diminished because of his departure, noting that staffers have already established themselves across a slew of federal agencies.
But speculation of Musk’s possible departure comes as his influence in the administration appears to wane. The New York Times reported last week that the acting commissioner of the IRS was being replaced after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent complained that Musk had his preferred candidate installed without Bessent’s support. Musk has also annoyed other cabinet members by failing to coordinate with them in cost-cutting moves.
See? Bullying fascism works. It’s the only thing that works. Fascism is fought with violence (physical or otherwise) as it’s the only language that it understands.
When an opponent doesn’t care about rules, playing by those rules only puts you at disadvantage.
Except he’s already acquired the data he needs and shipped it over to his Russian handlers.
Bullying power in general as well. Progressives have been too soft on liberals too and always let them run the show. But the reality is it’s always harder to rally people when things seem to be going ok and the crisis is muffled rather than blatantly obvious. Kinda how we never go to the dentist when nothing hurts even though we really shouldn’t wait until it does. Anyway, hope something meaningful comes of this resistance because this fascist stage is still a stage of neoliberalism, like that’s where the root cause is.
Now I find that this all depends on the character of your dentist…
Regular visits to many dentists I have known in my life result in un-necessary procedures, additional pain and lower quality of life in general as compared to if you had just stayed the hell away and taken decent care of your own teeth at home. Yes, this is unethical, but in my life experience 9/10 dentists I have visited are unethical and do push any procedure they think they can sell you, particularly if the procedure is covered by your insurance.
If we could get a “real” dentist rating system going where you could judge them before experiencing the high-pressure sales pitch from authority while you are in the chair under the light, we might make some positive progress. Good dental practices are good for the patients. Un-necessary deep scale cleanings, recession reconstructions, drill and fill of not-really cavities and so many other things have given dentists in general a bad reputation IMO.
You’re right but I wasn’t going for a “dentist = political party” analogy. More like a “get your teeth taken care of = keep power in check through public pressure” analogy (to be clear, only voting doesn’t count as pressure) .
I keep hoping that this cycle will be the one that demonstrates that we need real transparency, real accountability, and real limits of power to screw around in the name of “national emergency.”
Of course, when half the people who vote vote for lunacy, lunacy is what you get.
I know it’s not your point, but you really should go to the dentist regularly, not just when something hurts. Take care of your teeth and they’ll take care of you!
It’s definitely my point! That’s exactly why I used that analogy :)
We should tend to our teeth, our environment and our political environment as well — and they will, as you say, take care of us. The “cavities” in American politics started waaaay before Trump. Trump is when they reached the nerve. (I hope I said that correctly, ESL here.)
We did have a little part in this, but otoh he’s been playing that game for years on his platform, I don’t think it is what drove him out. Him blaming the Left is just - well, it’s what he would do isn’t it?
But now, even MAGA is against him. DOGE is such a blatant fuck-up on all levels, he probably doesn’t even want to do that anymore. It won’t bring his stock back up.
No, they aren’t. Just the other day I saw idiots on Facebook calling for DOGE to come investigate our (Democrat led) county. They think he’s doing great work saving them money.
As I said, idiots.
Yeah. We can assume he gave himself an insane amount of extra cash through his access (like the surprising-wink-wink gov contracts his companies have now), but we don’t know truly know how much and he’d be stupid to let anybody know.
He has to get the fuck out now though because obviously him gaining a few more billions cost the american state + public hundreds of billions in long-term damage, if not trillions. It also made swaths of the american government dysfunctional, things like veteran aid etc.
I think the first step is to stop calling out disinformation when it’s against Drump and Co, let that shit ride
Indeed, we’re trying to win back our freedom, not medals for best behavior.
FINALLY!!! Someone who GETS IT!!!
I said something similar in November, and had my comment removed, after being downvoted.
Peaceful protests don’t work. Raging infernos do.