Scrambling to replace their health insurance and to find new work, some fired federal workers are running into another unexpected unpleasantry: Relatives cheering their job loss.

Summary

Recently terminated federal workers face not only unemployment challenges but also hurtful reactions from family members who support the government cuts.

Luke Tobin, fired from the Forest Service, and Kristin Jenn, whose Park Service job was frozen, describe relatives celebrating their job losses as necessary to “make the government great again.”

Former Park Service employee Riley Rackliffe encountered social media comments calling him a “glorified pool boy” despite his Ph.D.

Some workers report family members unfriending them on social media or dismissing their positions as “waste.”

  • @reddig33
    241•2 days ago

    I don’t talk to those relatives anymore. It’s done wonders for my mental health.

    • @PM_Your_Nudes_Please
      52•2 days ago

      Growing up, I had always heard “brothers fighting on opposite sides of the battlefield” types of stories from the American civil war. I always wondered how people could let it get that bad. Nowadays though…

    • @[email protected]English
      35•2 days ago

      I wonder what the long-term fallout from this massive fracture is going to be… even if we somehow manage to avert catastrophe…

      I don’t think there’s really a way to come back from this whole thing for, like, most people…