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.”

  • @brucethemoose
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    2 days ago

    The problem is that’s not the Trump they see. They see a hero story told through YouTube, podcasts, angry Facebook/Twitter posts, MSM, Discords and such. It’s immersive. It’s engrossing/triggering enough to turn on family.

    I can’t stop saying it. The root problem is the information environment, and no amount of policy or studying or empathy or signaling or even hardship is going to change squat until that is turned on its head.

    And I’m more militant about that now. Big Tech is beyond fixing, it needs to be fucked up.

    • @[email protected]
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      472 days ago

      You are 1000% correct, half the continent lives in an entirely different reality. That’s why very visibly and loudly protesting and demonstrating at key. It FORCES the dissent into public view where it would otherwise be hidden.

      Anything we can do to fight with their control of the narrative is deeply important.

      • @brucethemoose
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        182 days ago

        Protests can be deprioritized and warped too! Heck, people are turning on their own kids, so what’s protest on TV or the street gonna do? It just confirms what people were served.

        I really hope there’s a tipping point where people pour out of Big Tech, or maybe a giant hack to spur things on.

        • The Quuuuuill
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          102 days ago

          part of the real value of ai bots is it keeps the rubes in the big tech media bubbles by giving them “people” to interact with as REAL people exit

    • @Eldritch
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      242 days ago

      Very few of them are indoctrinated that way. It’s far more Sinister than that. The majority of them I would say get their indoctrination through their local broadcast evening news. The same local broadcast evening news that their parents and grandparents trusted, watched, and relied upon. It’s never been fully trustworthy. But even back then it wasn’t fully owned by Sinclair as it is many places today.

      Attacking them for swallowing the Fox News or whatever online Source hook line and sinker. Only pushes them away. Because that’s not what a lot of them are doing. They aren’t seeking the radicalization out. It’s being permeated throughout their environment without them even trying. Go to some of these places where all local Outlets are owned by sinclair. It’s like stepping into an alternate reality. Where Up Is Down left is Right black is white. And you are the crazy one. Because you don’t believe what they’ve been told. Trump is lionized in daily mandatory propaganda segments. All failings or setbacks are because Democrats, DEI, trans, minorities, or any other groups they don’t have regular contact with.

      It’s easy and a cop out to think these people are stupid. They aren’t. Or are ignoring the information we’ve seen. They haven’t. Through no intent or effort of their own. Their local controlled media has indoctrinated them into a fascist death cult.

      • @lividweasel
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        122 days ago

        “This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.”

        • @Eldritch
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          72 days ago

          Unless we can turn them against their local broadcast stations or plant the concept among them. That their local broadcasters are part of an actual conspiracy. It’s game over.

          IF we can reach them they would be our allies. Unfortunately no one has figured out how to do that. Despite the massive parallels to Nazi Germany 100 years ago. This sort of media control is literally how the Nazi party manufactured support early on. Spinning fantastic lies about minorities to the general public.