Summary

Elon Musk is facing criticism for targeting Ashley Thomas, a federal climate official, by reposting a right-wing troll’s comment labeling her job as a “fake job.”

Musk’s actions, reminiscent of his past harassment of ex-Twitter employee Yoel Roth, prompted concerns about the safety of federal employees.

This comes as Musk prepares to co-lead Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, aiming to cut $1 trillion from the federal budget, potentially outsourcing roles to private companies.

Critics argue Musk’s tactics intimidate public servants while benefiting billionaire-owned businesses.

    • @givesomefucks
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      641 month ago

      The thing is, it’s already effective…

      VA has scheduled more retirements for December than they’ve ever had in a single month, and that includes 2016. Not unique to them either, it’s up pretty much across the board with all the agencies.

      It’s fucking infuriating because federal employees have some of the strongest unions in the country, but everytime a shit head gets elected, all the senior people with a sense of ethics decide to get out of the way opening up senior positions for people without ethical concerns of the incoming administration.

      As fucked up as it is to say it, shit hasn’t gotten bad enough that people want to fight. They still think they’ll be better off staying out of it.

      If anybody wants one less person in the federal government who will just do whatever trump says and won’t resign when things start to suck (they’re gonna suck). Then be the change you want to see. Don’t let them be the only ones trying to get a spot.

      www.usajobs.gov

      There’s a reason Republicans are constantly trying to get good people to quit federal service.

      • @WoahWoah
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        71 month ago

        I look forward to you taking a government job under a hostile administration with your coworkers constantly looking to make your life hell and get you fired, endangering your career and making financial security impossible. Hopefully you don’t have a family. I appreciate that you’re willing to make this sacrifice for us, @[email protected].

        • JaggedRobotPubes
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          1 month ago

          I didn’t realize the Department Of Giving Up had a presence on lemmy.

          edit: on further inspection, if you check the comment history of this account, you can piece together a picture of a professional wet blanket turned loose by an evil empire to bum a resistance out with low-energy snark.

          I personally recommend a block.

          • @WoahWoah
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            1 month ago

            Right, because pointing out the hypocrisy in asking other people to change their lives and enter government service so you can benefit from it is “giving up.”

            You can’t possibly believe that our choices are to resist a rising fascist theocracy by being a government functionary or else giving up. Don’t be absurd. Talk about being a low-energy, snarky wet blanket. Yeesh.

            Your blocking suggestion is a good one though, so I’ll block you and make things easier for both of us. Good luck out there!

        • @givesomefucks
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          31 month ago

          Hey, for all you know I served in the military under GW, and this isn’t even going to be my first 4 years as a federal employee under trump…

          You do realize there’s a shit ton of people who would fit that…

          Right?

          And that someone who’s lived that life, would often be highly opinionated about politics and tend to often have insights into how shit works? That they would have been a little stressed about this election and spent the run up trying desperately to convince people to take the path most likely to get a Dem in office at every step of the process?

          Like, this is the Internet, I could also just be a dog or an edgy teenager sitting in study hall…

          But what’s the point in you trying to dissuade good people from entering federal service in either case?

          • @WoahWoah
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            1 month ago

            Keep dissembling. 🙄

            • @givesomefucks
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              41 month ago

              Right on bud…

              Have fun spending your time online convincing people not to fight fascism then I guess.

              • @WoahWoah
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                -11 month ago

                Have fun telling people to do the hard work you won’t do but want to benefit from.

                • @Lasherz12
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                  11 month ago

                  You come across as a very unlikable person.

      • @BigPotato
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        11 month ago

        If you’ve applied to several hundred jobs on USAjobs already, even with full veterans preference, you already know you’ll basically need a professional Government resume writer to assist you if you want anything higher than, like, a GS-8.

        • @givesomefucks
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          01 month ago

          Shotgun method.

          Don’t use a one page resume, make it like 5 pages and talk about everything

      • @Homescool
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        -31 month ago

        I don’t know if this is a good enough reason to encourage someone to work for the government. It’s a dead end for good people so you need to play the game, be happy with being a drone, or leave.

        No movement is going to stop the momentum at this point. This reactor is going to have to spin itself faster until it breaks.

        • @givesomefucks
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          31 month ago

          Cool…

          So you think that nothing can be fixed so you personally have given up on fixing things.

          That is your choice, and I won’t try to talk you out of it.

          Can you please show the other side the same decency, and not try to talk them out of doing whatever is possible to fix shit?

          If you’re right it doesn’t matter. If you’re wrong, and shit gets fixed…

          Well, that works out even better for everyone, including yourself.

          If you’re going to disengage, then disengage. Dont hang around trying to talk people into also giving up.

          • @Homescool
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            1 month ago

            Why would I ever advise somebody I care about to enter a field in which they will be completely devoured alive or droned out from the heart out?.

            You need to take care of yourself and your own mental health first before you start entering into endeavors that have very little chance of succeeding. The government is orders of magnitude more powerful than any individual or any group, and has way too much momentum at this point. The only thing we can (practically) do is let it spin until it breaks. We’re not organized to do anything beyond that. Aaron Sorkin set us back 15 years by writing about this stuff like it’s Camelot.

            • @givesomefucks
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              31 month ago

              Same reason you’d support them being a cop or a teacher.

              If good people never go into an important field because there’s assholes or it’s risky, and that just leaves more assholes in important fields.

              You need to take care of yourself and your own mental health first before you start entering into endeavors that have very little chance of succeeding

              https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_

              I hope that helps explain it.

              But four years isn’t as long as it seems, and like I said, I’m not trying to change your mind, but I hope it changes.

              I also hope you stop trying to convince others not to fight, but I’ll never know either.

              • @Homescool
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                1 month ago

                It’s not that I don’t want them to fight it is that their drive to fight this fight is distracting them from the real fight. And every time we engage on this level we ignore the systemic issues. The issues are not gay rights or book burning or taxes. The issue is democracy and money in politics… it is simply impossible to fix any other issue without fixing those two. First, anyone who tries to sell us anything but those two initiatives are not acting in good faith and are being selfish with their personal goal or acting nefariously. Folks who really want to solve the problem will look for the real problem and stop chasing at all of these little triggering red herrings. There are literally hundreds of these issues and none of them matter at the end of the day. Getting good people involved in government is another one of those lies. And it’s interesting you brought up being a cop because that is probably the only profession that is more toxic to good people than politics.

                The whole thing needed a reset for decades. It’s a shame that Trump got to be the one to do it. But the Dems proved they couldn’t handle Trump and they were not ready to lead the country against his handlers. Out maneuvered again and it’s getting embarrassing at this point. Like it or not, Trump is painting with the same brush he used in the election, and it’s still working for him.

  • @adam_y
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    991 month ago

    The fact that he’s going to rinse NASA and no one can stop him despite the obvious conflict is wild.

  • @MrJameGumb
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    621 month ago

    I’d say he’s just finishing his transition to being a full on comic book style supervillain, but honestly Lex Luthor would have more class than this

      • @MrJameGumb
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        201 month ago

        Lately he seems more like Bizzaro to me. He has more power than anyone but he comes across as a dumb meathead now who thinks doing bad things is good so he wants to beat up all the heroes

        • @IphtashuFitz
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          51 month ago

          Captain Chaos and General Disarray, in actual positions of power.

            • @jaybone
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              31 month ago

              In the future Professor Chaos is a cryptobro, so this all makes sense.

        • GladiusB
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          31 month ago

          The hard part is that he speaks better than most of the dumbasses. So he’s the smart dumbass.

          • @Viking_Hippie
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            41 month ago

            …have you ever actually seen Elon Musk speak? 😄

            • GladiusB
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              21 month ago

              Of course! I’m not his target audience.

    • @Viking_Hippie
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      61 month ago

      Fun* fact: Lex Luthor is short for “Lexicon Lutherson”

      *but untrue

      • @jaybone
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        51 month ago

        Lexicon Luther King Jr.

  • karashta
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    341 month ago

    I bet nothing is cut from the hundreds of billions used to murder people around the globe and funnel money into weapons manufacturers pockets

    • @ZoopZeZoop
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      71 month ago

      And the department of Justice… Wait.

  • @Homescool
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    291 month ago

    A trillion? That’s it? That’s literally the budget deficit after Trump’s corporate tax cuts from 35% to 21% (18% to 11% effective) .

    Repeal the TJCA

    What’s next?

    • @APassenger
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      21 month ago

      “Starve the beast” it’s a thing. They weren’t joking.

      Cut taxes and force government to shrink and lose power.

  • @brucethemoose
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    281 month ago

    Well we voted the world’s biggest cyberbully into office, eyes wide open.

    Too bad Melania’s campaign didn’t work…

    • @HonoraryMancunian
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      51 month ago

      Too bad Melania’s campaign didn’t work…

      What’s this referencing?

      • @brucethemoose
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        1 month ago

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_Best

        Be Best was a public-awareness campaign promoted by former First Lady Melania Trump, which focused on well-being for youth and advocating against cyberbullying.

        No, this is not the onion. The irony is unfathomable.

  • @wildcardology
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    151 month ago

    $1 trillion oh wow. That’s the amount the US national debt’s interest for every 100 days.

  • @pyre
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    111 month ago

    the absolute audacity of this piece of shit, who has demonstrated that he has the fakest job on earth, literally doing nothing but scrolling through twitter all day, calling someone else’s job fake. even after sucking up to the president elect the best he got was a fake position on a fake agency that’s not even official. fucking clown.

  • @iAvicenna
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    91 month ago

    he should be tried for mobbing. he probably won’t even go because he thinks he is the real shit

  • @Lasherz12
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    51 month ago

    Privitizing will obviously be more, not less, expensive. These supposed prodigies of wealth generation think creating middlemen is a good call? Elon makes 80% of his money through the government and the rest through stupid investors, I guess he well represents the middleman class.