Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

GSA Eliminates 18F

nextgov.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 495 posts

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#261

Post by YZF »

dashundchen wrote: post #229
j_san wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that far-left was primarily only written because of the tax returns. I followed some links in the article and came to this twitter thread which might explain where that notion comes from: https://x.com/lukerosiak/status/1885523747425399247 (Disclaimer: I don't live in the US and don't want to take any political stance with this)

Far-left is having some affinity groups at work, hiring people who happen to be queer, and being inclusive to people with disabilities? The right is deranged with intolerance. All the talk about "free speech" and they can't stand that someone might not think or act like them. The "anti-woke" crusaders are honestly more unbearable than any social justice warrior type I've met because they will not shut up about it and…

As far as I can tell all these groups never shut up and it colors their entire life. Far left and far right is just a circle, the join at the same extreme.

What we need is a center. Just stuff that makes sense. The problem is our "sense" has been under attack we've basically collectively lost it.

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#263

Post by alabastervlog »

breadwinner wrote: post #60

Here's the big picture: Only around 3% of total spending is federal payroll. Dismantling of essential services like free tax filing saves very little money. Total annual spending is around $6.75 trillion, of which only around $210 Billion is spent on federal payroll (not including military and postal workers). All these cuts are intended to pay for tax cuts for Elon Musk and his fellow billionaires.

They didn’t bother to cut spending to pay for the last two fiscally-disastrous rounds of big Republican tax cuts. Why do it this time?

No, they’re just trying to wreck the government.

They were pretty open about it during the election.

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#264

Post by skissane »

djur wrote: post #241
janeerie wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly right. Direct File got thrown into the discussion, but it was not the reason that 18F was getting labelled as far-left.

I don't see any evidence that 18F was any more "far-left" than tech workers on average.

The tweet the GP linked – https://x.com/lukerosiak/status/1885523747425399247 – mentioned they wrote a Slack bot to lecture people about using inclusive language.

I don't think that is average for US tech workers. I don't believe the vast majority of US tech firms have such a thing.

I wouldn't call that "far left" myself – although "far left" as used by American conservatives is a pejorative colloquialism whose meaning has shifted from its traditional definition (Trotskyists, Stalinists, Maoists, etc). Not slang I'd use myself but I can understand it.

P.S. If you don't trust a tweet from a right-leaning journalist, here's a page from their own GitHub repo about their bot: https://github.com/18F/charlie/blob/main/InclusionBot.md

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#265

Post by joshuahedlund »

mrtesthah wrote: post #247
jwkpiano1 wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We sure as shit are or there will be civil conflict. Period.

They’ll try to do elections Putin-style where the votes magically all end up being in favor of the incumbent and the opposition party becomes increasingly criminalized.

Elections are run by states, not the federal government. “They” will not be able to control them in this way.

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#266

Post by tac19 »

antonvs wrote: post #259
tac19 wrote: post #242

[flagged]

> We've been told for a long time that the USA is a racist, sexist, illegitimate nation, founded on slavery and stolen land. Would it have helped to instead be told that you have poor comprehension skills and limited understanding of nuance? Because that’s clearly the case if the above quote describes a conclusion that you reached.

Sure. But I can tell you that it was such messaging that helped elect Trump. You can dismiss me as stupid, and all of the electorate that voted for Trump too. But it's not exactly brilliant to configure your messaging only to be properly understood by people as brilliant as yourself.

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#267

Post by Modified3019 »

hayst4ck wrote: post #238

Everyone should watch the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, speak on government workers: We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can’t do all of the rules against our energy industry because the…

“The cruelty is the point”

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#268

Post by djur »

tac19 wrote: post #249
djur wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've been "told" that? Who's been telling you that? I've seen some people on the Internet say it, sure. Why do they matter to you?

If you think the people who support Trump haven't heard this message, then I don't know what to tell you. They have also failed to hear what sounds to them like love-for-country, from the opposite side. We can argue til the cows come home how true it is or not, but it has played a role in what we're seeing unfold.

Many people who support Trump also think that people like me and my friends are child-abusing Satanists, that there are secret underground military bases containing millions of abducted children, that there's hidden "med-bed" technology that cures all disease that They have suppressed, that JFK Jr. is still alive, etc. The people who have promoted these ideas have been boosted by the President and his allies, invited to the White House, given positions of power in his administration, etc.

I don't know why the genuinely irrational, harmful things these people believe somehow means that I shouldn't be angry about immensely worthwhile and beneficial programs being shut down on the whim of an unelected billionaire.

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#269

Post by robwwilliams »

roughly wrote: post #220
nashashmi wrote: post #76

I always thought that 18F would be the inspiration behind DOGE. Instead it seems to have become the opposite

May I offer a proposal here? A great many people would've told you beforehand what DOGE was going to be and do (although I think most of us are a bit shocked about the speed and violence of the thing). I expect you heard some of it ahead of time, too. It may be worth updating your priors on the intents, beliefs, and capabilities of the people involved in this to match this new experience, and to apply those new prior…

Just did this. My spouse told me I was being far too optimistic about this new mis-Administration and the vector toward an Ayn-Randish kleptocracy. No more. I’m in now with people I would have considered conspiracy theorists two months ago.

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#270

Post by Muromec »

hayst4ck wrote: post #238

Everyone should watch the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, speak on government workers: We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can’t do all of the rules against our energy industry because the…

And I though professor Snyder was dramatic about decapitation strike. Trump will for be remembered as Gorbachov of US
Post reply on HN