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DOGE staffer resigns over racist posts

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Re: DOGE staffer resigns over racist posts

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Threats of violence is what drives all those inexplicable last minute vote changes in congress, simple as that.

The Musk+Trump duopoly seems insurmountable. Trump has an a cult like hold on the Republican Party and Musk has enough money + Twitter to control the narrative/scare politicians in line to convince enough independents to keep them in power. Our only hope is that the Cheeseburgers and high cholesterol gets the best of Trump. And that Democrats grow a spine.

What you're not mentioning the personal and intellectual flaws of these idols and their followers, and the tens, if not hundreds of millions of people in the US, and billions all over the world. How the chances "seem" right now is rather moot and very likely to be wrong one way or another; historians can say that later on. It is what it is now. It's not like you're suggesting to invest energy into A rather than B, so instead of idly musing about chances of success, try to focus on what increases them.

Re: DOGE staffer resigns over racist posts

#82
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like to believe that those are just intellectually lazy labels. Are you sure it's not 100% accurate to say that Musk and Hegseth are neo-Nazis? Or that we are headed straight for new American Holocaust against Hispanics and a race-fueled third world war? I want that to be hysterical paranoia or "intellectually lazy labels". But look at the historical parallels.

[flagged]

> What is the relative population of Latinos in the US as a percent, compared with Jews in Germany at the time? What is the geographic distribution of those folks compared to Jews at the time? What is the representation of Latinos in Congress?

How is that relevant?

> it's also worth evaluating on its own merits.

But why do it in the form of a riddle?

Re: DOGE staffer resigns over racist posts

#83
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> dehumanisation of Chinese people What?

Hasn't started yet. Give it a few months or a year for the Taiwan situation to start to really boil and for them to have had their fill of rounding up Hispanics.

I don’t doubt there’s a racist element there, but people are blind as to just how deep United Front cells are stuck in the US. From running illegal weed grows, pushing power and doing transnational repression, it’s a way bigger threat that people don’t realise

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/nyregion/chan-china-nyc-i...

Re: DOGE staffer resigns over racist posts

#84

If you're having a team going into every bit of government data, you might want to vet them. Beyond eugenicists and racists, if they're getting anywhere close to SCIFs, make sure they fill out that SF-86 accurately. And maybe even if they're not, have them go through regular clearance procedures. Yes, it takes time. But right now, DOGE seems like a huge security risk for the USG what with it setting up backdoors ever…

Also worth noting that he made these posts before Musk hired him. And that they didn't fire him.

Re: DOGE staffer resigns over racist posts

#86
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My take is that we actually need more efficiency in government, and from a technology standpoint, they might have some good ideas. I have a very pro-technology worldview. I'm independent leaning left but I thought that Democrats have been extreme, wasteful and untrustworthy in their own ways. It's very unfortunate that this stuff like efficiency and technology integration is now associated so closely with neo-Nazis.…

Blue team is hesitant to use its power in a lot of ways, and due to insisting on consensus most of the time they are handicapped. Red team actually seems to know what power is and how to use it--unfortunately for us, they lack discrimination and strategic planning in its application. Blue team also required a bunch of thought-killing exercises and public signalling of things that are clearly inefficient and intellect…

so when Elon Musk stands at a podium and performs the Nazi salute, it is "intellectually lazy" to use labels like "Nazi" or "fascist"?

Re: DOGE staffer resigns over racist posts

#87
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He doesn't have clearance. They march into the offices, demand access, whoever is there says "no", then that person gets fired (placed "on leave") ten minutes later. Rinse and repeat.

"This is why it's an illegal coup." Vs ? what? a legal coup? or the other varietys like these agencies under scruteny fund worldwide?

A coup is a sudden takeover or upset, it does not have to be illegal, though it is usually understood to be.

Re: DOGE staffer resigns over racist posts

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> What is the relative population of Latinos in the US as a percent, compared with Jews in Germany at the time? What is the geographic distribution of those folks compared to Jews at the time? What is the representation of Latinos in Congress? How is that relevant? > it's also worth evaluating on its own merits. But why do it in the form of a riddle?

> How is that relevant?

The thing that user is concerned about seems to be trying to decide if we're looking at another Holocaust. It seems reasonable to check to see if the preconditions are similar.

> But why do it in the form of a riddle?

It's not a riddle, it's an invitation to set a baseline to discuss from that's not just "the world is scary and we're looking at another Holocaust".

If somebody says the world is scary and they want reassurance, we can't just go "no the world isn't scary it's gonna be fine"--we have to explain _why_ the world isn't scary, and to do that we need shared understanding.

It's not helpful if, for example, they mean Nazi in the general sloppy sense ("thugs and bigots that seek power") and I use Nazis in a very particular sense (a group desirous of annexing Sudetenland and Alsace–Lorraine, seeking to restore German and Austrian economic power, scapegoating particular minorities and progressive values for cultural corruption, a reliance on a patchwork of occult and mystical foundations for rallying, etc.).

So, I didn't ask "riddles": I asked a bunch of questions to see where they were coming from before making an argument one way or the other. I wish more folks did this in the years leading up to the current situation, but here we are.

Re: DOGE staffer resigns over racist posts

#89
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like to believe that those are just intellectually lazy labels. Are you sure it's not 100% accurate to say that Musk and Hegseth are neo-Nazis? Or that we are headed straight for new American Holocaust against Hispanics and a race-fueled third world war? I want that to be hysterical paranoia or "intellectually lazy labels". But look at the historical parallels.

"Goatfucker" is a fair and accurate and intellectually rigorous label. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Popehat%27s%... Popehat's Law of Goats He who fucks goats, either as part of a performance or to troll those he deems has overly delicate sensibilities is simply, a goatfucker. "He claimed he was just pretending to be racist to trigger the social justice warriors, but even if he is telling the truth,…

If you're referring to me, you'll have to do better than namecalling.

If you're referring to Musk or the current administration, calling them names doesn't really seem to have worked for what, at least nine years now?

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