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@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      65
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 days 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@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        15
        arrow-down
        8
        ·
        4 days 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].

        • tabarnaski
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          11
          ·
          4 days ago

          What you describe could be said about any management job, government or private.

        • JaggedRobotPubes@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          4 days 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@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            4 days 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@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          4 days 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?

      • BigPotato@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        3 days 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.

      • Homescool@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        4 days 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@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          4 days 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@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            4 days 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@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              4 days 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@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                edit-2
                4 days 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@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    98
    ·
    4 days ago

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

  • pyre@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    3 days 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.

  • MrJameGumb@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    62
    ·
    4 days 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

  • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    29
    ·
    4 days ago

    Next up in your government, the observatory of normalcy… the ministry of truth…

  • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    28
    ·
    4 days ago

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

    Too bad Melania’s campaign didn’t work…

  • Homescool@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    29
    ·
    4 days 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?

  • karashta@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    34
    ·
    4 days 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

  • Lasherz12@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    3 days 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.

  • Tuxman
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    4 days ago

    The Vice-President is really getting into action!