[9283409232]

Trump is stacking the federal government with loyalist and preparing to outright ignore court orders(if they are not doing so already) and become a monarchy while billionaires chop up the government for fun and profit. If you don't see this then you have lost touch with reality. Democracy is on life support and Elon's fans are putting fingers in their ears acting like this isn't happening.

[m-ee]

For anyone who thinks the comparisons to monarchy are an overreaction look up favorite philosopher of Peter Thiel and JD Vance Curtis Yarvin. He quite explicitly calls for a “CEO king” to fire all federal employees and replace them with loyalists.

[greyface-]

Yarvin (aka Moldbug) outlines his proposal in this talk from 2012. It's worryingly prescient. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZluMysK2B1E

[scarab92]

You don’t realise how ridiculous you sound to normal people because you spend your time in an echo chamber full of left-wing conspiracy theories.

The government will get a bit smaller and life will go on.

[steve_adams_86]

What I want to understand is how much smaller will it be, and why are they targeting what they are at the moment? The administrations they've cut back only make up fractions of a percent of the overall spending, and make virtually no difference for the average person. One of them actually put more money back into the pockets of taxpayers than it cost them, and seems to have made no sense to discard. Why not target major cost centres?

[wahnfrieden]

They also stopped $489 million of food aid to leave it to rot, which it has. That level of waste is not aligned with their mission statement to reduce waste. So the statement can't be trusted.

[scarab92]

Even taking that unsourced statement as true, a single anecdotal accident doesn't invalidate an entire mission statement.

[wahnfrieden]

Sorry for not citing current mainstream headline news (I guess Fox is not airing this though) https://www.yahoo.com/news/usaid-inspector-fired-revealing-n...

If you are ignorant to widely-reported news, it's curious to dismiss it as anecdotal.

It's also curious to paint this an accident (before you knew anything about it) when it's the intended result of the order and an inspector was fired for attempting to raise effort to correct it.

[9283409232]

Everything Elon claims is unsourced and often completely wrong but his followers seem to have no problem taking it at face value

[anigbrowl]

I recommend this book, which you can find and read for free on archive.org.

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780805087260/hitlersbenefici...

[9283409232]

I'm curious. What needs to happen for you realize what is going on? What is the action that if taken you'll see things for what they are?

[zfg]

The philosophy behind what they're doing comes from Curtis Yarvin. JD Vance is a fan.

Yarvin believes American democracy is a failed project and it should be replaced with an American monarchy. He thinks all of society should be organized like a corporation and a CEO of America should call the shots, no elections necessary:

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

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23373795/curtis-yarv...

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/inside-the-new-right...

They've been thinking about it for years, including preparing themselves to ignore court rulings.

To quote JD Vance from the Vanity Fair article: “I think Trump is going to run again in 2024,” [Vance] said. “I think that what Trump should do, if I was giving him one piece of advice: Fire every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people.” “And when the courts stop you,” he went on, “stand before the country, and say—” he quoted Andrew Jackson, giving a challenge to the entire constitutional order—“the chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.”

And now he's saying it as vice president:

https://www.newsweek.com/jd-vance-comment-questioning-court-...

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/02/trump-v...

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/us/politics/vance-trump-f...

What remains to be seen is how far they will push it:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/02/doge-civil...

[blackeyeblitzar]

> and preparing to outright ignore court orders

Trump literally said in a press conference about DOGE a few days ago that he will follow all court orders, but also appeal them where he thinks they’re wrong. This claim that he is ignoring courts is false, and increasingly I am noticing journalists factually misrepresent reality to create widespread beliefs like this.

[Volundr]

> Trump literally said in a press conference about DOGE a few days ago that he will follow all court order

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/us/trump-unfreezing-feder...

The judges issuing said orders disagree. Saying a thing is not the same as doing a thing.

[blackeyeblitzar]

A judge who is a major donor to Democrats, appointed by a Democrat president, has determined that. He could be correct, or he could just be an activist. Let’s see how it plays out. But the administration has said publicly that they will follow judicial rulings in response to a direct question about these rulings.

[9283409232]

Trump is a liar. Starting a sentence with "Trump said" means nothing.