I’m a Federal Worker. You Have No Idea the Irreversible Damage Elon Musk Is Doing.
I’m a Federal Worker. You Have No Idea the Irreversible Damage Elon Musk Is Doing.
This judicial review provides at least a reprieve, a small hope that some of the administration’s most destructive impulses will be pared back.
In the past week or so, the courts have begun to try to set some boundaries on the Musk–Miller–Trump administration’s early blitz of recklessness.
. . .
This judicial review provides at least a small reprieve, hope that some of the administration’s most destructive impulses will be stopped. Or at least pared back. But even with the courts stepping up, and even with the reality of the administration’s ineptitude sinking in, this early Musk–Miller–Trump blitz remains very—maybe irreparably—damaging. Of course, there are a lot of moles to whack: the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are being dismantled at an alarming rate, and the court system is not known for being nimble. The administration is betting, perhaps rightly, that at least some of its thoughtless, lawless efforts will slip through the cracks.
But even if the courts caught them all—and even if every court facing each lawless escapade said, “Nope, that’s not a thing”—still the entire process would be doing serious damage to our institutions. Think of it as someone spoofing your identity and going on a shopping spree with your credit cards. Even if the goon gets caught, you still have to go store by store to argue that the fraudulent purchase wasn’t legitimate and hope the debt is forgiven. And all the while, perhaps long after all the debts are dealt with, the torrent of uncertainty kills your credit score.
Far too many Americans will argue with you about how every single thing Trump and Musk do, is good. There is no way to change their mind and I am surrounded by them.
Not personally and directly, no, but broadly, yes - I do know the irreversible damage they're doing.
And here's the real key to it all - none of it is accidental. The damage is the point.
Their goal is actually very simple - it's to utterly destroy every aspect of the government that benefits the common people or inconveniences the wealthiest few, in order to convert it explicitly and entirely into a mechanism for protecting and expanding the privilege of the wealthiest few at the expense of everyone else.
I actually do.
We're entirely fucked.
We're going to spend the rest of our lives witnessing the enshitification of this nation. Even if we completely turn this crash and burn around, we'll then spend the rest of our lives watching things being slowly rebuilt as traitorous Republicans continue to obstruct.
I don't think a lot of Americans are grasping exactly how hard we fucked ourselves by refusing to responsibly inform ourselves even to a minimal degree.
To add more context - I’m a federal employee who has received these Fork emails -
They always come out at night, usually ~ 8-9 pm Eastern. One came out on a Sunday night. So you show up for work the next morning and that’s what’s waiting for you. I’m convinced this is done on purpose, to fuck with us.
As Vought (perfect Bond villain name, right?) said:
“Put Them In Trauma”
They literally want to traumatize us. They hate us because for decades we’ve been the only ones to tell them no. No, Elon, you can’t fuck all kinds of shit up when you launch a spaceship. No, Elon, you can’t make the stock market go haywire because you were high and tweeted something stupid. No, Elon, you can’t make a deal with the Pentagon and then run to Putin and do something completely different.
Elon does not like to be told no, but Elon can’t go 5 minutes without acting like the entitled dipshit that he is, so here we are.
And so, ~ 2.5 million civil servants - scientists, healthcare researchers, USAID, engineers, doctors, etc etc, will feel his wrath because he can’t be told no.
I took a big pay cut for this job because I valued job security over money after growing up in a household where jobs were not guaranteed and my parents struggled. Finally I got there after trying for years, and now Elon has to throw a shit fit.
But it’s not about me - I’ll be ok, but many others won’t. And we won’t get it back without a lot of work, work that I’m not sure that we, as a country, are going to be willing to do. The brain drain and decades of knowledge capture will be lost forever. And that’s by design - now we can all go work for contractors with fewer benefits and no job security and help Elon to make even more money.
One of the Fork emails taunted us by saying that we should be happy to leave our low productivity jobs in government so that we could go work high productivity jobs in the private sector. (So funny!) I know that’s bullshit, but also I’m old enough to not let 4chan incels trigger me that easily.
I do worry about my younger/newer coworkers though, whose heads are spinning. So, I try to help them. I’m educating them about the union and hopefully giving them the tools to get through this and deal with what comes after in the best way possible, whatever that may be.
So the next time you have to go to some annoying government place with a long line and you’re tired and hungry and frustrated, please try to remember that whoever you end up coming face to face with may have just gotten another email trolling them and telling them what a piece of shit they are and they should resign from their jobs. Just give them some grace. Be kind.
Working as a federal employee comes with a set of golden handcuffs. You trade in a decent salary for retirement at the end. Firing people, or even asking them to leave for less than 10 months salary (maybe) is a huge Fuck You to those who have already sacrificed years of time. When you started your career- you couldn’t possibly predict something like a Trump train coming along to piss all over your life’s plans.
Who the fuck, with any level of competence, would ever want to apply for a federal position after seeing this shit show?
What's annoying is the US cable/social media incessantly jumps right to the Trump/Musk framing of things.
The US AID shutdown has led to food aid stuck at ports as populations that rely on it starve.
A report on Monday from Paul Martin, the USAid inspector general, found that close to half a billion dollars’ worth of food was rotting because of confusion surrounding Mr Trump’s freeze last month.
How many americans have heard about the consequences of Trump's actions? 1%? How many have heard about Elon's vague and baseless claims that US AID is a big fraud? It seems every Republican I know has heard that.
It's crazy how bad it's going to get in the next few months. I work for a branch in the fed that's almost all remote work, about 10 out of 150 or so are in person including myself. I know I'll be safe, but my team? Section? Branch? All screwed. Then what's left, for me to be swallowed by a RIF? The deal was tempting because of the threat behind your inaction likely not mattering.
Hoping it cools off soon. It's hard to sleep lately.
It double sucks because I just got my spouse into a federal job (she got herself in, but I provided her resources, resume building, etc, of course.) But now since she's considered probationary and a temporary hire? She might be let go and swallowed into regret.
I just need to shout this into the void:
Fuck this fucking bullshit. What the hell is wrong with this country. I fucking hate this timeline.
Yes I do.
This is simple sabotage. There is nothing beneficial about this outside of showing some green on Wallstreet LEDs. Pure pump and dump scheme.