this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2025
90 points (95.0% liked)

politics

20426 readers
3172 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Elon Musk said that blanket emails sent to federal employees asking for a response about their weekly accomplishments or risk termination was a test to see if they “had a pulse.”

top 26 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip 10 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

No, no, fucking no.

He isn't admitting shit.

This is the Schrodinger's Shitpost tactic.

This is the narcissist telling you 'chill out it was just a joke' after insulting you.

Fascists are malignant narcissists.

They are bullies.

They also don't believe in anything other than power.

What Elon is doing is just backing off after testing how badly he could abuse people and figured out 'oh, maybe I can't actually get away with this.'

If this hadn't gotten a massive backlash, he wouldn't have told us all a week later 'haha you got punk'd!', he'd just have kept pushing more and more boundaries of control and power whilst cackling about it.

All of these power mad fucksticks are just playground bullies with personality disorders.

They must be resisted, politely at first, then with force when they refuse to stop escalating.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 69 points 13 hours ago

You heard it, federal employees: Anything that comes from Musk's department could be a joke, so ignore all of it.

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 79 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

This is always the way with fascists. When they find out or don't get away with it, it's always "just a joke bro, lol, literally why are you overreacting"

[–] Frozengyro@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

Sexual predators as well.

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 69 points 14 hours ago

This isn't an admission, it's a cover up.

It's no different than the people who declare they were 'just trolling' when their shitty opinion gets trashed. People stood up to him and his fragile ego can't take it.

[–] cardboardchris@lemmy.world 32 points 14 hours ago

The word choice in this headline is misleading. "Admits" implies that the newly revealed information is true. He didn't "admit" it was a ruse. He "claimed" it was a ruse.

[–] P1k1e@lemmy.world 12 points 12 hours ago

What a weak little parasite

[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 18 points 14 hours ago

Even if it was a "test" (I don't believe him), what stable boss or oversight authority does shit like that!? Not very EfFiCiEnT, Musk...

(His actions are also illegal and the only reason he hasn't been hauled in front of Congress is because Republicans keep blocking it)

[–] HexPat@lemm.ee 11 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Surely somebody must have the email address these emails came from. Seems like an address we could all chime in at

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 12 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Why are media outlets so complicit in all of this? Headline makes it sound like this was planned all along. Change “admits” to “claims” and you have a more accurate story.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

There were a couple of AP articles I saw earlier that stood out as being even worse. First, there's this one that I objected to and have been arguing about in the comments.

It's infuriating how the consent is being manufactured right before our eyes and people just flat-out refuse to see it.

Second, compare this group of headlines on the same topic:

It really stands out when they're juxtaposed next to each other, doesn't it?

While I'm at it, I'd also like to mention this video I saw the other day. It's mostly off-topic (it's about NYC's new congestion charge and comparing it to London's experience implementing the concept), but it gives a really good example of how propagandized US news can be even on something that isn't overtly partisan the way Musk/DOGE topics are.

[–] Lasherz12@lemmy.world 7 points 11 hours ago

Pretty sure the average conservative would lose their shit, literally into their pants, if any psych test was issued on them let alone from Obama or Biden.

Friendly reminder that the email says no attachments but doesn't mentioned pictures. I would suggest filling up a photo of your agency emblem with empty bits to the maximum allowed by the server.

[–] ToiletFlushShowerScream@lemmy.world 12 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

Is this government efficiency? How many man hours across the US gov were wasted on this? The cure for cancer was at least pushed back 2 days because of this.

[–] pivot_root@lemmy.world 11 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

The federal government employs around 3 million people.

Let's assume his email only reached a measly 2/3rds of the workforce, or about 2 million. If all of those workers wasted 10 minutes reading and replying to that crap using generative AI to fluff it up, it would be a combined total of 333k hours wasted.

More realistically, you have far less than 100% of the email recipents replying. But, those that do would probably spend anywhere between 20 to 40 minutes trying to write something they think would let them keep their job. For simplicity sake, let's just go with a rounded original estimate of 350k hours.

But, how much would that cost? Being charitable to fElon and assuming all those workers were paid federal minimum ($7.50/hour), that's $2,625,000 worth of worker time at minimum.

How much did that actually cost the government? Close to nothing because the fucker sent it on a weekend and demanded a reply before it would encroach on time they're actually paid to work for. It's a fuck-you from the unelected president meant to sew fear and uncertainty and to tell workers that they're expected to bark when he says so.

[–] kibiz0r@midwest.social 2 points 10 hours ago

RFK’s brainworm says cancer is good for you, now get back to your ADHD camp.

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 5 points 13 hours ago

Two days if everything went back to normal. Buddy at this point they’ve broken so much stuff I’d be amazed if the US was gunna be the country to produce a cure.

[–] b3an@lemmy.world 14 points 14 hours ago

He could do a pulse check on reality himself. What an absolute twat.

[–] Zip2@feddit.uk 8 points 13 hours ago

This has “it’s just a prank, bro” vibes from one of those insufferable people.

It wasn’t a ruse. Hardly anyone replied more likely.

[–] Lasherz12@lemmy.world 4 points 11 hours ago

We all know that you hit the 100gb maximum and had to bail out you stupid piece of shit.

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 7 points 14 hours ago

Riiiiiiight.... 😉

[–] ATDA@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago

Does torturing people with shitty jokes improve efficiency? Even if you for some reason take him at his word... We need to have a talk about what he's wasting his time at work on. Maybe he can send me an email about that.

[–] NoSpotOfGround@lemmy.world 3 points 13 hours ago

"And I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for you meddling adults!" 😡

[–] zarathustra0@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago

Cruel and unusual punishment you say?

[–] HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com 2 points 13 hours ago
[–] HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 13 hours ago

Infuriating headline