I think they really do want to hollow out the federal government, and we should expect things like planes falling out of the sky as part of that.
Given the release of this memo[1] offering the buyout of any federal employee who wants to step down, what I think we are looking at is the Musk-Vance-Thiel axis of the MAGA movement is implementing Curtis Yarvin's "R.A.G.E." plan to install a king dictator atop a neo-feudalist executive branch. I wish those words weren't as crazy as they are, but I mean, what else am I supposed to believe when the crazy plan Yarvin is pushing[2] is coming out of the Office of Personnel Management, which is being run by a billionaire who just gave a neo-Nazi salute behind the presidential seal?
Under his Moldbug pseudonym, Yarvin gave a talk about "rebooting" the American government at the 2012 BIL Conference. He used it to advocate the acronym "RAGE", which he defined as "Retire All Government Employees". He described what he felt were flaws in the accepted "World War II mythology", alluding to the idea that Hitler's invasions were acts of self-defense. He argued these discrepancies were pushed by America's "ruling communists", who invented political correctness as an "extremely elaborate mechanism for persecuting racists and fascists". "If Americans want to change their government," he said, "they're going to have to get over their dictator phobia."[39]
They're trying to do a greenfield government like it's a startup, turning the US government into a company where they are the shareholder lords who own everything and get to decide who the king dictator is, while we are the employee peasants who don't own shit and have a say in nothing. I really wish that weren't my conclusion but those are the literal words of the guy whose plan they are doing. Quote: "get over their dictator phobia". So what else am I supposed to conclude?
> I think they really do want to hollow out the federal government, and we should expect things like planes falling out of the sky as part of that.
I am no fan of Trump but it is possible that 1) The Federal government has grown far too large and is bloated in many areas. And 2) The size of the Federal government can be reduced while maintaining safety and essential services.
I don't know if the current administration is doing or even can do that but it's hard to deny there is a very real problem or that the problem is, at least in concept, solvable.
That said, I highly doubt this tragic accident was caused by or related to the change of administration last week. It could just as easily have happened two weeks ago under the prior administration. It's unfortunate that it seems to have become politically polarized (by partisans on both sides) even before the flames had been extinguished.
I think that would be a reasonable take if the people implementing this plan (Musk, Thiel, Vance) weren't literally citing Curtis "a government is just a corporation that owns a country" Yarvin as a thought leader.
Although you are right they're trying to do what Musk did with Twitter, but the thing is that didn't go very smoothly, and he thinks it went great. At Twitter it meant downtime and also making users feel unsafe. At the federal level, regardless of the motivation (reigning in spending or a neo-feudal takeover), it will mean planes falling out of the sky, an increase in fraud and scams, civil rights violations, and so forth.
I'm not as familiar with Yarvin as I am with partisan media narratives. My problem with these kinds of insinuations, is that one quote or citation of Yarvin is easily spun into the conclusion that the incoming administration is following all of Yarvin's writings, no matter how obscure.
Partisan journalists are incentivized to selectively quote Yarvin's works to scare their partisan audience. The wildest and most fearful conclusions gain the most clicks and views.
We are living in the parallel universe where Curtis Yarvin is being interviewed by the NYT, which is politely asking him to give his thoughts on the pros and cons of slavery in the US. I wish it were true that Curtis Yarvin was obscure and that his friends in the government were unfamiliar with most of his odious ideas. Unfortunately, that’s not the live scenario.
You’re throwing around all these buzzwords like “dictator” and “feudalist,” but what’s the word that refers to government employees openly declaring “Resistance” to agenda of the duly elected president? Because that’s not “democracy” either, right?
Trump literally campaigned with Musk on this very issue. He explained at length what he was going to do in long form podcasts and in lengthy rallies. Musk was Trump’s closer in the key swing state of Pennsylvania. And people voted for that.
Trump made his case to the American public that, no matter who wins the election, democrats control the government through their control of the bureaucracy. And it’s a reasonable case: do you truly believe the federal workforce will implement Trump’s immigration policies with the same enthusiasm as Biden’s DEI policies? Trunk made this case to voters, with Musk at his right hand, and voters hired him to do this. A plurality trust the billionaire who is on their side over two million federal workers who, although not individually powerful, collectively wield enormous power.
> You’re throwing around all these buzzwords like “dictator”
To be clear, I am not the one throwing the word "dictator" around, that would be Curtis Yarvin. I am repeating his words. These people believe they are implementing a dictatorship, and it's not a buzzword, it's their stated goal. I don't even need to exaggerate it, I just need to quote them.
I realize that Trump did in fact campaign on being a dictator, but I also am listening to a lot of people who voted for him, who don't really feel they voted for a dictatorship.
I mean, do you agree with the statement "If Americans want to change their government, they’re going to have to get over their dictator phobia."?
Given the release of this memo[1] offering the buyout of any federal employee who wants to step down, what I think we are looking at is the Musk-Vance-Thiel axis of the MAGA movement is implementing Curtis Yarvin's "R.A.G.E." plan to install a king dictator atop a neo-feudalist executive branch. I wish those words weren't as crazy as they are, but I mean, what else am I supposed to believe when the crazy plan Yarvin is pushing[2] is coming out of the Office of Personnel Management, which is being run by a billionaire who just gave a neo-Nazi salute behind the presidential seal?
They're trying to do a greenfield government like it's a startup, turning the US government into a company where they are the shareholder lords who own everything and get to decide who the king dictator is, while we are the employee peasants who don't own shit and have a say in nothing. I really wish that weren't my conclusion but those are the literal words of the guy whose plan they are doing. Quote: "get over their dictator phobia". So what else am I supposed to conclude?[1] https://fedscoop.com/trump-federal-workforce-buyouts-legal-o... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Yarvin#:~:text=Under%20...