Summary
Twenty-one staffers from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) resigned, citing ethical concerns over dismantling public services and compromising sensitive data.
Formerly part of the U.S. Digital Service, they criticized Musk and Trump’s overhaul, which included layoffs and politically charged interviews.
Their letter warned that removing skilled technologists endangers essential services like Social Security and veterans’ benefits.
The resignations add to growing concerns over Musk’s aggressive federal cuts, amplified by his recent CPAC speech where he symbolically wielded a chainsaw against “bureaucracy.”
I am always confused why they don’t just sabotage the efforts? Like it would be so easy and they definitely aren’t paying attention…
Mostly the risk of jail, probably.
Or execution.
Or stochastic terrorism
Sabatoge can carry extremely harsh legal penalties, particularly if it has any type of lasting impact. Beyond that, just phoning it in and doing a bad job can slow things down but doesn’t actually stop it. If you’re then let go it’s on their pace, it looks worse for you and it’s less noticeable.
A mass resignation can be the only thing some people can do. It sends a message, it gets noticed outside the organization, and it lets objective news reporting share your motivation, which would normally fall under opinion.
It also leaves a big gap in the organization that isn’t getting anything done.
Different people are able to take on different levels of risk.
Just because these people resigned doesn’t mean that some other people aren’t staying in for the purposes of being subversive, and you shouldn’t ever hear about the latter.
That’s the thing, though. They’re not really taking risks.
Much of what DOGE does is completely illegal and does not go through the proper channels and processes. By simply doing their jobs and forcing everything through the proper processes, they can slow down everything, maybe even to a halt, while being completely in the right and thus can’t be fired.
Yes, it takes a mental toll, but these guys have a responsibility.
They’re unemployed government workers, there are less government jobs now than ever, and their resume literally says DOGE on it. They are taking a risk.
No. They resigned from a job. They were not fired. And as long as they don’t break any rules, it’s hard to fire them.
I never said they were fired, but since you brought it up, when you’re fired, you’ll usually get a severance to help during the job search, they won’t, they’re just unemployed.
… because they resigned. Seriously, what’s your point?
If they wouldn’t have resigned, they would still have a job. And since they couldn’t have been fired easily, they would have continued to have a job for quite a while.
That’s not a complex concept, what’s so hard to understand about that?
They resigned from a job they believed was wrong, which will lead to substantial financial consequences for them. You tried to dismiss their efforts as if it was nothing, so I called you out for being dismissive. You say “Seriously, what’s your point?” As if I’m the one making provocative statements from the sidelines.
Yes, because you’re completely missing the point.
There is literally no risk involved for them in just staying. They had their jobs, and they could easily do the right thing by just following the law. If they were to be fired, they would still get severance of some sort. In any case, it would have slowed down Elon at least for a while.
What they did instead is resigning, thus not getting severance, not being able to slow anything down, making room for obedient bootlickers, and finally they’re now unemployed.
So tell me again: how is resigning the right move? They made the world worse, and they made their personal life worse. Literally no benefit for anyone.
Your entire argument is ex post. You see the fact that they resigned as a given and try to justify that. Why can’t you see that this is not a necessary condition?
One aspect is that working in that kind of system destroys your mental health. Having to play games to hide the good things, trying to mitigate the bad things. It’s pressure.
My state has been basically been doing Project 2025 for the past five years. I had a friend in an important position in a fascist overtaken state organization who held on for a long time, fighting the good fight - but it drains. She fought her fucking hardest, but a human being can only fight for so long.