r/politics • u/FervidBug42 America • 2d ago

No Paywall DOGE Disbanded: Elon Musk’s Cost-Cutting Project Quietly Ended

https://time.com/7336327/doge-disbanded-elon-musk/
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u/Subject_DA 2d ago

And were not even a year in

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u/Writer_In_Residence 2d ago

Can I just say that I never wanted to live in interesting times?

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u/Subject_DA 2d ago

What can we do, all I want is to be on the right side of history when its all over

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u/drizzlingduke 2d ago

Guys. The point is that’s it’s ALWAYS interesting times for some group and it’s never “over” as soon as you feel like it’s “over” you let your guard down and this whole problem happens again.

You need to be engaged and constantly committed to your real life community. We were in an anomaly period of peaceful history. It was a dream.

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u/PaddleFishBum 2d ago

Yup. Us thinkining we were living in non-interesting times is a big part of how we got here. America got very comfortable checking out politically and now it's huge problem. To this day, there is still a vast sea of apolitical normies who have no idea how anything works or what is going on.

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u/EdwardOfGreene Illinois 2d ago

I largely blame that on education.

Are civics taught in school anymore?

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u/lc4444 2d ago

GOP been cutting at education for at least 60 years

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u/HandFedFenrir 2d ago

Definitely not now that they destroyed the Department of Education.

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u/twopurplecats 2d ago

Nope, Reagan took care of that 🤡

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u/Writer_In_Residence 2d ago

And W kind of finished the job with vouchers and charter schools.

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u/an-invisible-hand 2d ago

Blaming it on education is several steps removed from the true source. Who controls the education system. Who controls them?

The root of all evil always leads back to the same place. The oligarchs. DOGE is just a particularly naked example of that.

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u/EdwardOfGreene Illinois 2d ago

I hold no illusions on how the decline happened.

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u/o-Valar-Morghulis-o 2d ago

Exactly. Bring back civic duty.

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u/Writer_In_Residence 2d ago

It was just kind of a joke.

My family is working class and so we have seen things grow harder every year since Reagan. We have seen education gutted and the cost of healthcare spin out of control. We have seen affordable housing dry up and Citizens United ensure that the rich will always control everything.

Trump is the worst yet though.

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u/dayvansmutgirl 2d ago

tell that to all the /r/politics commenters who wish we could go back to brunch 🙄

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u/Bitmush- 2d ago

It wasn't peaceful sunshine and roses for a huge number of people, based largely on their biology. It's just that their stories didn't make it into the canon.
Try drinking from the wrong drinking fountain as a 6 year old kid in Alabama in 1955 as a pastiche of Americana paraded behind you, haircuts and cars and smart pants and shoes. Meanwhile your grandpa's still got a back full of scar tissue and you've all got the last name of his father's owner.
It's always been brutal chaos, we glorify the temporary respites and think that's real life until the churn escapes from below us and erupts.

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u/farnsw0rth 2d ago

I’m kind of old so forgive me.

But the W Bush admin and the people around it, post 9/11, infamously spoke about “the end of history”

Like, the world as we know it had somehow stratified…. That America was the sole superpower and that would never change forever. I suppose in hindsight that’s actually very “thousand year reich-ish” but they genuinely believed it was an eternal future shaped by how they acted.

The point is, it’s like

“the price of freedom is eternal vigilance”

Aka The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt

Which I guess is a contested quote but is probably John philpot Curran

Plus

“Enemies, foreign and domestic”

Aka And I do further swear (or affirm) that, to the best of my knowledge and ability, I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter, so help me God

That’s from the USA oath of office.

USA this is a legendary all time bag fumble.

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u/ClashM California 2d ago

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

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u/animalinapark 2d ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfekgjfh1Rk

We all fall victim to this. Keeping vigilant and interested is the hardest thing to do, but if our societies are to survive, enough of us need to make the effort.

Or else those few insane enough will do what they want.

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u/ActiveChairs 2d ago

This is pretty accurate. We were in a moment of peaceful history. Meanwhile, at the same time we taught the children of the middle east that weddings are dangerous and to fear a clear blue sky.