“Bozo” is pretty lightweight for someone actively trying to destroy the foundations of this country’s government and democratic policies.

I feel they are actively shoring up the country’s foundations. For decades, since the Church committee in the 1970s and under Vice President Gore’s Reinventing Government initiative (which IIRC resulted in the removal of 100,000 government employees), disclosure of questionable or hidden programs was a core progressive value.

> disclosure of questionable or hidden programs

We’re seeing more “claims” than “disclosures”. Can you point me any examples of the latter?

Feed here:

https://doge.gov/

Those are claims.

You're responding to someone who believes DOGE is getting rid of corruption in government while Musk is capturing contracts for his own companies. There's no point in responding to people like them. They aren't based in reality.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43036122

Hard disagree with this take. There is certainly a purpose responding to them. Whether or not their opinion is changed comes down to them.

If the individual is living in a fantasy land, then any responses here will be discarded by them as fantasy themselves. Someone who legitimately believes that Musk is fighting corruption when Musk is also directing contracts to his own businesses is in a fantasy land.

If the individual is trolling, which could be the case here, then responding is just feeding the troll. It encourages them.

The better thing in both cases is to ignore them. At most, respond to the comment, but not the individual, with facts (like that Musk is directing contracts to his own companies) so that others don't fall into the same fantasy land.

It does not seem like we disagree.

> At most, respond to the comment, but not the individual, with facts

There is still a purpose for the response. It may not be for a particular reader, but there are other readers. It would be worth it to flag and move on if there is nothing to engage with but that’s not the case here.

> administrative state (created during FDR) is going away

Created by FDR through acts of the Congress. DOGE is ironically recapitulating the lawlessness that tanked Sourh Africa’s economy.

Also, we’re seeing a breathless expansion of federal executive power. The administrative state isn’t going away. It’s being subsumed. The size of the government is being increased, not decreased—that’s why the GOP budget calls for $2 trillion in new deficits over ten years.

One can celebrate cost cutting. But other than USAID, there is no sign anything durable is being done. The power of the central government is being expanded in ways that should be obviously problematic for anyone thinking ahead: next cycle, a Dem President can just cancel student debts by firing everyone in loan collections and shredding the loan documents.

> Calm down...You're behaving in a histrionic way.

This sort of condescension is characteristic of people who hold the opinions you do. The rest of your post is complete nonsense.

Ok. Doesn't matter. We took power and you're gonna stew for the next 4 to 12 years while not getting your way. Sucks, kiddo.

They’re calling a public figure a bozo. That’s always been fine. Name calling other HN users is against the guidelines.

> They’re calling a public figure a bozo. That’s always been fine.

Not in Germany. Public insults are punishable. Doing so in a permanent way with lots of outreach (like the web is) increases the consequences.

> Not in Germany

Not sure why anyone should be emulating Germany right now.

When Elon became the role model probably