the_abecedarian

Thanks for this list! There are some fun suggestions here that’ll help me get into peertube, but Russel Brand is a conspiracy theorist and far-right pundit, recently charged with rape & sexual assault. Suggesting you delete him from this list.

Pandoc can convert many kinds of files to docx, pdf, and lots of other things. Use the text editor of your choice!

The quotes are not there for their accuracy, but to illustrate Musk’s outlook and intentions. He sees all entitlements as a bad thing per se and will break whatever norms and rules he can get away with to get rid of them, citing great replacement lies as a justification to the far right and citing “efficiency” as a sop to the less-far-right. Whether he can get away with it remains to be seen, but my original comment was an off-the-cuff “Musk is trying to destroy social security”, not a detailed argument about what has happened so far. I think, given the experience of so many other government agencies with Musk and DOGE, that this is a fair statement for casual posting.

Process counts as much as benefits. Difficulty making payments is a form of sabotage. Even delaying payments counts as a cut because some ppl will die before having received a payment they would have.

Why else would Musk be messing with SSA? “Efficiency” ? Why not take him at his word? A couple choice quotes from that article:

• “Most of the federal spending is entitlements,” Musk told the Fox Business Network. “That’s the big one to eliminate.”
• "Musk said Monday that federal entitlements are “a mechanism by which the Democrats attract and retain illegal immigrants by essentially paying them to come here and then turning them into voters.”

It’s just an excuse. They want to get rid of him because they don’t like his politics and he’s an activist. Whether the state categorizes you as a citizen, resident, tourist, undocumented, etc. should have nothing to do with your right to speak out.

but please don’t

Ofc Musk is trying to destroy social security as we speak

It often takes a personal crisis to get people to doubt the cult/white supremacist group/multilevel marketing scheme they’ve been a part of for a long time

feckin’

The difference is that this affects his voters’ (the ones with any money) place in the hierarchy. If their retirement accounts zero out, they’re no different from the poor people they consider themselves above and made so many choices to separate themselves from. If they introspect a little bit, they might even say “then what have I been working so hard all this time for?”

The dems become the rational alternative. These Trump voters can hold their nose and vote for a little less brutality on the trans folks and a little more DEI lip service as long as they stabilize the market.

Meanwhile ofc the dems are likely to keep 80% of the immigrant deportation policies, tax cuts for the rich, etc.