2w ago

21 DOGE staffers resign as they refuse to 'dismantle critical public services'

www.thewrap.com 21 DOGE Staffers Resign as They Refuse to 'Dismantle Critical Public Services'

"We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans’ sensitive data," they wrote

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."

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2w ago

(Back to year 1992) 21 DOGE Staffers Resign as They Refuse to 'Dismantle Critical Public Services'

www.thewrap.com /doge-staffers-resign-elon-musk-department-trump/

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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...
- 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?
- 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.
  
  but.. he who saves his country can not break the law. right??!
  
  Guys, dumping tea in the harbor is illegal, just pay your taxes to the crown. It's just a king, everyone has one
  
  The American revolutionary war was difficult enough with an entire ocean separating us from a king. Now the self appointed king is here.
  
  Can't persecute you for sabotage if it just happens to coincide with proper office protocol.
  Simple Sabotage Field Manual
  
  Not if you make an Italian strike. You are following every single step of the process, taking the time needed, all by the book. And when the higher rank says something then everyone working resigns all at once.
  
  Lol getting fired doesn't look bad. It doesn't look like anything because you aren't legally required to tell a future employer if you were fired, and they can't ask the previous employer
  
  It's public information if a government employee is terminated, and there's nothing stopping them from reaching out to the previous employer.
  
  State laws determine exactly what a potential employer can ask, and divulge
  
  And do you think that that prevents them from disclosing that they terminated an employee for unprofessional conduct or unsatisfactory job performance?
  Further, for government employees certain details about their jobs are simply considered matters of public record. It's not something they divulge, it was simply never private in the first place.
  
  Yes and no one ever violates those
  
  I'm pretty sure any future employee that saw you were fired after Trump took power (because you didn't express loyalty to a fascist) would see this as a good thing.
- Mostly the risk of jail, probably.
  
  Or execution.
  
  Or stochastic terrorism
- 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.
  
  The kurds have been fighting a war from the desert for decades, but Americans get whipped by paperwork and call it a day
  
  Well, we can’t shoot our fascists yet. It would probably be pretty helpful with the mental health part.
  
  At the very least it'd be cathartic, plus humans are wired for killing more than paperwork. See problem smash problem is a lot more immediate than slow boring paperwork
  
  plus humans are wired for killing more than paperwork
  A common misconception, and anti-scientific one at that, often postulated by white supremacists that point at chimps in the jungle and say "That's where our nature/culture comes from." Humans are social creatures, we suck at speed/strength/endurance/lethality compared to most animals on earth because we're less hardwired for violence than we are for social abilities. Yes, while our fists are shaped to maximize damage to human faces, and human faces are shaped to minimize damage from human fists, that's a far less unique human attribute than our brains. That's why you don't see male chimps writing poetry and songs to court a female chimp that builds orbital satellites while doing a physics PhD.
  Humans beings are far and beyond more wired than anything else to sit around a fire and solve problems with eachother through abstract reasoning while sharing food. That and husband/wife swapping (i'm speaking strictly from anthropological data that made my own preconceived biases go "huh?")
  
  Actually, our endurance is one of the best in nature. Most animals would overheat if forced to keep up with us over long distances. Here is a source confirming it.
  
  Okay then add 'sweating' to the list of human traits more engrained than violence.
  
  We actually shot him once. But he survived
  
  I feel like there will be a "How To Count To 10 In American" video coming out in the next 4-8 years.
- Because they don't disagree with it, they only can't bring themselves to be the ones with the blood on their hands. Otherwise they don't care what happens.
  
  I know everything is bad now, but not everyone is bad all the time.

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