Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy do not care whether the stories they tell about agencies are true. They’re useful for whipping up hostility to government so that regulations can be cut and the rich can do what they want.

Summary

Billionaires like Marc Andreessen, Elon Musk, and Vivek Ramaswamy are spreading false claims to discredit the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal agency protecting consumers from fraud and abuse.

Andreessen falsely accused the CFPB of politically motivated “debanking,” despite no evidence.

This rhetoric aligns with the “DOGE” project, led by Musk and Ramaswamy, which aims to slash government regulations and programs under the guise of efficiency.

Critics warn this effort will harm public services, benefit billionaires, and push privatization at the expense of ordinary Americans.

    • Vaquedoso@lemmy.world
      31·
      5 months ago

      Are you crazy enough to be implying that your own government is your enemy? Public administration is necessary to any kind of social coordination and the reason you were able to leave that comment

      • EldritchFeminity
        11·
        5 months ago

        Yeah, takes like this are crazy. Is the government my enemy? In the sense that we’re spiraling towards a fascist regime with an incoming administration that has members who have literally called for “a genocide of trans people,” absolutely.

        But that’s an issue of the government falling apart due to the kinds of people who would be the warmongers lording over the Libertarian paradise that most of these people call for with their PMC, not because the government simply exists. And this branch in particular is one of the ones doing the most to protect the common person from those same warmonger wannabes.

        Without branches like this, companies would be dumping chemical waste upriver of towns again.

        • Vaquedoso@lemmy.world
          26·
          5 months ago

          I’m not from the US, so I don’t care about your founders.

          History books, and biology as well mind you, actually say that the actions of a group of individuals working together have more power than those of individuals working alone, and in any coordinated effort there is a subsection of the group that takes care of the whole and marks the pace. Throughout history the civilizations that managed to thrive and leave their mark were those whose governing body was efficient and effective, and there’s no denying that. You may be able to wrangle your friends and coordinate them without a specific administrative role, but try doing that with a group of people surpassing the hundreds of millions and you will have a problem.

            • zalgotext@sh.itjust.works
              11·
              5 months ago

              Ooooh nice, an enlightened Libertarian, and one that thinks that Americans are special, unique little snowflakes, different from the rest and immune to the rules that have historically governed the entirety of humanity for millennia

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                  4·
                  5 months ago

                  Stopping your historical studies before things like the end of chattel slavery and the start of the industrial revolution seems like a bad idea. You might have missed one or two significant events.

        • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
          22·
          5 months ago

          Pick up a history book

          Collective action (government) is the only thing preventing you from being ruled by someone else’s collective action

            • Vaquedoso@lemmy.world
              14·
              5 months ago

              You were just arguing against this kind of government, but now you are all for it? Make up your mind. ‘the bill of rights’ means nothing without a government enforcing it.

              In any case, this shows just how ignorant you are to the world around you. Documents protecting the rights of the populace aren’t exclusive to the US, nor were they the first to write them, look up the magna Carta, written in medieval times; or the Hammurabi code, one of the first written legal documents that protected the weak and the vulnerable.

              What’s more, most countries today also have these protections written in their respective constitutions, so this whole “the US is special” talk is just propaganda you ate

                • Vaquedoso@lemmy.world
                  6·
                  5 months ago

                  Again, most countries have these protections as well. The USA is not special in this regard. Most countries have a document detailing the rights and duties of the people along with the obligations and limits to the state. And obviously, these documents are intrinsically linked to the government and would fail to prove valuable in its absence. In layman’s terms, you can’t have your bill of rights ‘protecting people from the government’ without having a government in the first place, as the mere document itself is a product of governance and part of the social contract

                • prole
                  3·
                  5 months ago

                  The US Constitution and the Bill of Rights (which, btw, is part of the Constitution, so that’s redundant) are just pieces of paper. The only reason they mean anything is because of the implicit threat of violence/force by the state. It’s literally the way society exists.

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
          6·
          5 months ago

          The founders would routinely rape their slaves and participated in scalping. They were day drunk all the time because one of the best ways to clean water was to make it into beer. They didn’t believe in bathing, they thought washing the grime off would let the bad airs in and make them sick.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
            4·
            5 months ago

            They were day drunk all the time because one of the best ways to clean water was to make it into beer.

            I need to take issue with this part because that is simply not how things worked. The ale that was being made at the time (and had been made and drunk by people for centuries before then) instead of water had an extremely low alcohol content. Even a small child would have to drink a LOT to get tipsy.

            It was generally drunk the day after it was brewed, so it didn’t really have ages to ferment into a potent alcoholic drink. People did drink to get drunk, of course, but drinking small ale/small beer rather than water was not how they did it.

            • TimmyDeanSausage @lemmy.world
              8·
              5 months ago

              It’s not irrelevant. They’re saying that the people you hold up as some kind of supremely enlightened few of a special era, were in fact products of their time who believed in a lot of silly things with no basis in science/reality, and committed many atrocities themselves.

              I was a die-hard libertarian when I was 18. Then I learned a lot more about how the government actually functions. The more you know, the more painfully obvious it becomes that, not only is democratic government extremely necessary to support a civilization of our size, but also that uncoordinated government is literally impossible at scale. Try to lead a group of 20+ people in any activity and the importance of coordinated leadership will become evident very quickly.

            • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
              6·
              5 months ago

              Where do you think Jefferson’s Black descendents come from? Who do you think paid the bounties for scalps? Germ theory wasn’t invented yet, they didn’t know why beer was safe to drink or why they needed to bathe. Settlers thought it was strange how the natives would strip naked and bathe in rivers - so uncivilized! Unlike Europeans, who would bathe as little as possible as to preserve their modesty.

              All of this is easily looked up.

              Your idols were evil morons. Read a history book.

              • PugJesus@lemmy.worldBannedEnglish
                3·
                5 months ago

                Unlike Europeans, who would bathe as little as possible as to preserve their modesty.

                Literally just spreading grade-school level misinfo because you never progressed past that level of understanding of history, lmao.

                • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
                  6·
                  5 months ago

                  Ah yes, the independent thought and nuance of repeating the propaganda fed to you by your own government. You’re such a free thinker!

                  I recommend reading Lies My Teacher Told Me. Then, when you finish that, A People’s History of the United States.

                  But I doubt you’ve ever read even one history book that wasn’t assigned to you by a teacher.

                  • PugJesus@lemmy.worldBannedEnglish
                    2·
                    5 months ago

                    I recommend reading Lies My Teacher Told Me. Then, when you finish that, A People’s History of the United States.

                    lmao, imagine seriously recommending either.

    • kittenzrulz123
      8·
      5 months ago

      As an Anarchist I also hate the government, however this will not bring anything good. Maybe in a best case scenario they could destroyed the government and then accedently destroy themselves but thats useless without a complex network of left wing organizations that could replace the government.

        • reddit_sux@lemmy.world
          7·
          5 months ago

          Government is the easiest thing to corrupt, and that corruption is billionaires. The only reason they exist while 90% are living paycheck to paycheck is that the government is either absent or is not functioning properly.

          Agreed to the fact the Nazi Germany was a government but far worse was feudalism. Government with unbridled billionaires and businesses is just that with extra steps. Jsut to make ot palatable for the modern senses.