Mike Solana:

With FDR long gone, and the Cold War long over, the machinery built to defend us from foreign power rusted, degraded, and slowly rotted. With no external threat demanding competence, weak men flourished in the system. These men hired even weaker men, who in turn hired… whatever it is we’re looking at today. Much as a beached whale carcass puffs up with gas, the size of our government bloated as it atrophied. Now, the state is mostly a jobs program for mediocre people, and at its very worst it’s a staging ground for radicals hell bent on paralyzing the nation. I do believe we need a federal government staffed with competent men and women. I do believe there are competent men and women who still work in Washington. But the federal government is presently too big, and too full of waste, and that waste looks far too much like fraud. I do not think (most) critics are fans of the waste and fraud. But, despite their many flaws, the bureaucrats are still basically center left. And for a center leftist, I imagine this feels more comfortable than a center right president elected to power.

The New York Times noted Trump’s approach to reducing the size of the government is a near mirror image of Elon’s strategy at Twitter. This is true, and it’s worth noting panic over DOGE in Washington is also near identical to the panic we saw from the tech press when Elon took Twitter private. Back then, journalists insisted the company would die. Imminently, they said. This of course never happened, and everyone who said it would happen of course never believed what they were saying. Critics at the time weren’t afraid Twitter would shut down, they were afraid Twitter would survive — but without censorship and propaganda. Likewise, center left DOGE critics aren’t worried the government will break. They’re worried it won’t, and the center left Deep State will lose power.

To my eye, concern for the Deep State seems reasonable. Elon is absolutely wrecking these people. But even still, the tech right should be more clear-eyed. Similarities between the Twitter Deep State and the actual real ass American Deep State end at the media freaking out over their destruction. This is a real war for power, and the stakes are far higher than a failed company.

Over the weekend, former candidate for Congress and darling left-wing thinkboi Will Stancil suggested Elon Musk should be executed. The sentiment is fairly common on Bluesky, where violent implications are banned but calls for actual violence are generally encouraged, a philosophy well summarized by professional crazy person Akilah Hughes, last seen defending the assassin Luigi Mangione. “Can we skip to them facing the firing squads?” she seemed to ask of DOGE employees.

Concurrently, I’ve seen this dumb Matt Y tweet making the rounds again: