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PaperclipPerfector  21hr ago (text post)   3925 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 24, 2025

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others mentioned , on twitter, that this selects for people who are the best at bullshitting.

how many people can the administration fire? i would like to see the TSA be trimmed, but I would not hold my breath on that.

The beauty of doing this as a random unplanned one-off is that if you're a Milton lost in the cracks, you haven't practiced bullshitting well enough to have a good story lined up.

I don't know how good it will be at determining who gets an A+ and who gets a D-, but I suspect it will reveal who to give some Fs to.

Seems like a "bureaucracy not measured in bureaucrats" case. Trimming the TSA would just result in having longer waits at airports, as it's not like the TSA would relax its checks just because they are understaffed. You can't fight the bureaucracy ratchet in such a disorganised way - if you only reduce the number of bureaucrats, then the bureaucracy will clamour for more staff, whereas if you only reduce the number of tasks, then the bureaucracy will lobby for more tasks. Good luck telling the electorate that they should accept a 0.0001% greater rate of terrorism, anyway, when the next instance of aviation-related terrorism happens.

Public opinion is pretty firmly that the Thousands Standing Around/Theater Security Administration is a jobs program for Walmart rejects which doesn't actually stop any terrorist attacks, though.

Do you expect this to withstand the ensuing media blitz if 1. Trump downsizes the TSA, 2. a terrorist attack happens?

To be blunt, if a terrorist attack happens, it strengthens the case for stronger borders (if foreigners did it) and is terrible optics for a domestic terrorist's cause (because terrorism is antisocial, obviously). That's how I see it at least.

I mean, DOGE in general has. So yes.

I'm not Hydro but I absolutely expect this to withstand the ensuing media blitz. Who gives a shit about what the media wants or does anymore? Trump would be more at risk from an alternative media blitz, and that just won't happen in this scenario. Most people understand that the TSA doesn't do anything worthwhile or productive anyway.

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