Hacker News Reader

Comment by epistasis | Hacker News Reader

My worldview is to pursue truth above all else. If that results in arguments, fine, it's a price I'm willing to pay for honesty and reality!

If there was nuance, please provide it. I don't see any in your comment at all, but I dos see lots of generalizations and a very narrow take on the world and where wealth comes from.

I would love nothing more than to improve my world view through argumentation, but that requires providing facts rather than trafficking in the falsehoods of others, like those of DOGE.

View on HN

Here's something that might expand your view of the world. One of the agencies that saw major disruption was USAID. They don't just fund clean water for kids in Africa. They also fund regime change efforts worldwide. And these efforts have become social clubs for people who couldn't hack actual politics to meet and talk about how they are going to overthrow $DICTATOR. For years. Funded by the American taxpayer.

Here's an interview with one of the people who used to attend these dinners. He had to get a job as a plumber once the USAID funding dried up, and is happy about not having to lie anymore: https://meduza.io/amp/feature/2025/02/07/ya-ne-mogu-bolshe-y...

Use Google Translate. Meduza is heavily biased in favor of the EU, it is not a pro-US or Putin media outlet.

Now, this is just one guy who had to get a real job. Imagine how many others like him exist in the world. Now that USAID has been given a nice firm shake and a bunch of dead weight fell off - maybe funding can be focused on something new.

Without this kind of major disruption it would be impossible to effect this kind of change. Now think beyond USAID: could other departments have had just as many parasites? And remember: it's not just about saving money. It's also about sending the resources to a different place, and removing entrenched dead weight from power structures.

If this is the best you got, it's a huge fucking indictment of DOGE. I'm supposed to be happy about thousands of children starving to death because I'm only consuming Russian language propaganda and prefer dictators to children living?

If you read your comment with clear eyes I think you will find it as a huge indictment of Doge cutting USAID.

Loosely held, remember? No need to be so strident. The browbeating is a bit much, you should be more humble.

Regime change in the noble pursuit of upholding the status quo, that is to say, the rules-based liberal order - liberal democracy - is a muddy, murky, dirty business. Some see that dying system of control as rotten to the core.

I do. I see it as the same system waging optional wars kinetic and psychological home and abroad in the attempt to cling to power.

And more agree with me every day.

> If there was nuance, please provide it.

I'm just not locked in good guy, bad guy mode. As I said, I'm apprehensive about what Musk does.

I think a lot of people think that Musk betrayed them and their politics and so everything he touches is automatically el diablo. The anti-woke Twitter thing was the last straw because it meant a hit against their moral superiority. I will just say that when lots of people thought he was a good guy, I was apprehensive about him then too.

> generalizations and a very narrow take on the world

Generalizations also means I can be open to new ideas, if you want to be charitable to me.

> I would love nothing more than to improve my world view through argumentation

I don't believe it is possible to change anyone's deep set ideas. I have come to the conclusion that trying to is hurtful/spiteful.

Musk being a "bad guy" or "good guy" has zero to do with my comment, that's not adding any nuance. Also, "betrayal" of views has noting to do with my comment.

I think you were reaching for the word "nuance" without even reading my comment for what it says and the claims within.

> I don't believe it is possible to change anyone's deep set ideas. I have come to the conclusion that trying to is hurtful/spiteful.

That is a deeply pernicious belief. People change their deeply held views all the time. I have mostly consistent values, but those values lead to changing my views quite often.

Anybody that doesn't change their views is not worth talking to on any matter. What's the point? If a person's views can't change they can't share anything true because the chances of happening across the right views from the start is zero, so there's practically zero that can be learned from the person. And there's no changing their views either!

Strong views, loosely held...

You are a rare breed then, good on you.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com