This gets the story wrong on a fundamental level because it assumes DOGE was about what Musk claimed. DOGE was about stealing data, getting Musk contracts, shutting down investigations and regulations of Musk’s companies, and terrorizing federal workers. On that front, it succeeded.
Nazi bastard- he should be in El Salvador.
« …as he winds down his *service* … » 🙄
It's appalling how universally the mainstream media make the most basic of mistakes: --attributing good faith to Trump and his allies. #Journalism
And it remains to be seen just how finished he is. I'm sure that him sliding into the shadows could as easily mean that he'll be doing something even worse.
Parker and Scherer were always reliably credulous at WaPo, too. Parker, in particular, deserves odium for for her coverage of Trump’s coup attempt from Nov. 2020 through Jan. 6. She was a useful conduit for soothing sources playing good cop on the Trump team: it was a “tantrum”, he was “acting out”…
I’m old enough to remember her meltdown about not being invited to Naomi Biden’s wedding
Lol, I’d forgotten. Explains a lot of why the press are so furiously tearing at Biden’s political cadaver.
What's a good term for that? Something equivalent to "greenwashing" or "sanewashing."
WaPo’s Perry Bacon was the only columnist I ever saw who recognized and criticized this phenomenon on the part of the press. David Ignatius, meanwhile, flatly described it as a coup as it was happening, which makes his current obsequiousness so disappointing.
Lol, I don’t know anything pithy for promoting putschist pitter patter. Josh Dawsey was her partner in all that, btw. He’s at WSJ now.
I'm advised "whitewashing" would work. Def OG if so
I believe that's the OG Whitewashing
Oh. I need to process, gimme a sec
This guy gets it! DOGE is a SCAM. And a grift. Know that, and it makes a lot more sense.
It’s an Ashley Parker-mean girl production—to be expected.
talk about a completely naive assessment of what has been going on since January. Wow.
Cynical, not naive. They have a role to play, and they're doing it. It's their livelihood after all.
Elon Musk is a genius. 🤡 Some people used to like to claim that.
“Service” as he winds down his “service”? 🤮
"DOGE was about stealing data." 100% How do we get our data back, and prosecute him?
how do we get unicorns? 🔫
It's amazing how many professional journalists *still* think that what Musk says at any given time is what he believes. These people have been reporting on him for fifteen years. Haven't they noticed that pattern?
“He’s so rich and he talks to the media! How could he not be trustworthy?!”
It was also about destroying the administrative state, which the Republicans have dreamed of doing since the creation of Social Security
The administrative state, aka "The Socialism That Dare Not Say Its Name."
The lack of critical thinking by journalists with the clout of someone like Ashley Parker is frightening.
They are well aware of their role and what it means.
You’re likely right about that!
The Atlantic wants a story of ego and hubris because that feels narratively tidy—like Musk's downfall is inevitable, the system will self-correct, and liberal institutions will eventually reassert control. But what actually happened is far messier and darker.
this Atlantic piece commits the classic liberal error of taking bad-faith actors at face value. Foolish! Naïve!
(they are on the side of the bad-faith actors, always. why does anyone consider them "liberal"?)
Oh, friend. That unpacks a lot of discourse, but I can boil it down to a few main points: - Institutional Liberalism ≠ Actual Leftism - They Platform Bad-Faith Thinkers - They Perform Balance at the Expense of Truth - They Love a Good Empire Glow-Up - Look at where the US Overton Window is!
Very nice summary, thanks! It feels like we're losing more truth-tellers by the day. We may have to rely on "humorless" bsky to keep us informed. There's a lot of expertise here. The more humorless the better, if it means discouraging the xitters and scolds from migrating.
In the modern world, the most valuable asset is information (by far) and this guy has gotten a huge amount of that.
Yep, they got their back door into all the government information systems. So if what they hope happens, which is our society collapses, They'll be ready to step in and take over, with at least the backbone to work off of that will allow them to identify and neutralize threats as fast as possible.
trust the atlantic to believe what musk says even when its trying to do a takedown
They don't believe Musk. They know what they are doing.
Mmm... Going to disagree here. DOGE was about the KGB. All of the other stuff had already happened, was already happening, or was Project 2025.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
💯. It was all about the data to feed his AI machine so he can beat Sam Altman
I'm gonna take a guess that they didn't talk to any federal workers. It's very clear from the inside what the point was.
To coin a phrase, no duh.
bsky.app/profile/paul...
He got was his 250 million paid for and then some. It's all he cares about. Oh, and eugenics policies.
Agreed.
and he got all our data.
This is why I cannot trust corporate/mainstream media. They always give white people the benefit of the doubt! They come off as underhanded because they are trying to gaslight the public into reflexively believing in white innocence. Elon musk has been an evil big for a long time.
It is amazing that all these media outlets still have not figured out that everything trump and Musk and the GOP say is a complete lie. Just utter failures at their jobs.
YUP!!!
DOLE - Department Of Looting by Elon
has the Atlantic ever gotten it right? I mean in the last 10 years or so?
If anyone is surprised, they aren’t paying attention. Everything Trump touches, dies.
The only fall has been Musk’s declining Tesla stock otherwise he got everything he wanted.
And even that's not much of a truism anymore. The price is back up to almost exactly what it was on Election Day.
The price is still too high
and everyday a new felon's deal makes him more $$$$$, but leon wont tell what he did for the election until he's on the stand.
Like the journalists who think his ownership of Twitter/X has been a failure because he lost users & advertisers. He bought the platform to bully & misinform the masses, which he has succeeded in doing.
And to make it useless for organising.
Excellent point. I wonder if that was intentional. I'd guess it was just lucky for him, but I suppose he could have thought it might happen as he consciously decided to turn Tw into a MAGAt hellscape.
Yes, it was.
Exactly. The sabotage against Twitter has been a crime against the fourth estate.
BUT Twitter takeover was not a complete success because Bluesky has 36 mln users. DOGE is different since the government cannot be replaced.
He got the data Putin asked for
🎯
Exactly. So many people who should know are seemingly blind.
Decline is relative. He's still the richest man in the world. He still has influence outsized to his skill level. I'm sure he sleeps O.K. at night. To quote Wolfcastle 'on a big pile of money with lots of pretty girls'.
Good thread about Musk here: bsky.app/profile/fion...
I could not agree more. Credulous misapprehension of Musk's motives runs rampant in the media.
I couldn't agree more. The data theft is such a massive issue and instead of covering it, we're getting pieces like this where we are tacitly supposed to feel bad about the fact that he's ostracized?
Exactly.
True. And he was in the White House YESTERDAY for the meeting with the South African President.
Exactly. The man can now divert payments wherever he wants or hold them up. Why anyone thinks he has stepped away just because he is not showing up in offices being rude and arrogant to Federal workers is naive
Bank robbed, robber flees bank.
"Elon in five words," ^
💯 facts
You’re forgetting stealing the data on behalf of the Russians.
He is a repulsive person to everybody. His egomania is repellent. Trump keeps him around because he is in thrall to his massive wealth and aspires to it as his power diminishes once he leaves the WH. Hundreds of billion$ is quite the power accelerator.
Exactly. It was not a coincidence that all of the agencies that DOGE targeted were in the process of conducting investigations against Elon Musk and his companies. There has been no scrutiny of any of his contracts or any other aspects of his business.
Yup, and it also was a test run of how far the GOP could get away with defying court orders and constitution itself Money appropriated, and agencies created, by past congresses can now just be cancelled This is all illegal. But conservatives are at war w/the ppl and law; always have been.
I won’t be happy until he’s been bankrupted.
Every single DOGE cut has been *reversed in the current budget.* It was a scam so Musk could remove the regulators after his companies, secure contracts, and steal massive amounts of Americans’ data. It also purged good people so Trump can replace them with MAGA loyalists
Precisely.
You are right, Max Berger
Agree.
💯🎯
Yup. In order to fully judge whether someone succeeded or failed, you need to understand what they were trying to achieve. DOGE was never about what they said it was about. That should have been very clear to everyone from the outset.
It was also about killing Africans on a massive scale by destroying USAid and PEPFAR. Musk's grandparents were Canadian Nazis and he clearly shares their views.
YES. So tired of mainstream media sanewashing Musk and DOGE. It was not about government efficiency, it was about greed, theft, and destruction. Grifters gonna grift. #TeslaTakedown
(What's a word like "sanewashing" but for covering up evil as if it is good? Goodwashing? That doesn't sound quite right. 🤔)
Propaganda.
📌
Yes! Yes. Anybody assuming that the GOP is trying to display competence is getting the story wrong. Failure is success for them, and it proves to their voters that the government is unreliable.
The only chaotic variable was the public. The community forced him to pay a price for his viciousness. I'm in no hurry to forget it.
If the American people actually believe DOGE was created to eliminate WFA, be in denial that it was a smoke screen to gather personal data to be used for AI development. Eliminate AI regulation,use that data as he wishes without consequences. Again, they will put a twist on it to sound fantastic. 😤
www.fastcompany.com/91284625/us-... The US digital service was developed to improve people's experience on Government websites. DOGE took over and stole our data. DOGE must go away and bring back the US digital service.
I will never understand the impulse to take any of these people at face value: we know they lie, they know they lie, why does anyone not approach them skepticism first? (Rhetorical because I am aware that the answer is cravenness and the proximity of power and wealth. I still expect better though)
💯
@anildash.com has a really great post expounding on DOGE as "procurement capture" here: www.anildash.com/2025/01/04/D...
Dismantling. Destruction. Cutting whatever, where-ever incl competitors, organisations against corruption, for safety, park rangers, air safety etc etc etc. Corruption on huge scale!
How is everyone STILL getting MAGA wrong after all this time? Whatever they claim they are doing, that's what they are not doing. I didn't go to journalism school but I could do better than *waves hands at all mainstream media except Rolling Stone and Teen Vogue*
And making DOGE a real agency is part of the big beautiful bill.
Parker's credulous treatment of Musk would be better if she wore the hot dog costume.
I'm almost embarrassed for Ashley Parker, because she is really buying Musk's lies. I hope she finds other work, because journalism is not what she's doing.
Let the Russians kill him
Well I’d say deport him back to Canada, but I’m sure they don’t want him back— EVER!! So, cart your sorry ass back to So Africa and take your SpaceX with you!! 👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👍🏻
Ashley Parker is a first-rate rube
Stories claiming Musk is winding down are downright laughable. People are falling for this 💩? Ambush of Ramaphosa by Trump was led by Musk. Pre-visit, changed GROK to push "white genocide". Feed Trump lies about supposed genocide to ambush Ramaphosa on live TV. Musk's existence is smoke and mirrors.
Yes. Also about creating a power vacuum in the federal government / bureaucracy that Trump loyalists could rush in to fill.
Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer are Trump access reporters---have been for years. they frame everything through the Trump lens. One thing they are not--is credible journalists.
can you give me an example about how they’re trump access reporters?
And about destroying foreign aid without a congressional vote.
The media of all types always does Elon PR work
You are 100% right.
He was also doing no one a “service” but himself
Gangsterismo is back, baby
hm four pinnochios pants on fire, how could we possibly question the statements of our betters
What would you expect with Ashley Parker's name on the byline? Wrong or slanted? There's Ashley!
DOGE is (another) within-government criminal enterprise. All should be prosecuted for treason. Benedict Arnold had nothing on this gang of degenerates bent on the destruction of America under the Constitution.
BREAKING: A new leak of a DOGE document shows DOGE found only TWO potential cases of Social Security fraud in 110,000 new claims. In the process, they slowed down retirement processing 25%. DOGE isn't catching fraud. They're committing fraud.
bsky.app/profile/seth...
And he's not gone. He's working in the shadows with AI and all of our data, cooking up Phase 2.
Exactly.
Well on the one hand, he didn't save us very much money and on a net basis life will be more expensive for most people once the budget bill passes, but on the other hand government services will be much worse for everyone, so who can say if it's really bad or not
Pitchbot 🎯
(Intended as a compliment)
Even this puts DOGE in a conventional frame. The mission is not merely to favor his business interests, it's to convert government into his and cronies' enterprise. Dismantle/sabotage state structure, national security, science, education, law, advance white supremacist "vision" globally.
💯 also the fall bit may be overstated as Trump basically monstered the SA president yesterday as a favor to Musk yesterday
📌
Atlantic is a mouthpiece for the state, controlled opposition. it makes sense they’d frame things the way they do here
lmao what?
understands the difference between the state and the current administration
Has a private unelected citizen ever been granted such unfettered access to the machinery of federal bureaucratic power before? It’s got to be unprecedented.
Mission accomplished - stole all our data, did irrecoverable damage to America, remained a cringelord
He's definitely already got his return on investment.
And attacking federal agencies viewed as “on the left.” A political scientist found that being perceived as a liberal agency had more to do with attracting DOGE cuts than the size of your workforce or budget.
pesky liberal things like clean air, securing Medicare and social security, even Medicaid & SNAP, the main users of which are white people I like that Repubs are openly owning their antisocial priorities, saying things like rape prevention are "liberal." when crime goes up bc no jobs that's on them
I don't think I will ever not suspect that it was a raiding party designed to capture government payment systems on proprietary X-linked platforms, but he found he had neither the technical capacity, the political support or the non-disclosure cover to make it happen. "Savings' were the ticket price
Stories like this is one reason why MAGA perpetuates.
DOGE helped elon and project 2025 succeed
Also, DOGE is still there, doing things. DOGE staffers still run huge amounts of the federal government. And they all—Still!—report to Elon. He is still running DOGE, in all but name, as we speak. Oh, and Trump still loves him, personally. He’s just making a kabuki show of “stepping back”.
Totally inept reporting to take DOGE at its professed purpose without looking at the evidence to see what it actually did. Especially when we know that there is very little fraud or abuse in fed gov spending.
Basic Civics tells you was always a con. Executive branch cannot appropriate money. Congress sets the spending limits not Musk.
Agree. He accomplished what he wanted to do. I think he still wants to be co-President, tho, so I was surprised he stepped back.
Not to mention that Musk was invited to the Oval Office just yesterday.
Exactly. Mission accomplished.
Thank you for saying this! I read the whole thing and kept thinking "The Atlantic is really just going to treat all of these efforts as if they were legitimate and in good faith???"
"as he winds down his service" lol
Indeed, it will just help Musk do all these things behind the scenes while many people presume he is out. He just won't be blamed for it.
📌
well, at "destroying the bureaucracy" he got pretty far, too. but it's a choice to call this "service", and while they're happily amplifying his damage-control propaganda, there's no sign that he's really retreating from it.