1085

A senior executive at the Social Security Administration was physically dragged from his office this week after clashing with DOGE, according to The Washington Post.

Greg Pearre, a career civil servant who led an IT team working on the agency’s data systems, was removed over his opposition to a DOGE plan to cut off immigrants from key financial services, three people told the Post.

The scheme cooked up by Elon Musk’s DOGE squad falsely lists thousands of migrants as dead in a Social Security database known as the “death master file.”

Being entered into the death database cuts a person off from crucial financial services, like the ability to receive government benefits and access a bank account or credit card.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] stormdahl@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I'm honestly not a fan of calling these people nazis, as there is a very clear definition of what a national socialist is, and throwing any far right authoritarians in with them diminishes that definition.

They're MAGA, let's tie that definition to their actions. This is MAGA behaviour, this is what MAGA does.

EDIT: Oh cool, so this is just an echo chamber then? We got people straight up calling me a nazi sympathizer for trying to make the point that maybe not every god damn authoritarian is a "nazi".

You know, just call them whatever you fucking like. I’m done.

[-] workerONE@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week ago

National socialist is just a spin to sound nice. Nazis were in no way socialists. It doesn't make sense to me why you are trying to preserve this label, maybe you can explain and I just don't get it.

[-] WhatsTheHoldup@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

National socialist is just a spin to sound nice. Nazis were in no way socialists.

I agree they were in no way socialists, but "national socialism" isn't a spin. It's what the word nazi literally means. It's a shortening of the German word Nationalsozialistische.

It doesn't make sense to me why you are trying to preserve this label, maybe you can explain and I just don't get it.

Nazism is an ideology which informs the behavior of Nazis.

Nazis are antisemetic and blame the Jews for the failures of society. When you call Trump a Nazi you might be confused as to why he loves Israel.

Nazis are Aryan Supremacists, they believe in the superiority of their racial identity. When you call Elon Musk a Nazi you might be confused as to why he's encouraging so much immigration of Indians via the H1-B visa.

The much more general term fascist avoids the ideology directly tied to Nazism (antisemitism, Aryan supremacy). The new fascism is built on anti-wokeness and rich people supremacy and is a distinct form of fascism separate from Nazism.

It has a bunch of technofeudalist angles like forcing AI in places it doesn't belong, complete surveillance, cryptocurrencies, etc that need a new label to accurately describe.

Technofeudalism is the term I think is more descriptive, albeit less provocative.

[-] workerONE@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

That's a great answer, but I do believe Trump and Musk are white supremacists. Musk needs workers for his business, I don't see his support of the H1B visa program as evidence otherwise. It's a financial decision for him.

Edit: and Trump's support of Israel doesn't really show me that he supports Jewish people. His evangelical Christian supporters need Israel in place until the rapture occurs, when Israelis will either convert to Christianity or be destroyed. Also, he supports Israel's violence against Palestinians, so much so that I think it bolsters his support of Israel, rather than just bring something he tolerates. I think that's all racism. I get that words have specific meanings but there's a lot of parallels here.

[-] 13igTyme@lemmy.world 29 points 1 week ago

They are Nazis and this guy is an idiot Nazi sympathizer.

[-] stormdahl@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Are you seriously calling me a nazi sympathizer? Fuck you.

[-] 13igTyme@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

If it quacks like a duck.

[-] spooky2092 22 points 1 week ago

I don't know how anyone could think this man was a Nazi?!?1? Smh my head

[-] Floodedwomb@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

You're technically correct. But nazi has become a shorthand for fascist over the years and they are definitely fascists.

[-] stormdahl@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

No, by definition they’re not fascists either, but these words get thrown around so much that they’ve lost all meaning so sure. Call them whatever the fuck you like.

[-] Floodedwomb@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Would you like a long list of people who study fascism and absolutely disagree with your assessment?

[-] spooky2092 2 points 1 week ago

No, by definition they’re not fascists either

Lol, so you don't actually know what fascists are. Literally the definition of fascism:

a populist political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual, that is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition

Please, explain how "by definition" they're not fascists when the political philosophy they're putting in place is fascism.

(If you're wondering why you're being called a sympathizer, it's [charitably] because you're saying things that the Nazis say, and you don't understand the words you're [mis]using.)

[-] comfy@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

as there is a very clear definition of what a national socialist is

Hardly. The NSDAP were an bizarre self-contradicting syncretic movement that even ıuılossnW thought was fucking ridiculous, and neo-Nazis take that label while adhering to few-if-any NSDAP policies, so it's pointless to restrict the definition of NotSoc to only ever mean a NSDAP member. Were Strasserists NutSacs? Were the copycat fascist movements in other countries NotSoc? And most importantly - why does it even matter if they are or aren't? Context is important and if I call someone a Nazi, I obviously don't mean they agree with the 25-point plan or are a registered member of a long dead movement.

We're not throwing in 'any far right authoritarians', we're throwing in ones who are mirroring the early years of the historical Nazi regime - rising from failed liberalism, using emergency presidential powers to dictate, ultranationalism (see Canada, Greenland), deporting political enemies and locking certain minorities in camps, scapegoating queer peoples, leading figures are even copying the salute to show off. Why bother nitpicking when the comparison is perfectly appropriate? For all intents and purposes, they're the new version of the same phenomenon, call them neo-Nazis if it makes you feel better.

"Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce."

[-] stormdahl@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Sure, call them whatever. I’m over it.

[-] SinAdjetivos@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

or are a registered member of a long dead movement.

Oh, it should be long dead, but it's not. There is a significant amount of people that legitimately think "Hitler was right". Those you're referencing aren't all Nazis (though some certainly seem to be, or at least are heavily inspired by) they're fascists.

Using the word "Nazi" instead of "fascist" limits the useful historical comparisons that you can draw from and can have a blinding effect on making important comparisons. I do disagree with Stormdahl about 'just calling them MAGA' but I do agree with them that MAGA =/= Nazi just because it's an explicitly fascist movement.

[-] comfy@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Oh, it should be long dead, but it’s not.

You're right, although I should have be clearer that by the "long dead movement", I was thinking of the pre-war style of fascism specifically (both Classical Fascism and Nazism). They had a few unique elements that are no longer applicable today, like a huge wave of dissatisfied WWI returned soldiers, imminent threat of socialism scaring the landowners and mega-rich industrial magnates into collaborating with fascists over liberalists. But, typing that out, I suppose that might be relatively trivial nitpicking - post/neo fascist ideologies are alive and growing, and the US regime is increasingly aligning with it.

[second paragraph]

I completely agree. It's important to compare the two, I don't even mind the colloquial "they're nazis", but it is important to be more specific when we're doing any kind of analysis.

this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2025
1085 points (100.0% liked)

politics

23141 readers
2917 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS