this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
430 points (99.5% liked)

News

36201 readers
2281 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. 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. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.


Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, blogs, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.


7. No duplicate posts.


If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.


All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Summary

Staff at the Social Security Administration (SSA) warn the agency is in “complete, utter chaos” due to drastic budget cuts, office closures, and job losses led by Elon Musk.

Plans to cut 7,000 jobs and centralize operations have disrupted services, with website outages and record backlogs.

Acting Commissioner Leland Dudek backs DOGE’s changes, despite union opposition and legal pushback. Critics say Musk is pushing misinformation to justify dismantling SSA.

With staffing at 50-year lows, experts fear a “death spiral” and potential collapse in service delivery.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] dhork@lemmy.world 38 points 10 months ago (3 children)

The problem is that many Trump-supporting seniors have been told for all of their adult lives by Conservative media that government is corrupt and wasteful. So when the checks stop coming, they won't blame their team for it, they will ask Trump to double down on the cuts until everything is fixed. They take it as axiomatic that everything wrong with government is due to bloat and waste, and good luck convincing them otherwise.

[–] OffColor@sh.itjust.works 39 points 10 months ago (4 children)

I dunno. Fucking with trans people, black people, women is cool. Destroying the economy in general is cool. Eradicating education and free lunches is cool. Cozying up to foreign states that are clearly fascist is cool. Sexually assaulting women is cool.

But fucking with old, white people's money is most certainly not cool. It's surprising how quickly a mind is changed when it is finally their turn to suffer. This isn't something many seniors can live without, literally. They rely on social security as their only income source. If social security fails, the Republicans will kill a significant portion of their own voter base.

[–] dhork@lemmy.world 21 points 10 months ago (1 children)

No, when the checks stop coming Conservative media will say "This is all part of Trump's Master Plan, the woke corruption runs deep and it will take a while to fully root it all out", and their voters will buy it (but nothing else, since they all are running out of money)....

[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Good thing Fox news is on cable something that won't be able to afford without those checks. So I hope they al fucking strave to death. Sick of these old fucks getting in the way and stopping progress. Because of their short sited racist views.

[–] dhork@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago (2 children)

It's not just Fox anymore, though. If anything, the hardcore ones have migrated off of Fox onto other, more extreme platforms.

[–] kautau@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

Like Facebook, which boomers are addicted to and lap up every bit of misinformation years after telling their kids “not to believe everything they read on the internet”

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

Yea it's oan newsmax, right wing grifters

[–] Bristingr@lemm.ee 9 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I'm not giving them any sympathy. They voted for it.

I already expected that I won't get Social Security as a Millennial because of these fucks. They simply added everyone else to that list.

My mom still refuses to believe they'll end social security as they've "been saying that for 30+ years", but I guess she'll learn that Musk doesn't give a shit.

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

Not only that job prospects for some fields are piss poor or extremely difficult to get into it

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

[–] Bristingr@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

Not in this scenario. They'll play both sides.

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

They can excuse racism, but they draw the line on welfare

[–] InverseParallax@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Thank you, Britta.

[–] takeda@lemm.ee 8 points 10 months ago

Maybe, but on 4/5 protests yesterday I saw something interesting.

Typically it is younger people, minorities that are oppressed.

This time majority were white people, vets, seniors (many on walkers or wheelchairs). Actually there was a very small number of minorities. As I understand it is because of ICE and threat of being locked up in prison in El Salvador (not criticizing, this is all understandable as being darker skinned places a target on you for corrupted law enforcement)

Though this gives me hope that actually a large number of seniors actually understand who is responsible.

[–] kautau@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

Yeah exactly. Good luck convincing them this wasn’t some “joe and the ho” plot that they so easily ate when russia spent billions on social media telling that the dems were coming for their money so they could put Krasnov in power to destabilize the west.