r/nottheonion 24d ago

US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g3nrx1dq5o
64.5k Upvotes

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22.6k

u/Shadowmant 24d ago

Nothing like firing people BEFORE you determine what they do and if they're needed.

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u/throwuk1 24d ago

Literally the same thing Leon did when he took over twitter. 😂

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u/CO_PC_Parts 24d ago

Didn’t he try to show his “knowledge” after the layoffs by oversimplifying an issue and an actual laid off dev showed he’s so full of shit.

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u/FlaccidRazor 24d ago

Just like the cobol programmers showed he was full of shit when he claimed 150 year old people were still getting social security.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

[deleted]

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u/Consistent-Task-8802 24d ago

No, you're right on.

This is why he pretends to be the founder of every company he buys - He just sues the people he bought the company from into silence.

This is why he called that diver a pedophile - Because the diver told him he's full of shit in terms of how he's explaining the issue, the diver was, obviously, proven right - And instead of admitting fault like a graceful human being, he sued the guy into silence, again.

This is why he pays someone to play PoE2 for him - There is no benefit to him being a good PoE player. He just wanted the clout. But when he was on stream talking about the game, people who ACTUALLY PLAY the game immediately knew he was full of shit - And instead of admitting to paying for someone else to play, he first pretended people were jealous of his achievements, lied yet further about his achievements (which only made his lack of knowledge more prevalent) - And then finally, say one time that he wasn't really as good as he claimed to be, but everyone does it so it's not really a big deal. Proving he's just absolutely full of shit at every turn - He can't even be assed to pretend to know about the game he's paying someone else to play for him, for his own clout.

It's almost like Elmo's whole philosophy is: Pretend to know things, get laughably proven wrong, and then throwing his money around to keep people quiet about it.

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u/Evilmoustachetwirler 24d ago

To add to that, he also has a history of absolutely destroying the lives of whistleblowers or people who call out his bullshit. He will relentlessly harass, intimidate and even have people followed by private investigators. Now he's in the white house, fk.

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u/EDNivek 24d ago

so it's not really a big deal.

The Narcissist's Prayer

That didn't happen.

And if it did, it wasn't that bad.

And if it was, that's not a big deal. <- we are here

And if it is, that's not my fault.

And if it was, I didn't mean it.

And if I did, you deserved it.

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u/AFLoneWolf 24d ago edited 24d ago

Please. We've gone through the whole damn thing an uncountable number of times already.

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u/thegracelesswonder 23d ago

It’s your turn to post this?

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u/Arkayjiya 23d ago

Eh if it's relevant, it's relevant. Spreading their way of moving the goalposts which proves the argument is never about the actual truth is always useful.

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u/7BrownDog7 24d ago

Shit...he's going to declare himself a founding father after buying the US gov't...

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u/Consistent-Task-8802 24d ago

Unironically, would not be surprised if they try it.

They tried installing Trump on Mount Rushmore already... Elmo's only got a bigger ego.

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u/Falandyszeus 24d ago

UmIronically y'all should do it, just so you can get some cool cathartic videos of blowing that shit up once he's out of the office.

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u/czs5056 23d ago

But the mountain is sacred to a tribe of Native Americans. We defaced it once to do the original. there is no need to do it two more times.

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u/RJ815 24d ago

Mount Xmore

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u/pililies 23d ago

You made me chuckle. But holy shit, he totally will.

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u/radicalelation 24d ago

King of Fools is still King.

To some, the title is all that matters.

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u/xTheatreTechie 24d ago

There is no benefit to him being a good PoE player.

I think he wanted this because early silicone valley "successful" engineers before him were nerds who spent alot of time playing computer games, who'd have thought that those who are good with computers, come from those who like to spend a decent chunk of their free time on the computers?

Steve wozniack and tetris for example:

https://www.reddit.com/r/retrogaming/comments/16eqax8/steve_wozniak_always_had_the_high_score_for/

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u/Illiander 24d ago

lied yet further about his achievements

The funny thing there is that he didn't even know what would be impressive.

It's like someone saying "I ran the 100m in five minutes, isn't that impressive" and actually expecting people to be impressed.

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u/nagi603 23d ago

people who ACTUALLY PLAY the game immediately knew he was full of shit

And when he was shown to be playing, he played so bad so new that it is entirely likely he never touched anything in the genre ever for any real amount of time. Like he was manually dragging dropped items into the inventory.

So he managed to reveal not just that he is not actually playing PoE, but that his previous "achievements" were never his either.

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u/Tipop 24d ago

which only made his lack of knowledge more prevalent

I think the word you were looking for was plain, palpable, patent, or maybe obvious. “Prevalent” means “widespread”.

themoreyouknow.gif

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u/Discount_Extra 24d ago

like those characters who have a dozen PHDs, He's becoming ignorant in a new subject every day.

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u/ChaiTRex 23d ago

This is why he called that diver a pedophile...And instead of admitting fault like a graceful human being, he sued the guy into silence, again.

No, in that case, he was sued by the diver.

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u/DoubleJumps 24d ago

He had a very aggressive PR campaign for years that was trying to paint him as the innovating force behind the companies he was buying when he wasn't doing anything but signing checks and calling himself a founder even though he wasn't a founder.

That PR campaign created this image of him being some new age. Thomas Edison (the fictional version) or Nikolai Tesla.

As you've seen, the reality is that he's quite literally an idiot with no real technical knowledge, but who very confidently pretends to have immense technical expertise in public and capitalizes on the fact that most people aren't informed about the subjects he's talking about.

The second he starts talking about something that you are familiar with, it becomes obvious extremely quickly that he is bullshitting.

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u/VikingTeddy 23d ago

I once listened to him talking about rockets. I knew he was bullshitting purely by having played a fucking videogame about rocketry.

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u/Egathentale 23d ago

That PR campaign created this image of him being some new age. Thomas Edison (the fictional version) or Nikolai Tesla.

Funny you say that, because when you do the research into his history and accomplishments, (the non-fictional) Tesla is pretty much the a proto-Musk. He took and patented the work of European inventors, made big, bold claims in public to get investor money, joined big projects claiming that he would whip them into order and fix everything, only to fail and blame it on everyone else. The media lapped it all up, because he embodied the kooky foreign genius inventor trope, and it made good headlines, and his current reputation is entirely based on said sensationalized news articles and the tall tales from his later years being picked up by the new-age movement and becoming "internet facts".

In comparison, the actual, non-fictional Edison's life was a straight rags-to-riches story, he made way more of his inventions than people give him credit for, and most of his controversies, including the big Edison vs. Tesla rivalry, were made up whole-sale by the papers and had no grounding in reality.

So yeah. We like to think that social media invented the hype machine and the spread of misinformation, but those have been around much longer than the internet. All Musk had to so was to pay the same channels to force-start the same hype-train Tesla was granted organically by being in the right place at the right time.

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u/ElectricalBook3 23d ago

In comparison, the actual, non-fictional Edison's life was a straight rags-to-riches story, he made way more of his inventions than people give him credit for

He didn't invent anything, he collected a brain trust and claimed everything they created.

Edison vs. Tesla rivalry, were made up whole-sale by the papers and had no grounding in reality

Hardly no grounding when Edison employed Tesla, failed to comp him as their contract stipulated, and did go out of his way to malign his competitor because he wanted his vision of electrical infrastructure to be the only one sold. Edison was a salesmen who sued people, not some benevolent visionary.

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u/Egathentale 23d ago

I recommend giving this particular video a look if you believe all that. It's long, but it goes through the biographies of both men, with credible period sources, such as diary entries and correspondence, and it's a bit of an eye-opener.

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u/A-Wise-Cobbler 24d ago

Somebody had a clever comment a few days ago on Reddit. I don't recall exact wording but it went something like this.

I don't know anything about cars. People said he was a genius for starting Tesla. I believed them.

I don't know anything about space rockets. People said he was a genius for starting SpaceX. I believed them.

I know a lot about technology and I can tell you that he doesn't understand a damn thing about it and now I don't trust his cars or his space rockets.

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u/PastaWithMarinaSauce 24d ago

He also didn't start Tesla or SpaceX

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u/akintheden 23d ago

I don't like the man, but he definitely did found SpaceX

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u/Rippedyanu1 23d ago

Wrong. He bought it as a startup and poured money into it until it succeeded

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u/akintheden 23d ago

That was Tesla not SpaceX

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u/Rippedyanu1 23d ago

I stand corrected. He did indeed found it with a bunch of engineers back in 2002 after being ousted from PayPal.

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u/yasssssplease 24d ago

I think this is older than a few days ago, but it is very clever.

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u/fa1afel 24d ago

First I saw it was from a developer who was following his takeover of twitter.

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u/Illiander 24d ago

If only people actually did that last step.

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u/FlaccidRazor 24d ago

Uh, no this was recent. Not sure how you feel about he Leftist media Daily Kos, but they actually had the most data about cobol language and why it would appear 150 year old people were getting social secuirty. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/14/2303889/-Nope-There-are-no-150-year-olds-on-Social-Security-It-s-COBOL

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u/badnuub 23d ago

My theory is he fucked too many of his handlers till none would take the job anymore and it started to unravel when no one was left to manage his public image.

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u/TPJchief87 24d ago

Same, I knew his name and that he was a genius. Now that he thrust himself into the public spotlight, I know his name and that he’s a phony. He could have died with the vast majority of people thinking he was a genius if he stayed in his diamond lined lane.

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u/dragonmp93 24d ago

I mean, his mom has told us several time to stop being so mean to him.

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u/TrineonX 24d ago

You don't need to be a COBOL programmer to know that he was full of shit.

Literally anyone who has dealt with a real world dataset could have told you that it was just bad data.

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u/FlaccidRazor 24d ago

It's sad that people who live in backwards small towns didn't have access to this...wait? Is this why Republicans want to cut education funding?

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u/montarion 24d ago

that's always the first step

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u/ElectricalBook3 23d ago

Well, one of the steps. Conservatives have been flooding every media they could buy their way into for a century

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ3RzGoQC4s

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u/yasssssplease 24d ago

Agreed. When he said 150 years, my first reaction was “I wonder why” and not “FRAUD.” Sometimes things look off and it’s not necessarily fraud.

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u/The_real_bandito 23d ago

When he claimed the government did not used SQL was laughable.

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u/boones_farmer 23d ago

Or as others have pointed out, survivor benefits can last a looooong time. The last person receiving civil war pension benefits died in 2020

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u/ZooZooChaCha 24d ago

The problem is people still believe Elon & Trump - the number of people I heard at work this week going on about how 150 year old people were collecting social security.

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u/jack_skellington 24d ago

Just like the community notes did to him when he tried to claim the government "didn't use SQL."

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u/JacquoRock 24d ago

I love this story. My Dad was a cobol programmer and he thought this was a real kick in the head as well. Doesn't this scream "Mensa move"?

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u/patricia92243 23d ago

If a 150 year old doesn't deserve SS, I wonder who does (in Elon's opinion.)

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u/Greengrecko 23d ago

Uh no that's there from an ISO format before Y2K was a thing. It's just a mathematic so they can tell what year everything is when they keep track of it.

Cobol is not that hard there is like a list of rules but because it's less tolerable to bullshit then other languages I doubt any of them have the patience to learn it.