We need experts to rule society, they said. No, we didn't. They made Covid, inflation, crime, trans, etc. worse. Facing a backlash, elites censored & persecuted ordinary people. Now, they're panicking because a populist counter-elite is, finally, putting an end to their grift. https://t.co/IgjvOVCJJr
Video Transcript AI Summary
Doge, Trump, and Musk are challenging the excessive spending and power of government administrators. This "managerial elite" – encompassing experts, technocrats, and those controlling narratives – resists reforms, using taxpayer money to fund allies who justify expanding state control. Their actions, including censorship of conservative voices and the cover-up of Biden's cognitive decline, backfired. The public's approval of Democrats and trust in mainstream media are equally low at 31%. Elites' actions regarding issues like gender-affirming care and COVID undermined their claims to superior governance. The belief in technocrats' unique qualifications to run society is no longer credible.
Speaker 0: Through the Department of Governmental Efficiency, Doge, Trump and Musk have created an existential threat to the managerial grift of excess governmental spending. The counter elite is determined to scale back the administrative state and the bloated class of experts, technocrats, administrators, and narrative enforcers it employs across the globe. In their resistance to reforms at USAID and other government agencies, the final lie of the managers is being widely exposed. Their expertise often accomplishes nothing at all. Instead, they use their power over the taxpayers' treasury not to solve society's problems with careful spending and planning, but to subsidize censors, lawyers, activists, academics, and journalists who then rationalize the continual expansion of the state control to fund an increasing number of professional jobs in response to the populist threat, the managerial elite in government and their professional allies in journalism, academia, and civil society doubled down on censorship, propaganda, and narrative control.
Patriotism, nationalism, and traditional beliefs, elites argued, were hateful, protofascistic, and in need of correction. Elites turned against the rules based order they claimed to uphold, working to erode free speech, democracy, civil liberties in the name of preserving them. They started to openly demand and fund the censorship of conservative and other disfavored voices, particularly populist ones. Through their support for censorship and welfare, government agencies and news media organizations discredited themselves and alienated former supporters of the establishment. By spreading misinformation for obviously political reasons, including to prop up Biden's presidency, the news media betrayed the trust of its readers and viewers.
Their errors culminated in the cover up of Joe Biden's cognitive decline and subsequent attempt to astroturf support for Kamala Harris. This misstep sealed the deal for Trump's election and his alliance with Elon Musk. It is thus fitting that the exact same percentage, 31, of the public say that they approve of the Democrats and trust the mainstream news media. Most importantly, elites' own actions on issues ranging from gender affirming care to addiction to COVID undermine the justifications for their rule. The idea that technocrats and administrators were uniquely qualified to run society simply no longer made any sense.
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
Democrats were the party of "reinventing government." Then, they decided to weaponize it. The reason Democrats today defend waste, fraud, and abuse, even at the expense of the separation of powers, is because their wealth and their ability to rule depend on it. https://t.co/rXw8fzvpJA
