Summary
DOGE staffers Tyler Hassen and Bryton Shang tried pressuring the Bureau of Reclamation to open a California water pump to aid Los Angeles during January’s wildfires, though the system couldn’t reach the city.
When denied, they flew there to do it themselves but failed due to maintenance and access restrictions.
Critics called DOGE a “slapstick operation of 20-somethings they’re seeing as whiz kids but have zero knowledge.”
Trump later ordered dam releases, flooding farmland. Critics called DOGE’s actions reckless and uninformed.
Was it idiocy or malice?
Idiocy can explain a lot, but malice makes everything they’ve done and everything they’re trying to do make a lot more sense.
These acts are intentional and, even if these kids don’t understand, the people who are calling the shots do and these are not mistakes (even if they claim otherwise); They have been planning this for years and have the backing of multiple billionaires who are clearly more than happy to facilitate all this.
This is why “Hanlon’s Razor” is kind of bullshit. People should stop using it because, at the very least, it does not apply anymore.
I’m pretty sure Hanlon specifically mentions that it must be “adequately” explained, and these events are not adequately explained by stupidity alone.
Then I guess my frustrations are more with the people who misuse it.
My admittedly tepid understanding of both Hanlon’s and Occam’s Razor and how it relates to DOGE fuckery tells me that in this and many other cases, Hanlon’s Razor doesn’t fit as well as Occam’s Razor because the more straightforward reason is that malice is a simpler explanation for their behavior than stupidity, which is somewhat counterintuitive.
It’s a general rule, not an absolute law, generally I think it should be the default assumption but past a certain point, it has to be intentional.
Also, there are a lot of malicious idiots. It’s not anywhere near an XOR choice.
¿Porque no los dos?