Online, new/dissident/far-right influencers are treating it as childish and ridiculous to care that people are probably dead because of the rushed and disorganized and incompetent and in-many-cases-illegal efforts at “cost-cutting” spearheaded by Musk.1 It’s “emotional manipulation,” they keep saying. Plus: Isn’t it also bad that some of these places are so reliant on U.S. aid? Isn’t that the real crime, that we let them become dependent?

I’m not going to quote these influencers directly. What they’re saying is callous and idiotic and I’m trying to simply make a point here, not stoke the endless online beef that makes it harder for people to take all this seriously.

One of the most frustrating things about this crop of midwits is that they seem to be completely new to politics. For example, disputes about the efficacy of international aid aren’t new. They couldn’t be less new. Talk to anyone who has done international aid and, while they don’t all agree, they will likely have some critique of how it’s delivered, if not the overall project. “We should suddenly and without announcement pull healthcare access from vulnerable people around the world” is not a meaningful approach unless you are either callous or a truly hardened sociopath.

… the Trumpians thoroughly trounce everyone, control everything, and still are intent on breaking things rather than passing legislation. That’s partly because neither Donald Trump nor Elon Musk has the attention span to actually understand federal agencies and spending, and it’s partially because their movement is 90% animated by resentment, and resentment tends to break things rather than shrink or reform them.

Jesse Singal, who vows that “Singal-Minded is not going to be a #Resistance publication, but I just want to pause a beat on what’s happening right now.”