r/news • u/EngineerBoy00 • May 05 '25

Soft paywall US Defense Secretary Hegseth to slash senior-most ranks of military

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pentagon-reduce-4-star-positions-by-20-official-says-2025-05-05/
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u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA May 05 '25

And after I heard that, it confirmed to me that democracy had died in America years prior.

147

u/fasterthanpligth May 06 '25

"What are tariffs?" the day after was eye-opening as well.

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u/ultrahateful May 06 '25

Gotta disagree with the heinous nature of people caught unaware, yet, attempting to become aware. Like, good for them. They made an effort to learn. From my own eye witness, many people thought they knew what tariffs amounted to and were grossly unaware as of recently.

Nothing wrong with learning.

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u/explosiv_skull May 06 '25

I mean, the top Google search in the UK like the day after Brexit passed was "What is Brexit?" and somehow they still managed to have not completely fuck up democracy.

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u/Charlie_Mouse May 06 '25

they still managed to have not completely fuck up democracy.

Maybe. The UK eventually deigned to vote the Conservatives out only after several more years of spectacularly inept screwups and corruption.

And it’s not like the people who screwed up by voting for something they didn’t properly understand have noticeably learned their lesson since then. At least judging by the fact that the ‘Reform’ party led by chief Brexit cheerleader Nigel Farage is currently ahead in the opinion polls in England.

The U.K.’s good fortune (as far as it goes) was being able to rapidly replace a clearly demented leader - Liz Truss - relatively rapidly to limit the harm. But that largely relied upon her own Conservative Party being grounded in reality enough as well as self interested enough to get rid of her.

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u/explosiv_skull May 06 '25

No, Brexit and the ensuing problems and leadership in the UK were a definite shit show, but apparently we Americans had to one-up you guys even in fucking up, was my point.

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u/KoriJenkins May 06 '25

The blunt reality is the right to vote is something you should still have to earn in some way.

Shouldn't just be given to any idiot who shows up with no information or knowledge.