this post was submitted on 08 May 2025
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During a Senate hearing to review the FBI’s FY2026 budget request, Director Kash Patel was forced to admit that, despite the law requiring it, he had no such request ready to review.

This surprising development came during an awkward back-and-forth with Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), the ranking Democrat and Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which oversees and approves budget requests.

Senator Murray reminded the FBI Director that the budget request was legally required “last week,” and after the director responded, she surprisedly added, “And your answer is you just understand you’re not going to follow the law?”

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[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 148 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (6 children)

The fucking clownshow continues.

This is you going in to your Professor's office hours to ostensibly turn in your final paper for a course, it is half your grade in the class, and you actually just sit down and explain you are 'still working on it' and 'can i get it to you maybe by the end of next academic quarter?'

I am honestly so, so relieved by this high level public idiocy.

I really am not kidding.

I've struggled with impostor syndrome much of my life.

All gone. Done. No more.

I am legitimately more competent than almost everyone in this administration at their own jobs, despite the fact that I hardly have any relevant credentials to most of their positions.

[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

...yeah. Honestly, this is simultaneously disturbing and encouraging.

On one hand, Random Joe is more competent than Trump Regime officials. On the other, Rebellious Joe is more competent than Fascist officials. It is weird for the venn diagram to be a circle like this.

[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago

In fairness, neither do they.

[–] Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 7 points 9 hours ago (3 children)

I'm saving your comment because this was my exact experience, too, and I'm glad to see this silver lining occurred for others.

These people truly are mentally children, running around playing grown-up. Meanwhile, when I was an actual child, I was expected to be held to the same standards as grown-ups by Boomer parents (and as you likely know, autism + adults not explaining their social expectations = very difficult childhood.)

It's been a trip to see high-level government absolutely sucking at skills that I struggled with for ages, skills that I have been made to feel bad about for lacking. I work harder any day that I go out into public, even if it's my day off, than any of these privileged losers ever seem to. I have to be extremely mindful of myself - my posture, my tone of voice, my volume, my face (can't have resting bitch face), on top of whatever other tasks I have to do, every second of every minute that I'm around other people. I'm also expected to be aware of and mindful of the feelings of those around me, so I have to also accurately rate their posture, tone, etc. Fail any of these things, and anything I say or do has a chance of being misinterpreted poorly. It's fucking exhausting, and I wish there were more understanding and acceptance that allowed us to relax.

These are part of a whole set of skills - situational awareness, social awareness, self awareness - that the modern GOP appears to completely lack. They were raised without needing to apply them, and we can see evidence of their privileged backgrounds whenever they pull some tone-deaf stunt and still expect approval. Whenever I'm feeling down, I can remind myself that I may not be perfect, but at least I'm not as out-of-touch as they are.

[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 2 points 4 hours ago

I think we might have a Anacyclosis situation going on here. It is an hypothesis that posits that civilizations are like animals - they are born, mature, age, die, and replaced by their children. Hopefully, you, I, and others who suffer from the Regime, will recreate the United States into something worthy of pride.

[–] teamevil@lemmy.world 4 points 8 hours ago (4 children)

Oh my God...it's not resting bitch face I'm just thinking.... When I read that sentence I was like okay I totally get this person's reality. I'm so tired of hearing smile more

[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

It is why I wear a mask all the time now. I don't have to remember how to emote correctly, which is very helpful since I am autistic.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

EDIT: Wow, my internet dropped or something as I was posting this, duplicated a few times, and my clipboard has now just lost the text I tried to copy paste out of it... derp.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

... And I am saving this comment, as you have well voiced the madness of all of this experienced in particular by high-functioning / highly-intelligent Autistic children.

A short summary of how Ive felt much of my life would be: constantly being mocked and belittled by hypocritical idiots who are too stupid to realize they are hypocritical and have totally logically inconsistent worldviews, and inconsistent applications of them... as well as just that they are idiots in the sense of just being objectively wrong about most things.

...

Yeah, it is quite cathartic to realize that masses of the general public are themselves, and voted into power officials who... are just literally schoolyard bullies, absurd, malignant, anti-social narcissists who literally cannot concieve that they could ever have any flaws or ever be in error, who are actually incapable of empathy, of mirroring emotions of others experiencing or describing something that did not happen to them personally.

...

I no longer mask.

There is no point, and it is too exhausting to be expected to be some kind of mind reader.

If people can't actually succinctly verbalize their thoughts, or express them in writing, that's their problem, not mine.

Just say what you actually mean.

Use your words, and know what those words actually mean.

I am done learning how to be an interpreter for every different person I meet.

[–] Krauerking@lemy.lol 3 points 8 hours ago

Idiots and the uninformed love bullies, they assume they must be bullying people that deserve it, instead of just whoever makes them feel stronger.

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 7 hours ago

The "education" system is almost entirely based on privilege and indoctrination. Politicians are the cream of the crop.

[–] Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world 12 points 14 hours ago

My work involves emptying dog shit bins in public parks, and I'm also pretty sure I could do a better job than this guy. We could swap roles - except that I couldn't bring myself to kiss trump's flaccid saggy butt. I'll stick with the dogshit bins - I've got standards.

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 39 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Don't sell yourself short. I bet you're more competent than everyone in this administration.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (4 children)

I am only hesitant to agree because:

1: I have terrible social anxiety (yay autism and trauma)

2: I assume, at least, some of them are competent people... at... at least something.

That being said, I also cannot think of a single one who falls into category 2.

Hrmm.

[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 2 points 4 hours ago

Peter Thiel might be the most competent of the bunch. He built the Palantir surveillance network, and seems content being in the distant background while the other oligarchs act in the open. Hopefully, he isn't forgotten if we have a French Revolution.

[–] CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

You can recognise your own weaknesses, that already makes you more competent than most government officials in most countries.

[–] refurbishedrefurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

Not only are you personally more competant than anyone in this administration, but you're also not a Nazi (I'd imagine), which alone already makes you better than any Republican politician.

The fact that you think you might not be competant at the job is one of the things that makes you more competant (because you actually think before you act/speak).

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Its the age old problem of government:

Anyone who strongly desires to be in a position of power likely is not the kind of person you would want in a position of power.

I appreciate you saying that though. =D

Impostor syndrome is basically the inverse of the Dunning Kruger effect, as it is known in popular culture.

If you actually read the actual studies by Dunning and Kruger, and subsequent work based off of it:

Idiots consistently wildly overestimate their correctness.

... But people who actually are quite correct, quite competent... well they actually tend to self evaluate themselves as somewhat less competent than they actually are.

Because humility and a fundamental idea of 'i could be wrong' are foundational to a rigourous system of critical thinking that can actually allow for that true, detailed knowledge to be gained.

So, ironically, Dunning Kruger effect also describes more or less impostor syndrome, its just that that isn't the aspect of those kinds of studies that pop culture focuses on...

So we now have a situation where understanding of the 'Dunning Kruger effect' itself is subject to the 'Dunning Kruger effect.'

[–] AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world 14 points 19 hours ago

There are a couple evil yet competent people in the administration. Russell Vought is one, a hire direct from the Heritage Foundation. Another is Stephen Miller. Heritage seems to be full of actually competent yet completely evil men. But I guess that what happens when a majority of your funding comes from oil, gas, and now tech barons.