9 ms·

Or Charles Manson could weasel his way into existing startups, claim them as his own, become the richest man in the world, AND kill so many more people than he

Or Charles Manson could weasel his way into existing startups, claim them as his own, become the richest man in the world, AND kill so many more people than he ever thought possible!

upupupandaway 9d ago
What?
- sschueller 9d ago
  Elon's DOGE is responsible for over 100k deaths. Some died a horrible death with medical devices stuck in them because there was no one to remove them after all funding was instantly cut. One of the most inhumane and disgusting acts in history.
  - archagon 9d ago
    That every Musk-adjacent article and PR summary isn’t prefaced with this basic, indisputable fact is repulsive.
  - upupupandaway 9d ago
    All of these numbers are based on a single source, the Impact Counter dashboard made by a BU professor, which is full of methodological problems. It assumes 100% cessation of funds, for example, while in reality there was a freeze.
  - shimman 9d ago
    What is your claim for the last one? I'm not finding it on google. What was the program?
  - dekhn 9d ago
    Do you have reliable citations for this claim rather than general hand-waving? It felt like the whole news cycle about the deaths was one where nobody critically examined the claim. I am looking for real data, not claims. If you link articles without real and unambiguous data, it's not helping.
    - Fricken 9d ago
      >Musk has said his critics “cannot cite a single name of someone who died” and “If there were, it would be worldwide headline news!” When confronted with the names – including those of children who died because of the cuts – Musk called a journalist “an utter piece of shit and a liar” and “utterly evil”. Musk has claimed, without evidence, that US tax dollars went to arming militants and “corrupt politicians”. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/07/elon-musk-doge-cuts-usaid-ebola https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/07/elon-musk... https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-shutdown-has-led-to-hundreds-of-thousands-of-deaths/ https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-shutdown-has-led-to-hund...
      - dekhn 9d ago
        those are estimates, not data. I am asking about actual data. For example, mortality reports, piles of bodies, etc. I understand feeling emotional about this, I really do. But the important bit is that if you make a big claim "millions of people died", you have to back that with actual evidence, not models.
        ryandrake 9d ago
        You are sealioning[1]. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealioning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealioning
        dekhn 9d ago
        Nope. And I hate that entire comic for poisoninh the very idea that asking for the evidence is wrong. I'm operating in good faith asking people to show data. There is no reliable data supporting the claim that millions of people died because usaid was canceled. That's all.
        disgruntledphd2 8d ago
        > those are estimates, not data. I am asking about actual data. For example, mortality reports, piles of bodies, etc. I think that this is an unrealistic ask, right now. Over the next 5-10 years enough time will have passed such that we can get more accurate numbers, but right now, all we have are estimates with wide confidence bounds (but narrower than they were last year).

Or Charles Manson could weasel his way into existing startups, claim them as his own, become the richest man in the world, AND kill so many more people than he ever thought possible!

upupupandaway 9d ago

What?

sschueller 9d ago
Elon's DOGE is responsible for over 100k deaths. Some died a horrible death with medical devices stuck in them because there was no one to remove them after all funding was instantly cut. One of the most inhumane and disgusting acts in history.
- archagon 9d ago
  That every Musk-adjacent article and PR summary isn’t prefaced with this basic, indisputable fact is repulsive.
- upupupandaway 9d ago
  All of these numbers are based on a single source, the Impact Counter dashboard made by a BU professor, which is full of methodological problems. It assumes 100% cessation of funds, for example, while in reality there was a freeze.
- shimman 9d ago
  What is your claim for the last one? I'm not finding it on google. What was the program?
- dekhn 9d ago
  Do you have reliable citations for this claim rather than general hand-waving? It felt like the whole news cycle about the deaths was one where nobody critically examined the claim. I am looking for real data, not claims. If you link articles without real and unambiguous data, it's not helping.
  - Fricken 9d ago
    >Musk has said his critics “cannot cite a single name of someone who died” and “If there were, it would be worldwide headline news!” When confronted with the names – including those of children who died because of the cuts – Musk called a journalist “an utter piece of shit and a liar” and “utterly evil”. Musk has claimed, without evidence, that US tax dollars went to arming militants and “corrupt politicians”. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/07/elon-musk-doge-cuts-usaid-ebola https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/07/elon-musk... https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-shutdown-has-led-to-hundreds-of-thousands-of-deaths/ https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-shutdown-has-led-to-hund...
    - dekhn 9d ago
      those are estimates, not data. I am asking about actual data. For example, mortality reports, piles of bodies, etc. I understand feeling emotional about this, I really do. But the important bit is that if you make a big claim "millions of people died", you have to back that with actual evidence, not models.
      - ryandrake 9d ago
        You are sealioning[1]. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealioning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealioning
        dekhn 9d ago
        Nope. And I hate that entire comic for poisoninh the very idea that asking for the evidence is wrong. I'm operating in good faith asking people to show data. There is no reliable data supporting the claim that millions of people died because usaid was canceled. That's all.
      - disgruntledphd2 8d ago
        > those are estimates, not data. I am asking about actual data. For example, mortality reports, piles of bodies, etc. I think that this is an unrealistic ask, right now. Over the next 5-10 years enough time will have passed such that we can get more accurate numbers, but right now, all we have are estimates with wide confidence bounds (but narrower than they were last year).