Inanity

It turns out that if you don’t return an email so that Elon can run the results through AI software and arbitrarily fire anyone who uses a word he doesn’t like, you won’t get fired. Or you might get fired. Or semi-fired:

By Monday, just 48 hours after an email from Mr. Musk with the subject line “What did you do last week?” landed in the email boxes of millions of federal workers, personnel officials proclaimed the “request” to be voluntary even as Mr. Musk renewed his demand. Many federal workers were left completely confused by the flip-flopping.

Several agencies quickly sent out emails telling their employees they did not need to provide the five bullet points about their activity that Mr. Musk wanted.

“There is no H.H.S. expectation that H.H.S. employees respond to O.P.M., and there is no impact to your employment with the agency if you choose not to respond,” said an email sent to employees at the Department of Health and Human Services, referring to the agency that sent Mr. Musk’s request, the Office of Personnel Management.

The Department of Health and Human Services added that anyone who wanted to respond should “assume that what you write will be read by malign foreign actors and tailor your response accordingly.”

At virtually the same time that employees were told a response was no longer necessary, Mr. Trump weighed in during a visit with President Emmanuel Macron of France, praising Mr. Musk’s demand as “genius” and saying that employees who did not respond would be “semi-fired” or “fired.”

Late Monday evening, Mr. Musk offered another twist on his social media site.

“Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance,” Mr. Musk wrote, apparently referring to federal employees who did not respond to his email by his original deadline of Monday at midnight. “Failure to respond a second time will result in termination.”

“The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send!” he said in another post. “Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers. Have you ever witnessed such INCOMPETENCE and CONTEMPT for how YOUR TAXES are being spent?”

“Inane test” is right, and the phrase is certainly going to come in handy.

The uncertainty and constantly shifting rules are not just incidental; it’s how authoritarian rule operates.