jermaustin1 3 days ago

Same, I want to believe that this is all a ruse and that the are smart and just really good at playing dumb, but there are just too MANY of them.

It's sycophancy plain and simple. Surround yourself with only yes-men, it ends up becoming less and less competent as the ones who stand up and say no are replaced.

Even if they know better, they can't do better because they know there is no loyalty to nay-sayers.

  • XorNot 3 days ago

    The main thing is that if you're a big enough entity, in favorable enough conditions, it's possible to make stupid decisions continuously and survive them for a very long time.

    It's the "market can remain irrational..." problem.

    • shermantanktop 3 days ago

      And as a consequence, never recognize them as being stupid---in fact the reverse, because your bad ideas are met with macro success even while individually they may struggle.

      It's yet another broken feedback loop.

kevin_thibedeau 3 days ago

The simpler explanation is that all the competent people saw what happened the first go around and want nothing to do with it. That leaves a detritus of sociopathic wannabes to select from for staff, all vying to mirror the behavioral profile of dear leader.

miltonlost 3 days ago

Incompetence and conspiracies go hand-in-hand.

  • JohnMakin 3 days ago

    Not really. It is far easier to explain incompetence in powerful positions than to explain competence on purpose in powerful positions - the latter is definitely a conspiracy, the former is not.

    • rbanffy 3 days ago

      This administration’s incompetence allows their opponents to conspire much more effectively.

    • pixl97 3 days ago

      Quite often it is both.

      It's not uncommon for incompetent people to be put in positions of power. Because they are incompetent, competent but malicious people take advantage of this and commit actual crimes.

      This is where actual conspiracies show up. And that is the incompetent powerful people cover up said crime to avoid looking incompetent.

      It is an extremely common pattern.

      • direwolf20 3 days ago

        When Donald Trump saw the footage of the murder of Renee Good, he said "Oh". He didn't know what ICE were doing until then. He trusted his cabinet who were telling him they were getting illegal immigrants and left wing terrorists.