That's weird, I thought I used SQL databases from government agencies regularly. Guess I was mistaken.
this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2025
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See the post on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/provisionalidea.bsky.social/post/3lhujtm2qkc2i
According to many comments, the US government DOES use SQL, and Musk is not understanding much what's going on.
If you and Elon disagree about something, just assume he's wrong about it. If you both agree on something, THEN you might be mistaken.
i agree but would like to add that it’s generally good practice to stay away from rockets
Even red ones?
ESPECIALLY red ones.
They go faster.
I hope the screenshot dude is also going to stop this unquestioning belief in the things people say or claim without evidence.
Those first two paragraphs look like a tendency to prefer hero-worship to critical thought; that seems to be a fairly widespread problem in humans from long before this latest batch of demagogues.
There's also a hint of "I'm not an 'expert' in it so I can't (be bothered) to understand anything about it" also a very depressingly common attitude.
We all have to rely on somebody to be an expert in fields outside our own. Years ago, if Elon said "Falcon 9 launch yesterday failed due to xyz", I assumed he had the actual experts giving him notes. The Xhitter debacle showed how much he doesn't listen to those people.
It's kind of funny, but we all do this to some extent. I used to think most people on Reddit were super smart. If someone says stuff with authority, then it's easy to believe what they're saying and assume they know what they're talking about.
But then every once in a while, I'd come across a topic that I know deeply about - and the comment would just be blatantly wrong, but still have tons of up votes. It really made me start second guessing all the other comments I had read and thought were smart, but it's an easy trap to fall into.
I guess what I'm really saying, is that you all are a bunch of morons, probably.
Confirmed, am moron.
You say that with confidence so I'm going to trust you on that 100%.
I just dont get why you have to assume that though?
Maybe I'm a pessimist, but I've met and worked with enough humans that I think the best assumtion is that they're all full of shit until they prove otherwise.
It's fine to rely on experts for some things, but if those experts aren't subject to independent scrutiny or directly independent of the claim or sunjecy under test, or can't give clear testable /replicable evidence, I'd just not put much weight on their testimony as a source of evidence.
I don’t believe you
He used to be regarded as tony stark. Nah he is Justin Hammer. Steals ideas implements them shit and has no idea about anything
He is like tony stark in a timeline where Tony stark decided to join the terrorists instead of building the suit to escape. Oh and in this timeline Tony Starks brain has been rotted away by ketamine
Yeah. That is Hammer
I used to think he was the modern Thomas Edison, but it turns out he's actually the modern Thomas Edison.
Difference is, Edison had scientist that invented something useful. Elon, well...he came up with the idea of a shittier version for busses, trams and subways
I get your point but I disagree. I think both Tony Stark and Justin Hammer are more competent than Elon.
Hammer was no where near as good as Tony but he did make some good stuff.
I would say he’s more like Obadiah Stane, an opportunist taking credit for others work.
True. Atleast Hammer knew his weapons and could sell them alone
I'd bet that the government is probably the largest user of SQL. Unless there are really old systems that predate SQL. I'd imagine they have shitloads of COBOL for example.
There absolutely will be many, many old systems that predate and don't use SQL there. Anyone denying this has zero idea about how many extremely old legacy systems are still in use in big corporations and governments. Hell I've done work for companies with revenue in the billions who were still using a legacy Access database program that they didn't have the code for, nor any documentation, so trying to automate data imports was an absolute nightmare - but they insisted on not replacing it because "that's the system we know and it works".
Musk seems to think Musk is a tech genius, but really he was just born into money and used it to buy a bunch of companies. In fairness he was able to recognise which companies to buy, doesn't mean he knows anything about databases though.
Which of his companies did he buy?
This retard thinks the government doesn't use SQL...
If you think that every single system in the government does use SQL, there's another retard in here...
Where did they say "every single system"? I think you might not have the strongest reading comprehension...
I think you might overestimate your reading comprehension. Musk is clearly talking about specific systems here. The person I replied to is either an idiot for thinking he knows for a fact that that specific system uses SQL, or is an idiot for thinking that every government system uses SQL.
Dude, musk literally said "this retard thinks the government uses SQL". That implies that the government does not use SQL, which is false. The user you replied to said "This retard thinks that the government doesn't use SQL". This is not a claim that every government system uses SQL, or even a claim that a specific system uses SQL. The claim is simply that the government uses SQL, which is true.
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Tax dollars are definitely being stolen... by this unelected buffoon
No no, billionaires would never steal money after closing down oversight and watchdog agencies, then brazenly starting a new ''office of mysterious authority you don't get to background check that operates in the dark'' and using it to access the most sensitive parts of US government functionality. That's crazy talk!
You guys are literally fighting against government transparency and stopping wasteful spending of your (or at least someone elses) tax dollars because you have an irrational hatred for the guy. Absolutely insane. No one should be against what DOGE is doing - unless of course you're one of the many people profiting from the blank cheques being handed out wastefully.
the blank cheques being handed out wastefully
What blank cheques exactly?
And I'm not sure how you do it down in oz, but in most other countries, the government creates budgets for each agency, and those agencies then decide how to allocate their funds. If the government thinks that some agency is wasting too much money, they reduce their budget. There's not supposed to be a king who decides all that on a whim.
And how many "blank cheques" to the defense industry have been investigated? Surprise, because it's not about cutting "wasteful spending".
What blank cheques exactly?
The ones where USAID literally just approved every single thing that came into their inbox.
It seems like the USA government didn't even have a real budget, they just kept handing out money to all the NGOs that threw most of it back their (the politicians) way. They definitely don't have an auditable budget.
Is there massive waste in the defense industry? Absolutely - and DOGE will get there. They've been at the job for like 2 weeks, they haven't gotten to every single nook and cranny.
you forgot about covid stimulus checks to businesses that were not returned?
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Of course. Everyone who's ever used a DB knows it's BS. As long as the data is structured - which it a) is because he was able to make assertions about it and b) fucking Excel files are enough - it CAN be imported and SQL'd on. Even Excel has built in support for fuck's sake, not to mention Python and PowerQuery.
The dude is a self-certified moron - he probably struggles with the concept of PKI, too.
it CAN be imported and SQL’d on
This is not the same as it using SQL though.
Ok genuine question, what is the difference between a SQL database and a simple Excel spreadsheet?
The excel file contains the data. It's equivalent to the database.
The excel program is how you interact with the data. SQL is how you interact with databases.
Doesn't matter how the data is structured inside the database. You can ask in the SQL language and you will receive an SQL answer.
SQL is how you interact with databases.
How you interact with some or even most databases, but not all.
It's hard to figure out what he's talking about , when he says the "whole social security database". Like in which tables are they duplicated? Does it mean the entire row is duplicated or just the SSN, it might make sense to be duplicated depending on the schema. Is it an append only db, so there might be updated columns on the same ssn and you need to filter by the latest update timestamp? Who knows.
But also, saying that there's a "social security database" and then following that up by the govt "doesn't use SQL" so.. the db is actually just a spreadsheet? A .txt file? The SSNs are just written down in someone's notebook? Lol
SSNs are reused. Someone dies and their number gets reassigned. The database could easily be keeping track of all previous assignments for any given SSN.
Remember, SSNs are designed for social security and nothing else. They got picked up as a unique ID by private interests as a hack. They were never supposed to be as widespread in use as they are. The federal government using it this way is the specific, designed use case.
SSNs are reused. Someone dies and their number gets reassigned.
Not even that. If you were born before 2014 or so and you're from somewhere relatively populous theres a pretty good chance there's more than one living human with your SSN right now. SSN were never meant to be unique, the pairing of SSN and name was meant to be unique but no one really checked for that for most of the history of the program so it really wasn't either. The combination of SSN, name and age/birthdate should actually be unique though because of how they were assigned even back in the day.
Where do you guys get this rubbish? You're literally just spreading lies.
https://www.aarp.org/social-security/faq/do-identification-numbers-get-reused/
SSNs are reused. Someone dies and their number gets reassigned.
Nope, they don't. No SSN has ever been reused and will not for generations.
https://www.aarp.org/social-security/faq/do-identification-numbers-get-reused/
A government official known for performing a nazi salute just broadcast an ableist slur.
Cool cool cool
Civilized people should really coopt the word "removed" to mean Republican. I mean, they have the (R) next to their names to remind us already.
Then when someone takes offense you can just say
Jesus Titty-Fucking Christ, Carol. Just because someone has a mental disability doesn't make them a Republican!"
Way to throw disabled people under the bus because you aren't clever enough to find another way to insult their intelligence.
Also using the phrase "civilized people" makes you sound like you'd fit in with the other Republicans.
Jesus Titty-Fucking Christ, Carol. Just because someone has a mental disability doesn't make them a Republican.
See the post on BlueSky
No thanks, that alone says you're not going to get an honest unbiased discussion. Also when your evidence is "according to many comments" from a app filled with people that hate Musk with all their being as if it's their entire identity, it's not good evidence.
Being a developer who has done work for many governments in my country, you cannot just say "the government DOES use SQL" because they have many, many, MANY different systems that have all been built in different technologies over different decades by different people with different design philosophies and preferences. Will there be ones that use SQL? Absolutely. Will there be ones that don't? Absolutely.
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