DOGE's Anti-Democracy Strategy "Leaked" by (Fake) DOGE Fans
Hoax publicizes depth of DOGE's anti-democracy plans — and why Musk's departure won't diminish the threat
Late last week, tens of thousands of Yes Men subscribers "accidentally" received a "confidential email" from a "DOGE fan site" formerly located at DogeZone.info. The email said that since the pseudo-agency's lie about cutting costs had been exposed, recipients should now spread word of DOGE's actual goal: dismantling democracy and replacing it with a corporate — i.e. authoritarian — system.
"Because public opinion still matters, we have decided to help DOGE blast off the fog of public confusion and lay bare the full breadth of their Plan, which we're sure Americans will embrace and admire as one when they know its full beauty and logic," the email said, before asking recipients to post "dank memes" that would "blast off" that "fog of confusion."
One hour later, another email from "DogeZone" threatened the same recipients with "legal pursuit to the fullest extent thus far allowable, or likely to be allowable in the near future, by the established and future laws of the United States of America" if they shared any bit of the "accidentally released" email.
As hoped, many of the recipients freaked out publicly, mostly on Reddit forums.
"My brain's about to short-circuit: 'What's broken is democracy. And destroying it is the only way to improve things.' I'm sorry, fucking WHAT?" exclaimed one user. "The stuff on this site is INSANE. It is saying in clear plain words that democracy is bad and [that they want] to install a monarchy/technocracy/authoritarian regime," wrote another. "Repackaging Medieval feudalism as radically edgy and the next big thing," a user succinctly summed up.
A few informed Redditors recognized the ideas expressed in the "DogeZone" email as belonging to Neoreaction, a terrifying late-1990s ideology (PDF) followed by Vice President JD Vance (PDF), current DOGE head Elon Musk (PDF), and a number of other powerful Trump administration officials and influences.
"Even if [DogeZone] is satire," wrote one Redditor, "it has to be taken seriously. Because this is a pretty good summation of what Yarvinites [i.e. neoreactionaries] believe and want to do." "The movement is 100% real so it doesn't really matter if the website is a parody or not," wrote another.
"I have a horrible feeling that maybe if I scream loud enough and long enough I might wake up out of this nightmare," wrote one. "I used to hateread Yarvin because he was so out there and so crazy, and now this? THIS?"
"DOGEZONE wasn't a parody, it was a paraphrase," said Jim Haugen of the Yes Men. "We wanted to give journalists a pretext to cover the terrifying, but somehow no-longer-newsworthy, fact that DOGE is part of a systematic, well-thought-out plan to replace workers with AI (PDF) so that a small group of 'neoreactionaries' can take control of our collective institutions."
"We've seen similar movements before," one Redditor pointed out. "Only problem is, the ones now are sitting at the top of the food chain, surrounded in cash, our data, and power."
Indeed, Elon Musk's grandfather, a Canadian white supremacist, was an important figure within Technocracy (PDF), an early-twentieth-century movement that similarly sought to demolish democracy, but had no path to political power.
"The courts are the only check on authoritarianism right now, but they won't be able to hold out for long," said Eric Stoner, an editor at Waging Nonviolence. "If Trump simply ignores them, which he is already starting to do, they do not have the power to save us. The only thing that can stop the imminent collapse of democracy is a powerful and disruptive mass movement on a scale we have never seen in this country."
WHAT YOU CAN DO
If you're fired up to save our democracy, now is the time to take action.
If you’re part of the federal workforce, you already know that many of you are resisting DOGE. Federal unions have remained a key institution — with new groups springing up, like Federal Workers Against Doge and Federal Unionists Network.
One immediate way to fight DOGE is to visit www.teslatakedown.com to find a protest near you. You can also text MUSK to 51905 to join the fight, and you can follow the action in real time on BlueSky. (Sure, DOGE will continue if Musk leaves, but it's worth speeding up his departure and demonstrating that the embrace of fascism has consequences.)
We're all going to have to pay for what DOGE has broken, and Congress will have to play a key role in that. So call your congressperson and demand they find their spine. When they ignore you, yell at them in person. When they claim to be powerless, make highway signs to rile people up, get trained in noncooperation, and organize your people to take action to fight the coup. Eventually, a nonviolent uprising will be needed.
If you feel like trying out something tricky to spread critical knowledge, the Yes Men website includes lots of pointers, and even a few instructions. Other resources include Actipedia, with thousands of examples of creative activism across time and in many different contexts, including authoritarian ones; and Beautiful Trouble, a toolbox for change, with a section devoted to fighting the current regime.
NOTE: The original DOGEZONE domains — DogeZone.info and DogeZone.org — were blocked by Njal.la, the Swedish domain registrar, presumably after a phishing complaint from DOGE.
Press inquiries: jim@theyesmen.org
Contact: theyesmen.org/contact-us
Collected sources: theyesmen.org/project/DogeZone/sources