126
Trump administration tells federal employees to wear "Freedom" pins—or else
(www.motherjones.com)
this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2026
126 points (98.5% liked)
politics
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Oh wow, that's just perfect. Chef's kiss.
Joanna: You know what, Stan, if you want me to wear 37 pieces of flair, like your pretty boy over there, Brian, why don't you just make the minimum 37 pieces of flair?
Stan, Chotchkie's Manager: Well, I thought I remembered you saying that you wanted to express yourself.
Joanna: Yeah. You know what, yeah, I do. I do want to express myself, okay. And I don't need 37 pieces of flair to do it.
[flips off Stan]
Nothing says freedom like coercion.
This is where the people with conservative brain worms mutter some stupid platitude like "freedumb ain't free".
You see, there's a 'b' in there. A lot of people don't know that. I'm very smart.
I was working for the EPA when they were transitioning from Lotus Notes to Office 365. Management required us to wear pins that said "Ask me about MyWorkplace" on the cutover day. I wore a clown suit to work that day. Workers loved it. Management was not amused. It technically met dress code, but I only made it 2 hours before I was told I had to change clothes.
I worked at a call centre where somehow neckties were mandatory (except on Friday, management was American) they stated that the formal wear would somehow percolate through the telephone (except on Fridays, but that's logical, right?)
One day it was tropically hot (not air-conditioned) I wore t shirt and just the tie around my neck, like a scarf (I had considered the Rambo approach, but deemed it too out there).
Wearing a dress shirt was not in the dress code, so I got away with it, though they changed that over time. Let's just say my tenure was not long lasting..
Of all the things that changed in corporate culture, I'm most happy for two things:
- For one, Covid killed dead the notion that being in-person for many jobs was really necessary. I work in IT, and I cannot tell you how many people fought the notion of remote work, tooth and claw. The data didn't matter, the facts didn't matter - they wanted to see you at a desk. Ideally in an "open plan" or in a cube, not in an office where you could shut the fucking door and get things done. They would tell everyone they are a "thought worker" and then set up an environment where being able to concentrate was next to impossible.
Even worse, after the Cult Of Agile (Scrum) came along, it was not only management fighting you on remote work, it was brainless drones that had adopted the Cult of Agile as meaning you must be in-person to "collaborate", even doing forced pair programming and by Gawd, you had better be in-person for the ceremonies, because that was what the Church of Scrum required. Even better was stupid performative stuff like everyone having to actually, literally, stand up at their desks, even if everyone involved could already all see each other and "the whiteboard". 🙄 So, even at a time when nearly every company had set up the capability of using VPN to remote into work, along came a process that had, among its core adherents, a dictate that explicitly prohibited being remote. Thanks, Agilistas!
- The other that has died a long slow death, and Covid probably would have killed that if it wasn't already mostly dead already - ridiculous dress codes, especially ones involving ties for men.
As much as I hate and loathe brainless adoption of processes like the Church of Scrum, I absolutely hated the idea of having to wear a suit to do something like IT. Thankfully, it was kind of withering by the time I entered the workforce, depending on the company. But the idiotic uniform of wearing at least a pair of khakis, dress shoes and a collared shirt stuck around for way too fucking long at some places.
I worked in a call center years ago for college. Same deal - tie required. Thought it to be slightly odd at the time, but was happy to get out of the warehouse job I had previously.
What else would one wear to a circus?
So the manufacturer of the traitor pins and other magat trash (Ace Specialties) are bona fide nazi collaborators.
What should happen to the factories and warehouses of nazi collaborators?
Fucking firebomb the buildings and toss the collaborators in prison.
Fucking firebomb the ~~buildings~~ collaborators and toss the ~~collaborators~~ buildings in prison.
I would not wear any fucking thing that douchebag “mandated”. And if they reprimanded me I would sue the shit out of them. To me this is clearly a 1st amendment issue.
I absolutely love how Americans think they’re the only ones with freedom, while KINDER FUCKING EGGS were banned for decades.
The Kinder eggs with actual chocolate (Kinder Surprise) are still banned; only the Kinder Joy eggs with cream and cocoa wafers separated from the toy are allowed, which aren't nearly as interesting of an experience in my opinion.
Haha that’s great. Land Of The Free!
Land of the too stupid not to inhale their food like a vacuum cleaner.
Kinder Eggs were/are banned because of food safety.
In this 2016 example a girl died from choking on a piece of a toy from a kinder egg.
I think this issue reflects an interesting difference in regulatory philosophy and how we might choose to protect freedoms vs public health, and what sorts of items are seen as "too bad to be allowed."
The irony is overwhelming
Sounds to me like you don't love freedom enough... you're going straight to the gulag!
250 years? Adorable. My alma mater is older.
When I traveled to Europe I drank in pubs that had been open longer than the US.
So much freedom.
They should all turn it around and start wearing red white and blue arm bands.
Praise, worship and obey or you will be punished. Sure ... whatever ...