this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2025
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According to a New York Times report, on Thursday, the U.S. government’s General Services Administration (GSA) removed the spoon emoji as an option that users of its videoconferencing platform can select to express themselves.

The move comes a day after workers embraced the digital cutlery to protest the Trump administration’s “Fork in the Road” resignation offer.

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[–] can 35 points 3 days ago

Showing profound levels of insecurity here.

[–] [email protected] 107 points 3 days ago (2 children)

𓊤

⠀⠀⢀⣀⣀⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿⣶⣄⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠙⠻⠿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠉⠛⠿⣿⣿⣿⣦⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠙⢿⣿⣿⣦⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠻⣿⣷⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⢿⣿⣦⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⣿⣧⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠘⣿⣷⣤⣀⣀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣏⠹⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⡀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢻⡄⠙⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⡀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⢻⣦⡈⠻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⠻⣶⣤⣙⣻⣿⣿⠏⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠉⠉⠛⠋⠁⠀⠀

[–] [email protected] 39 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

—Ð (I figure they may need a shovel now)

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I miss ascii art! Back in IRC days when bandwidth was not great we could have really used the efficiency of emojis. Instead, you got sent a wall of text that looked like something and your entire internet slowed down for a minute.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 days ago

Unless your IRC window wasn't wide enough, in which case you got a wall of text that looked like nothing and it still slowed your Internet down!

[–] [email protected] 47 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago

This is Winnie the Pooh stuff.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago

That is about as clear cut an example of political censorship as there could possibly be.

[–] [email protected] 84 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's like China banning Winnie the Pooh for hurting Xi's feelings...

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Some bootlicker said the Chinese are racist for that meme

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Pretty sure I saw the comment you referenced but no, they said Americans were being racist because Pooh is yellow which you could probably argue, considering it originally also depicted Tigger (with a hard r) as Obama...

If the origin wasn't in China. If you'd told me it started on /b/ then yeah it would have been meant as racism.

So I can certainly see the origin of the criticism, if not sticking with it after finding out the actual context.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Reminds me of when Boeing removed the 🤡 a few years back because workers were shit-talking management on Teams. Removing emojis is petty nonsense. Maybe they feds should move from spoon 🥄 to 🤡 until that gets banned.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I am sitting here trying desperately to understand this.

They got rid of an emoji. Specifically 🥄, which is a default emoji.

How?

It's on every computer and platform. Did they call slack? Tell them to remove the emoji? If they did, how did slack remove a fucking default emoji? Are they blocking the Unicode?

What the actual fuck.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 3 days ago (1 children)

In the article it says it's removed from the video conference software used internally. The admins apparently can do it there.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago

Ah thanks for the clarification. The slack part bit was at the end. It's too early in the morning.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago

Because we’re already in the “yeah, that may as well happen, why not“ -stage. Remember how crazy it got in 2020? We’re doing a rerun of all the.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Word filter?

[–] [email protected] 65 points 3 days ago
[–] randoogle 48 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Why do these government agencies keep complying in advance? Why are they giving ground in little ways for nothing? Is some of the GSA leadership loyal to Trump?

[–] atzanteol 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's an executive branch department of which the president is the head.

[–] randoogle 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

No, that's reductive BS. The GSA is an independent agency of the federal government:

[T]he term refers only to those independent agencies that, while considered part of the executive branch, have regulatory or rulemaking authority and are insulated from presidential control, usually because the president's power to dismiss the agency head or a member is limited.

Established through separate statutes passed by Congress, each respective statutory grant of authority defines the goals the agency must work towards, as well as what substantive areas, if any, over which it may have the power of rulemaking. These agency rules (or regulations), when in force, have the power of federal law.

The president DOES NOT have the power to fire people from this agency, nor change its rules without involving congress. Congress made this agency, and the president's job is to oversee its administration. Despite being the head of the executive branch, the president doesn't have direct authority over the GSA.

[–] atzanteol 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Who appoints the leadership?

[–] randoogle 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

The president does. Who makes the laws (including the law creating this department)?

[–] atzanteol 1 points 2 hours ago

The president does

Which is the answer to the question "Is some of the GSA leadership loyal to Trump?"

[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 days ago

Reminds me of a line from Earthworm Jim that stuck with me: "do you mock me, spoon? I shall be your master!"

Also, The Tick

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

🥄🥣🍴🗡️🍽️🍴

[–] Mouselemming 31 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Take away the spoon, you're telling them it's time to use a knife. Is that really how you want it to go?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

👨‍🚀🔫👨‍🚀

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 days ago

When they fork with your spoon... They push you to consider the knife.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Whats the name of this character? I vaguely remember it from childhood in Russia lol

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago
[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You get what you vote for America. Now the morons are running the asylum.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)
  • Founding Fathers specifically create a system designed to protect their property from the tyranny of the majority (aka the poors)

  • System breaks because a minor majority of the population puts a rich populist in charge

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Okay. Why? Why have emojis at all? Why just ban one?

Bunch of spoons.

[–] randoogle 25 points 3 days ago

They use the spoon as a protest against the "fork in the road" email.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] gravitas_deficiency 1 points 3 days ago
[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

I eat my peas with honey, I've done it all my life; it makes them taste quite funny, but it keeps them on my knife.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

All cutlery is rather inedible as soup.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

So are 🔫.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago