All of those things make sense when there aren't constant headlines calling the regime you work for evil and pointing out daily all the bad things they are doing.

That's the difference between working for the government during presidents previous to Trump and working for the government now.

There are a lot of things you can do working for the government that in years previous to the cancer currently running the place now could be seen as valuable and important.

Doing research into the effects and safety of drugs, climate change research, allocating public funds to education and the park service etc. Testing food safety.

Those jobs are still important despite the fact that the Cheeto in Chief is wrecking everything he can get his hands on.

At the same time, there's jobs that people do where it's obvious that they are looking to reap benefits now and hoping those benefits will protect them in the future. Press Secretary, Political Advisor, Head of Homeland Security.

There's a line somewhere. Where you might be able to convince yourself that your work is important or meaningful or just plain not evil but you're absolutely not telling people what you do for a living because you know that they won't like it. People don't face backlash for being garbage men or forensic investigators or Hazmat cleanup.

The people building AI are getting a daily dose of the harms that AI causes. This industry popped up basically over night and this isn't a slow burn kind of thing. Its been moving fast and breaking things and ruining lives all in the public eye.

People also view their government as a sort of necessary evil. Psychologically that's different than any random corp.

I think I'm just saying that when you're faced day in and day out with the harm your work is doing, to the point where you recognize and admit it's doing harm, rather than being able to say "my work is insignificant and makes no difference", then rhere has to be something else.