Adam Conover explains how real power works using an anecdote about Elon Musk firing federal employees. Power isn't about what's legal or right, it's about symbolic actions like changing signs and locking doors that reshape reality. Once you act, the legality becomes irrelevant.
when Elon Musk was going around firing people in the federal government. And a lot of them said, well, I can't be fired. The law says you can't fire me. It's like, well, we've changed the sign on the building. We've locked the doors. We have told the public that you are fired. In what sense do you hold the position? And you can say it's right or it's wrong, but you actually It doesn't matter whether it's right or it's wrong. You can't argue with it. It happened. That is power in a true sense.
