Two days ago marked the one year anniversary of my getting a Tesla. I was planning to blog about this by saying how much I loved the car, with all its high tech doo dads like auto steering and doggy mode. And how I was able to easily travel from San Francisco to Los Angeles and Las Vegas without a problem thanks to the many readily available high speed charging stations there are. Plus I also wanted to mention how much I don't miss stopping at gas stations. (I never knew how much I hated the smell of gasoline until I didn't have to inhale it anymore!)
Yes, I was ready to talk about all of that. And then Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to a tweet a few days ago. Now I've already blogged about my feelings about Musk way back in 2021 (you can read that here), but at that time he seemed just another unlikeable billionaire. But then in October of 2022, just a month before I got the Tesla that I ordered, Musk bought the social media site Twitter and his extreme views started trickling out as the company floundered under his erratic control. From changing its name to X, to going back and forth on charging for blue verification boxes, his unruly leadership may have reduced the company's value by as much as 90% according to Fortune magazine.
This all came to a head when a November 15th post from some fool named The Artist Formerly Known as Eric said: "Okay. Jewish communties(sic.) have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them. I'm deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don't exactly like them too much. You want truth said to your face, there it is." Musk responded the same day with "You have said the actual truth." With that one simple phrase, Musk is endorsing one of the most insidious anti Semitic conspiracy theories out there, known as The Great Replacement Theory. It claims that a wealthy Jewish cabal support replacing white people with minorities all over the Western world. This wasn't the first time that Musk seemed to flirt with anti Semitism, as he has defended the surge in anti Semitic posts that have appeared on X since he took over by criticizing the human rights group the Anti-Defamation League for mentioning that surge. He's even threatened to sue them.
But this time he has gone too far, and the fallout out from his offensive endorsement has been swift, with companies like IBM and Apple pulling their advertising from the already reeling X. But the sad fact of the matter is that, in the long run, none of this will really matter to Musk. Oh sure, he may be humiliated if X goes bankrupt, as it appears it may, but he will always be one of the richest men on the planet, and his other companies will always generate revenue for him. Just look at Space X: as the New York Times has pointed out, even as the Joe Biden administration has condemned Musk's views, the government has just confirmed that they will give over a billion dollars to Space X for launching Pentagon satellites next year. The sad fact of the matter is that Space X has a virtual monopoly on valuable satellites and is a privately held company, giving Musk a stranglehold on space exploration that the government won't be able to break anytime soon. So no matter how offensive Musk's views are, he will never face any real fall out from them.
In a way, Musk represents the problem with raw capitalism: here is a man who holds no political office but, through the sheer power of wealth, holds sway over every American citizen (and pretty much everyone in the world). He's the living embodiment of our need for a wealth tax, but that's a pipe dream. And shaming him doesn't seem likely to phase him. Dustin Moskovitz, a co founder of Facebook, has called for him to resign "from everything", a sentiment that I agree with, but what good will it do?
Which brings us back to me and my Tesla. Is it wrong for me to keep it given what Musk has endorsed? Trading my car in for a different model would be a hassle, and I do love it. So I've decided to keep it for now, hoping that the Tesla company, (which unlike Space X is not privately owned) might be able to force Musk out. (The possible belly flop that the upcoming Tesla Cybertruck could take might also do the trick). If I could get in a time machine, I'd go back and buy a Polestar instead of a Tesla, but for now, I seem to be stuck in the odd position of loving my car and hating the leader of the company that makes it.
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