Elon Musk's leadership beginning to splinter Tesla loyalists as car sales drop | Hacker News Reader

Elon Musk's leadership beginning to splinter Tesla loyalists as car sales drop

fortune.com

28 pointsdoener24 comments

Im unsurprised by the headline. Musk's penchant for ranting about conspiracy theories, racist dog whistles, and fearmongering about the latest boogeyman of the week must be a PR nightmare.

Its a shame because SpaceX is really really awesome and very very important! I do wish SpaceX could either separate itself from him at least publicly or something because he is a huge liability for them.

Anyway ill never own a Tesla not just because of Musk but because their interior design is garbage and they are synonymous with NIMBY's who spend their days fighting tooth and nail in their facebook groups and HOAs to prevent any real progress in the USA.

https://archive.is/eNpUN

Tesla does seem to be becoming a partisan brand, which strikes me as unwise.

I'm not sure partisan is the right word - I don't think Musk's politics align neatly with either American political party, he's just morphed into a very vocal garbage person.

If nothing else, the moment when Elon started vocally supporting DeSantis his name became very partisan. Also it says a lot about Elon himself.

https://fortune.com/2022/11/07/elon-musk-tweets-vote-republi...

Musk's politics align very neatly with the Republican party, for example:

* Belief that the administrative state (e.g., the SEC) is unconstitutional

* Strong distaste for the government telling him what to do (e.g., railing against the COVID-19 lockdowns)

* Engages in transphobia

* Has a view of free speech that focuses on "making people self-censor due to fear of reaction is a violation on their free speech"

(I'd add in "anyone who says mean things against me is liable for defamation", but that's pretty much true across the political spectrum)

* His views on the Russo-Ukrainian War seem to align more strongly with the kiss-Putin's-ass wing of the Republican party, although admittedly the Republican party itself is split on the issue.

* He has repeatedly endorsed things like Great Replacement Theory or other white supremacist views.

The main views he has that seems to diverge from the Republican party is environmentalism, but to be frank, Musk doesn't seem to be a fierce advocate of environmentalism outside of shipping electric cars. And I'm not aware of any endorsements he's given of Democrats, but several of Republicans; he's even posted things that indicates that he believes himself to be centrist but thinks the Democrats have run off to crazy-crazy land, living him with only Republicans as a viable option.

Musk's environmental bonafides never extended farther than milking Uncle Sam for tax credits or lucrative federal contracts. He doesn't give a shit about colonizing Mars or combating global warming, but he sure is interested in the fat federal contracts that those activities would entail.

uh what? He openly supported Ron DeSantis and plays tech support to characters like Ian-Miles Cheong, LibsOfTikTok and catturd2. His likes and replies are to mainly anti-Trans and pro replacement theory. He's definitely a hard right character.

Concerning.

Being a partisan brand can be decent business, but Elon seems to be chartering a particularly dangerous course as the Venn diagram of right-wing cultural warriors and people interested in buying green technology is exceedingly small.

It can be a great way to build a niche brand, but makes it hard to be an industry leading one. Alienating so many customers right off the bat puts a ceiling on growth. Practically every major company bends over backwards to avoid pissing off half the country over anything.

If Musk were truly smart, he'd keep his politics to himself and let people believe whatever they want. Just look at how much damage the Sackler family has been able to cause and most people have no idea who they even are.

I personally don't care about an individual's personal political opinions. What bothers me is when those opinions start to interfere with business operations. That goes for individual contributors as well as executives. Leave your politics at the voting booth and we'll all be better off. Similar for so-called "celebrity" CEO's - any time there is more focus on the CEO's personality / personal-life / fame / etc, than on the core business fundamentals, that's a red flag. (This is not specific to Tesla and applies to all other companies)

> I personally don't care about an individual's personal political opinions. What bothers me is when those opinions start to interfere with business operations. That goes for individual contributors as well as executives.

Elon Musk is neither a mere individual contributor or a mere executive. He is one of the major shareholders and CEO of Texla, and he uses his Tesla position to further his political and personal goals.

Elon Musk used his Tesla stock to buy Twitter and turn it into the primary hate speech platform in the world, for example. As long as Elon Musk remains the CEO and a major shareholders of Tesla, buying a Tesla car is voting with your wallet to support Elon Musk's personal and political agenda. It's high time we stop pretending there is no causality between the two.

> By clicking “Accept” or continuing to use our services, you accept these updates and consent to the terms of our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the updated Privacy Policy, please do not continue to use, access, or download any of the services.

... with only an Accept button. Whoa. Bold move, given GDPR penalties.

Edit: and after all that, getting to a paywall. Astonishing.

The worst thing is I can't read the policy without accepting it.

Weird. I (in the EU) get both that dialog _and_ a more conventional GDPR warning with accept and decline all buttons. I think some, particularly American, companies are still slightly struggling with the GDPR as a concept.

I'm just one data point but I'm replacing my xc90 recharge this spring and guess what car make is crossed off the list? Not a huge sacrifice because IMO Tesla's are ugly and chintzy feeling but still, I am moving to full electric and it is going to be a Rivian or Hyundai. I can't believe the board puts up with a CEO that ties his personal brand to the company's.

You may be just one data point, but there’s quite a lot of us. I made the dame decision 2 years ago and again this year. I just refuse to be associated with Elon in any way.

> I can't believe the board puts up with a CEO that ties his personal brand to the company's.

This alludes to the reason why I told my wife that we can't invest in Tesla. Even though others have done quite well, I can't tightly couple our future to a single, meteoric individual.

(Edited to add that we are not card-carrying members in the local chapter of the Anti-Elon League, rather just prudent thinkers.)

I started investing in US equities 3 years ago. (I am not from US). While I invested in all the marquee stocks, one company I steered clear of was Tesla. Elon wasn't even so toxic back then. The valuation just didn't make sense. Even back then I'd read about all the issues with Teslas and their production problems, it seemed that the stock was in a bubble which would eventually burst. I am glad I never invested in it. As a carmaker, some of the decisions that Tesla makes, baffles me. If I was in the market for an EV, I'd pass over Tesla simply because of lack of buttons for crucial functionality.

Agreed.

Thats not entirely fair. Meteors only have a downward path. Musk looks more to be more of an artillery shell.

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