But Musk later changed his mind, reportedly donating $45 million a month of his money to the pro-Trump political action committee American PAC.

`Nuff said. CEOs are often Republican, but to be this outspokenly political is normally a bad thing for CEOs like Musk. Media company heads (and Twitter/X is a media company) are supposed to at least pretend to be neutral.

And catering to the far-right seems like a bad idea if your company makes EVs. But what do I know?

    • noride@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      97
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      Man, I’d feel soooo owned if they did that. Ugh, what if they all went out and got solar, too? Then we’d really be fucked. What are we, if not a bunch of electric car driving, latte drinking, solar panel punks? At least we’d still have the lattes, I guess.

      • mommykink@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        38
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        3 months ago

        You joke but there’s a company right now selling solar power “own the libs who control the power boards.”

        Patriot Power

        It’s a step in the right direction, I guess.

        • glimse@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          3 months ago

          Isn’t it so funny how they hate liberals for doing/wanting the things they claim to be the champions of?

          • skyspydude1@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            9
            ·
            3 months ago

            Solar is a weird rabbit hole of the kind of people who get it. It’s like the epitome of horseshoe theory, where you either have the left-leaning eco-conscious sorts, or the far-right doomer/prepper “I hate the government so much I’m going to live off-grid” types who are the main people interested in it.

            It’s very weird researching solar stuff sometimes, because the advertising will either focus on the more typical performance metrics like W/m² and smart-home integration, or their ability to withstand an EMP and the fact they have no 5G chips in them and shit.

        • jaybone@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          3 months ago

          I think there’s another one too with a similar brand and marketing. I suppose that’s a good thing.

          • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            3 months ago

            There’s one called Semper Solaris that’s full on with the military branding. “Declare your independence from the greedy power companies” etc.

            Interesting thing is, they’re actually a very competent company who hires former marines and has massive discounts for veterans.

            • Cypher@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              7
              ·
              edit-2
              3 months ago

              Veterans who were sent to war for oil companies, turning to installing solar power is a top tier ‘fuck you’

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        3 months ago

        Can’t we just tell them getting power from the grid is Socialism so they will think putting up solar panels is the way to keep power in Texas, Florida… Most anywhere without having to rely and the government. You know, like becoming free from energy dependence or something.

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      65
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      Around 9 years ago I very much wanted a Tesla and thought Musk was a genius. All he had to do to keep everyone thinking that was shut up.

      • stoly@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        26
        ·
        3 months ago

        The problem is that it is his narcissism that drives him to want to be adored by everyone. As such, he can’t actually stop talking.

        • PseudorandomNoise@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          25
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          3 months ago

          Literally the exact same problem Trump had during COVID. Fauci was giving press briefings every day and we all loved him for it. Problem was we loved him more than Trump and that’s when Trump just had to have the spotlight once again.

    • MajorHavoc@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      ·
      3 months ago

      Yeah. Tesla was a status symbol, and Musk has put in long hard extra hours of work to convert it into a shitty status symbol.

      For folks out there that Musk hasn’t personally offended, I suspect they’ve got to be at least mildly aware that it’s more a matter of “when” than “if”, at this point.

    • Hotzilla@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      3 months ago

      Tesla will go bankcrupt in five years, unless they toss Musk out. He will do some stupid shit that will crash the whole company, like endorsing a political candidate who is talking of making EV’s illegal.

  • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    63
    ·
    3 months ago

    I’m a Democrat and a Tesla owner. No way in Hell will I buy another Tesla as long as Musk is involved in any way with the company. It would actually take a significant overhaul of both the company and their cars to convince me to buy another one.

    • skozzii@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      I would sell it before Musk decides to find a list of all democratic supporters and start screwing up their cars out of pettyness. And let’s not even pretend for one second the man child wouldn’t do that.

      • Ænima@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        3 months ago

        Or release real-time, geographic info on democrat Tesla drivers to right-wing militia groups to take care of. I don’t think he’d just let shit go. Look at the Elon plane account for a digital representation.

    • inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      3 months ago

      Same here. Technologically they’re being surpassed and quality wise, well from what I can tell from looking at these newer model 3’s that people at work have been buying, has not improved at all. Plus being a absolute public fascist? Yeah, I’ll buy my next EV from another manufacturer thanks.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    22
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    3 months ago

    Remember years ago when people said - out loud, ostensibly seriously - he’s a genius? I think all those people need to be kicked in the ass.

    He “endorsed” Trump. LOL. That’s a chump, not a genius.

  • inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    18
    ·
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    Yeah, like I needed another reason to never buy another Tesla again. Good luck getting Republicans to buy an EV much less a EV that’s technology is no longer cutting edge and the quality is horrible by any standard.

  • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    3 months ago

    Us regular people cannot comprehend the 4D chess moves of a genius like Musk. Or maybe he just took too many drugs.

  • Margot Robbie@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    3 months ago

    The reason to not buy a Tesla is that now they are simply bad cars, and there’s too many good pure electric options to even consider a Tesla nowadays.

    Tech wise, a Lucid Air blows a Tesla out of the water.

    Driving wise, a Porsche Taycan handles like a Porsche, a Tesla handles like a Camry.

    There are way too many other examples to list.

    • Grass@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      3 months ago

      Camry won’t just fall apart though. Someone I know also came out entirely unscathed after decimating both his camry and a semi with loaded double trailer. The thing even still drove and he was able to get it off the road but one wheel was bent up and off the ground. I doubt a Tesla of any generation can do that. From what I remember gen one at least didn’t seem very camry like either. I had this feeling like something was off even though the mad force of accelerating was pretty impressive.

    • dragontamer@lemmy.worldOPM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      TSLA has sold fewer cars this year despite dropping prices and enticing customers with 0% financing. Not just Q2 (most recent data), but also Q1.

      It will be a few weeks before the Trump Endorsement truly is felt, but I’m wondering if Elon has pissed off Democrats enough to the point where they are selling Tesla cars and buying new cars. But Democrats were already clearly no longer buying the car this year.

  • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    3 months ago

    You mean the 4% drop that happened after the ginormous 27% bump that happened, basically resetting their price to where they were a few months ago? I’m sure musk is hurting real bad. Articles like this just infuriate me.

    • Dultas@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      3 months ago

      Tesla stock has never been based on any real metrics or logic. It’ll be interesting to see sales over the next quarter.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      Tesla’s down overall for the year. I agree its still comically overvalued. But big investment firms and hedge funds are still more than willing to prop it up, seemingly indefinitely. This isn’t liberal democrats fleeing the brand, because liberal democrats aren’t the ones doing all the HFT.

  • crusa187@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    arrow-down
    9
    ·
    3 months ago

    This whole thing seems like a sleight of hand to me. I’m pretty sure people are fleeing Tesla because their manufacturing standards are garbage, and their software is faulty. Cybertruck looks like a child’s first truck drawing was the design basis, it doesn’t even do basic truck things, and if you aren’t careful it can decapitate you or at least take off some fingers.

    But sure, it’s because Muskrat, emerald mine offspring, finally endorsed Trump that is the determining factor for these people?! Ok, I guess.

    • wagoner@infosec.pub
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      Not for me. I genuinely love almost everything about my Model 3 Tesla which I’ve had for years. It’s a pleasure to drive. But I’ll never buy another Tesla because of Musk.

    • dragontamer@lemmy.worldOPM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      Except Tesla always had shitty manufacturing and faulty software.

      The difference accelerated after Elon Musk bought Twitter and revealed himself to be a right-wing asshole. (Some would argue that everyone should have known that Musk was always right-wing, but… the cultural zeitgeist never really noticed until after the Twitter purchase).

  • masquenox@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    3 months ago

    Gee… the capitalists liberals have been bending over backwards for all this time is overtly turning towards fascism, you say?

    If only someone could have predicted this!