Via CNN: Tesla sales plunge 13%. The brief write-up calls it “the largest drop in deliveries in its history.”
I am reminded of Michael Jordan’s quip, “Republicans buy sneakers, too.” Whether he was joking or not, the notion that wrapping up one’s brand in politics can have downsides.
It can especially have downsides when your key demographic largely adheres to one side of the spectrum and you decide to go all-in on the other side.
I am also reminded of this.
Which then reminds me of this.
He was specifically talking about taking in immigrants (source: CNN). The whole interview is here.
“If they had another four years, they would legalize enough illegals in the swing states to make the swing states not swing states,” Musk told Rogan. “They would just, they would be blue states. Then they would … win the presidential; they’d win the House, the Senate and the presidency.”
[…]
“We’ve got civilizational suicidal empathy going on,” Musk said, borrowing the term from Gad Saad, a Canadian scholar who is also a frequent Rogan host.
While Musk said he believes in empathy and that “you should care about other people,” he also thinks it’s destroying society.
“The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit,” Musk said. “There it’s they’re exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response.”
Empathy, he said, has been “weaponized.”
Sooo, he wants us to have empathy for stock prices. But, you know, not for refugees nor tens of thousands of fired federal employees. And you can forget about worrying about the degree to which earthquake relief to Myanmar was hampered by the closure of USAID or the substantial death toll from the shuttering of US humanitarian aid.
Will no one think of the stock prices?
The added layer of hypocrisy here is the degree to which Musk revels in the alt-right’s usage of crass humor while constantly deploying the “just joking!” response.
But, you know, Tim Walz is an “evil” “creep” because he used Tesla stock as a political punching bag.
I don’t throw the word around lightly, but this sure looks like an oligarchic response to me: money being more important than people.
This is clearly not a person who should have the power he has been given.
Of course, I suppose some readers might assume that the decline in sales is the Biden administration’s fault, given the horrible economy he left behind, and it is just now catching up with us. As such, Musk’s tethering of himself to Trump is all just superfluous. Further, the fact that Musk and Trump had a massive photo op on the White House lawn was just a couple of bros talking cars, as bros do.
