At this time we’re speaking concerning the protests towards Tesla, which have been branded on social media underneath the hashtag Tesla Takedown. The protests are, after all, a response to Elon Musk, who has managed to put in himself as mainly a not-so-shadow president who’s tearing the federal authorities aside, leaving confusion and destruction in his wake.
Lots of people are deeply sad with this state of affairs. And since Musk will not be an elected official however is, on some stage, a automotive salesman, a lot of these pissed off and indignant persons are taking purpose on the most seen and accessible image of his energy and wealth: Tesla itself.
To assist pull this all aside, I requested Ed Niedermeyer to hitch me on the present. Niedermeyer printed a e-book about Tesla in 2019 known as Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors, and he hosts a podcast known as Autonocast, about autonomous car expertise. His sizable following on Bluesky has additionally made him one of many main organizers of the Tesla protests in Portland, Oregon, the place he lives. So I needed to convey him on the present to speak me by means of what he sees with each the massive image of Tesla as an organization and on the bottom with the continued protest motion.
There’s rather a lot occurring and the story is altering quick, even since Niedermeyer and I talked in the beginning of the week. However that greater image — the disconnect between what he calls the “delusion” of Tesla and the fact, and the way that actuality is now manifesting into a worldwide protest motion — is shaping as much as be the defining story of Tesla’s subsequent chapter.
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