Champion of “free speech” Elon Musk? Just don’t point out his fascist statements, destruction of the federal government; and his ugly, unsafe, fiasco called the “Cyber Truck”.
I'm sorry you got banned, but maybe it's a badge of honor. Elon Musk and Trump are the biggest snowflakes and so thin-skinned. You unnerve them and it's not through threatening violence but through conveying the truth. Keep up the good work. We must fight for our Republic.
It's instructive to compare Tesla to the last major auto marque that had Nazi associations.
Q: How many people can you fit in a Volkswagen?
A: One hundred. Two in the front, two in the back, 96 in the ashtray.
To a certain group of traditional American auto buyers, the VW Beetle was always an abomination, an ugly, underpowered car that advertised poverty, not elegance. And yet it was a major postwar hit, achieving an iconic status unmatched by any car since the Ford Model T.
The beloved VW Bug had a legitimate Nazi connection: commissioned by Adolf Hitler himself and designed by Ferdinand Porsche to be the Third Reich's People's Car. The engineering was decidedly old school, which the Germans were so proud of they barely changed the design in the 60 years of its production. The heater was a particular annoyance to comfort-minded Americans, a cowling over the hot exhaust manifold that the engine fan blew air over and into the passenger compartment. As the former owner of a '69 Bug, I can attest that the heat was very dry. But worse than that, if the manifold developed a leak, as manifolds tend to do, it sends deadly CO directly into the passenger compartment. This provoked wisecracks about Nazi engineering ;)
But Volkswagen never paid a PR price for this and the Bug became the identity vehicle of the 60s counterculture, not exactly a demo you'd associate with goose stepping Nazis. It was postwar. Nobody, least of all the new German government, had good feelings about Hitler's ideology.
In comes Tesla, marketing to the children of Bug owners who had gotten their MBAs, law and medical degrees and shared their parents' desire to protect the environment. Tesla becomes the identity vehicle of the blue state economic elite. Then the previously apolitical Elon Musk, maybe realizing too late that Tesla was dithering and resting on its laurels while serious EV competition was brewing, maybe realizing that rescuing his fortune required more in SpaceX government contracts, throws his CyberTruck in with Trump and lets his Apartheid Clyde flag fly high. Tesla becomes the Swasticar.
The brand is cooked. Tesla will _never_ recover from this. When brand damage is this severe, it becomes self-fulfilling and any attempt to reverse it is like flailing in quicksand. The board could kick Elmo out as CEO, buy up all his shares, cancel the failed CyberTruck and devote all its energies to developing new, competitive EVs and it wouldn't make a dime's bit of difference. You can't redesign the Edsel and you can't reformulate New Coke. Tesla's board is to blame. Pity them not.
Banning, erasing, blackballing, threatening, "sharpieing" whiting out, tearing down, and renaming, all part of the far right's attempt to alter reality in favor of their policies that are singularly disliked, if not wholly reviled.
The entire administration appears to be in lockstep with this outrageous assault on reality and contradicting opinions that in the old days would lead to fruitful debate with the result being things like ... our Constitution, the separation of powers, separating church and state, legislation et al, all things that mAGA appears to hate, preferring threatening, bullying and censoring.
Most of us loudmouths have been subject to bans or "time-outs" in our social media histories. It's different when coming from an owner. Sure, it's easy to understand why he would be pissed off at the suggestion his cash cow should be destroyed. But has he ever considered why people feel that way and no, some conspiracy theory won't do?
It isn't some esoteric reason that many people of all political persuasions are horrified by the unelected billionaire with no government experience rooting around our personal information, strongarming professionals, allowed to be intrusive without any accurate proof offered up once the abstract claims are investigated. If Mr. Musk has a counterargument as to why being obscenely wealthy gives him the right to buy a president and then with no oversight start eviscerating public servants and valuable services, I'm sure Rick would be happy to debate him.
I would advise him to enroll in a Civics class at any level. It genuinely seems that he has no comprehension of what led to our republic and how the government works with three coequal branches of government. Apparently it's one of the conceits of the tech masters that things work better under a dictatorship. I suggest every one of them read more than Ayn Rand romance novels, for instance, Alexei Navalany's book Patriot which begins before Putin set out to murder him for being a dissenter, the country was already an impoverished mess filled with corruption. That just geometrically increased with the takeover of Donald Trump's imaginary friend. What I don't get is even if one did believe in the unitary executive theory, why would anyone choose as their master a cognitively disintegrating, infantile, and ignorant, crook who spends most of his time whining, alienating our allies, lying about his supposed successes, fixated on personal vendettas with the desire to throw off the island anyone who dares to disagree with him? But apparently his over the top arrogance is contagious, so you're in good company, Rick. Most of the people he and Musk criticize, lie about or want to impeach are far superior than this crew of money worshipping, corrupt intellectually, and bogus staff, administration and followers.
These are all features, Lynn, not bugs. The intent is to use Trump to destroy the government, wreck the economy and immiserate the population so they can install a dictator.
Just as the neoliberal smart guys set up the hapless Boris Yeltsin.
Your post, "Kill Tesla, Save the Country", is brilliant. The best strategy for getting Musk to abandon his DOGE rampage. Looks like Musk's minions and bots thought so too. Congrats on shaking 'um up!
Champion of “free speech” Elon Musk? Just don’t point out his fascist statements, destruction of the federal government; and his ugly, unsafe, fiasco called the “Cyber Truck”.
I'm sorry you got banned, but maybe it's a badge of honor. Elon Musk and Trump are the biggest snowflakes and so thin-skinned. You unnerve them and it's not through threatening violence but through conveying the truth. Keep up the good work. We must fight for our Republic.
We have seen much more of you here on Substack. Prefer this platform. Much prefer it
Great post I quit Twitter before it was sold to Elmo it was when I found out PayPal was worse! Stay away!
It's instructive to compare Tesla to the last major auto marque that had Nazi associations.
Q: How many people can you fit in a Volkswagen?
A: One hundred. Two in the front, two in the back, 96 in the ashtray.
To a certain group of traditional American auto buyers, the VW Beetle was always an abomination, an ugly, underpowered car that advertised poverty, not elegance. And yet it was a major postwar hit, achieving an iconic status unmatched by any car since the Ford Model T.
The beloved VW Bug had a legitimate Nazi connection: commissioned by Adolf Hitler himself and designed by Ferdinand Porsche to be the Third Reich's People's Car. The engineering was decidedly old school, which the Germans were so proud of they barely changed the design in the 60 years of its production. The heater was a particular annoyance to comfort-minded Americans, a cowling over the hot exhaust manifold that the engine fan blew air over and into the passenger compartment. As the former owner of a '69 Bug, I can attest that the heat was very dry. But worse than that, if the manifold developed a leak, as manifolds tend to do, it sends deadly CO directly into the passenger compartment. This provoked wisecracks about Nazi engineering ;)
But Volkswagen never paid a PR price for this and the Bug became the identity vehicle of the 60s counterculture, not exactly a demo you'd associate with goose stepping Nazis. It was postwar. Nobody, least of all the new German government, had good feelings about Hitler's ideology.
In comes Tesla, marketing to the children of Bug owners who had gotten their MBAs, law and medical degrees and shared their parents' desire to protect the environment. Tesla becomes the identity vehicle of the blue state economic elite. Then the previously apolitical Elon Musk, maybe realizing too late that Tesla was dithering and resting on its laurels while serious EV competition was brewing, maybe realizing that rescuing his fortune required more in SpaceX government contracts, throws his CyberTruck in with Trump and lets his Apartheid Clyde flag fly high. Tesla becomes the Swasticar.
The brand is cooked. Tesla will _never_ recover from this. When brand damage is this severe, it becomes self-fulfilling and any attempt to reverse it is like flailing in quicksand. The board could kick Elmo out as CEO, buy up all his shares, cancel the failed CyberTruck and devote all its energies to developing new, competitive EVs and it wouldn't make a dime's bit of difference. You can't redesign the Edsel and you can't reformulate New Coke. Tesla's board is to blame. Pity them not.
WHO IS SUSAN ARGYLE?
See “The Owl and the Sword” – Amazon
Struck a nerve? Excellent, Rick!
FIDO. Very Hunter Thompson-esque. 🙂
Elon's a whiny little bitch. Kinda like his orange VP?
Banning, erasing, blackballing, threatening, "sharpieing" whiting out, tearing down, and renaming, all part of the far right's attempt to alter reality in favor of their policies that are singularly disliked, if not wholly reviled.
The entire administration appears to be in lockstep with this outrageous assault on reality and contradicting opinions that in the old days would lead to fruitful debate with the result being things like ... our Constitution, the separation of powers, separating church and state, legislation et al, all things that mAGA appears to hate, preferring threatening, bullying and censoring.
Most of us loudmouths have been subject to bans or "time-outs" in our social media histories. It's different when coming from an owner. Sure, it's easy to understand why he would be pissed off at the suggestion his cash cow should be destroyed. But has he ever considered why people feel that way and no, some conspiracy theory won't do?
It isn't some esoteric reason that many people of all political persuasions are horrified by the unelected billionaire with no government experience rooting around our personal information, strongarming professionals, allowed to be intrusive without any accurate proof offered up once the abstract claims are investigated. If Mr. Musk has a counterargument as to why being obscenely wealthy gives him the right to buy a president and then with no oversight start eviscerating public servants and valuable services, I'm sure Rick would be happy to debate him.
I would advise him to enroll in a Civics class at any level. It genuinely seems that he has no comprehension of what led to our republic and how the government works with three coequal branches of government. Apparently it's one of the conceits of the tech masters that things work better under a dictatorship. I suggest every one of them read more than Ayn Rand romance novels, for instance, Alexei Navalany's book Patriot which begins before Putin set out to murder him for being a dissenter, the country was already an impoverished mess filled with corruption. That just geometrically increased with the takeover of Donald Trump's imaginary friend. What I don't get is even if one did believe in the unitary executive theory, why would anyone choose as their master a cognitively disintegrating, infantile, and ignorant, crook who spends most of his time whining, alienating our allies, lying about his supposed successes, fixated on personal vendettas with the desire to throw off the island anyone who dares to disagree with him? But apparently his over the top arrogance is contagious, so you're in good company, Rick. Most of the people he and Musk criticize, lie about or want to impeach are far superior than this crew of money worshipping, corrupt intellectually, and bogus staff, administration and followers.
Yeah, well, the good news is they are going so fast and it’s affecting so many lives that they’re screwing up and enraging people.
These are all features, Lynn, not bugs. The intent is to use Trump to destroy the government, wreck the economy and immiserate the population so they can install a dictator.
Just as the neoliberal smart guys set up the hapless Boris Yeltsin.
Trump is only a tool in their long term plans.
ty the first one was difficult lol I tried and did finish lol
He kicked his consumers in the face
And in other news, Trump's DoD erases Jackie Robinson.
Also a great riff on a Tesla Karen calling the protests "one hundred times worst than J6."
Keith O, bay-bee, bringin' the fire as always:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtcP_L1fD84
Looking forward to big PROTEST DEMONSTRATION AGAINST TESLA/MUSK/DOGE/TRUMP On
MARCH30th IN HAWAII/permitted and protected by Honolulu Police Department 11am-4pm SEE INDIVISIBLE.HAWAII.ORG for details
Love you, Rick. And Ilove Substack! All the time I used to spend on Twitter, I now spend on Substack. And I never have and never will own a Tesla.
Your post, "Kill Tesla, Save the Country", is brilliant. The best strategy for getting Musk to abandon his DOGE rampage. Looks like Musk's minions and bots thought so too. Congrats on shaking 'um up!