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The Tragedy of Ignorance and Hatred: The wages of FUD

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On my recent road trip, I have been painfully reminded that there are a stubborn minority of people who are so threatened by the shining progress and disruption of the status quo that Tesla represents, that they vent their fear as anger and ugliness.

In Eastern WA, I had to two separate carfuls of young males "finger" me as I glided past them, minding my own business. I was shocked and offended, but resisted the temptation to acknowledge them in any way.

Then the other day in Rapid City, SD, after I ate lunch while my "Ruby" supercharged. I returned to the car to find this scene:
IMG_4400.JPG


What you see is the aftermath of a half-full Red Bull super-size can hurled directly at my Model S. Thankfully the perp's athletic abilities were insufficiently enhanced by the stimulants coursing through his blood to convert his anger into a dent in my hood.
 
There will always be people like this, whether it's hatred and jealousy of Tesla owners, or something else. Glad there was no damage done to you or your MS. Hopefully you will encounter a lot more people who are interested in progress and new technology, which in my experience vastly outnumber the haters. Safe travels on your road trip.
 
On my recent road trip, I have been painfully reminded that there are a stubborn minority of people who are so threatened by the shining progress and disruption of the status quo that Tesla represents, that they vent their fear as anger and ugliness.

In Eastern WA, I had to two separate carfuls of young males "finger" me as I glided past them, minding my own business. I was shocked and offended, but resisted the temptation to acknowledge them in any way.

Then the other day in Rapid City, SD, after I ate lunch while my "Ruby" supercharged. I returned to the car to find this scene:
View attachment 61263

What you see is the aftermath of a half-full Red Bull super-size can hurled directly at my Model S. Thankfully the perp's athletic abilities were insufficiently enhanced by the stimulants coursing through his blood to convert his anger into a dent in my hood.

So Sorry to see this happen, and to you, one of the nicest people on the planet. I too, have got "saluted" inappropriately and just have to be glad that it's a rare event, such wounded people in the World, they just don't know what they do.
 
I've had this happen with almost every car I own. Honda Civic (stock), NSX, RX-7 TT. Seems like if you have a nice clean car and/or park out at the fringe of a parking lot, people will go out of their way to vandalize your car. There's entire threads about this sort of thing on other forums (SupraForums, GTRLife, NSXPrime, etc). IMHO it's less a case of being threatened by technological progress as it is some people just being jerks.
 
I have been sensing something similar, but for different reasons. I have had a few offside comments not because the car is electric or a Tesla but because it is known to be expensive and some folks are just resentful of others who can afford nice things. I have spoken to a couple of acquaintances who drive fairly expensive (non Tesla) cars and they too have been subjected to the same kinds of thing you've experienced.
 
Another owner had their license plates vandalized while over-nighting in Rapid City. I'd also add to the chorus of those harassed just for being in a nicer car--my Cayman S occasionally elicited irrational resentment. The Tesla was keyed somewhere en route to CA, I'm thinking New Mexico.
 
I recently moved to Edmonton, Alberta which is the closest large city to Fort McMurray. There is a an astounding amount of ignorance and hatred here. Just today, we were driving through the city and a large, modified pickup truck was in front of us. At every chance, he stood on the gas and left us (a little Mazda) in a black cloud of unburnt diesel, only to catch the next light faster. I don't understand the culture, but I can thankfully say that I'm slowly locating pockets of hope here.

Just tonight I was invited to check out an aquaponics facility tomorrow and I'm told there's involvement from the local solar energy society. I also proudly sent our home builder the link to the Nema 14-50 page on the Tesla website to have our home ready for a Tesla someday. I believe I was the first in my neighbourhood to request such a thing.
 
There is hope

Huh depressing to read. Must post something to balance bad feelings.:smile:

The event that I will describe below lasted only as long as red light on a large intersection.

Time: Friday morning, commuters zooming to work.
Location: The road I was on (4 lanes one way) intersected with similarly large highway. That intersection is quite busy, with approximately 50-100 cars accumulating on red light.
Participants: 3 complete strangers. May I add irrelevant visual detail, they were of 3 different races of humanity

As I was approaching traffic lights I observed an incident ahead on the road. Few cars ahead and sideways of me, there was a ute whose driver got out of his ute and started looking around. Few seconds after he got out, two other drivers that were stopped behind him left their cars, walked towards him and exchanged few words. They all started pushing the ute sideways across 2 lanes towards the safety of off road embankment. They had to push into incoming traffic of cars approaching the traffic lights. It was a dangerous maneuver as there was a risk of being hit by incoming cars. The risk was equivalent to standing on a busy highway and relying on drivers to see the obstacle in time to stop. As the light was still red, the traffic was at a slower than normal speed and gave way to people pushing the ute off the road.

Once off the road, ute driver opened the hood and got busy there whilst two other drivers ran back across the lanes and jumped into their cars. The red light turned green and everyone drove off.
 
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Huh depressing to read. Must post something to balance bad feelings.:smile:

The event that I will describe below lasted only as long as red light on a large intersection.

Time: Friday morning, commuters zooming to work.
Location: The road I was on (4 lanes one way) intersected with similarly large highway. That intersection is quite busy, with approximately 50-100 cars accumulating on red light.
Participants: 3 complete strangers. May I add irrelevant visual detail, they were of 3 different races of humanity

As I was approaching traffic lights I observed an incident ahead on the road. Few cars ahead and sideways of me, there was a ute whose driver got out of his ute and started looking around. Few seconds after he got out, two other drivers that were stopped behind him left their cars, walked towards him and exchanged few words. They all started pushing the ute sideways across 2 lanes towards the safety of off road embankment. They had to push into incoming traffic of cars approaching the traffic lights. It was a dangerous maneuver as there was a risk of being hit by incoming cars. The risk was equivalent to standing on a busy highway and relying on drivers to see the obstacle in time to stop. As the light was still red, the traffic was at a slower than normal speed and gave way to people pushing the ute off the road.

Once off the road, ute driver opened the hood and got busy there whilst two other drivers ran back across the lanes and jumped into their cars. The red light turned green and everyone drove off.

Instant translation: "ute" -> small pickup truck based on a large sedan, like the El Camino in the US, but extremely common in Australia. Eg:

ute.png
 
Instant translation: "ute" -> small pickup truck based on a large sedan, like the El Camino in the US, but extremely common in Australia. Eg:

View attachment 61747

Yea my australian accent is so strong, translation is required :biggrin:

It takes one to recognize one, ggr ?

Utes, the most beloved cars... Ute drivers are like horse riders, they are in love with their metal horses
 
But let's not forget about the Occupy Movement that sprung up to protest exactly those perceived "excesses".
The occupy Movement was not a protest against excesses like Teslas as such, it was a protest against the concentration of power and wealth by the 1% that effectively excludes the 99% from achieving the same benefits. The Occupy Movement is not against wealth as such, rather that once one is rich beyond a certain level then further accumulation of personal wealth comes at the expense of opportunity for others. Whether you agree with them or not there is a widening wealth gap in many developed countries. I think that at an individual level many people may not be able to articulate this but do understand it at some level and develop a pervasive anger. This is seen in domestic violence, road rage, street violence and of course is usually directed at convenient if inappropriate targets rather than dealt with through the ballot box.