There has been a vocal bunch of U.S. right wing conservative voices online who have been very anti-Tesla.
For those of you with a lot of right wing conservative friends, would you say this vocal bunch we see online are outliers who don't reflect the more common right wing conservative disposition towards Tesla?
And is there any reason for such folks to be anti-Tesla other than simple EV hating for the sake of EV hating, with perhaps some short sellers mixed in?
The more I think about it, the more it seems right wing conservatives in the U.S. should like Tesla motors. Here's a company that's a leader in innovation in the United States, building cars in America powered by American fuel, generating American jobs. Yes there is some green agenda, but it is being undertaken through entirely capitalistic processes of building good products and selling them to consumers. Most of the money comes from consumers and investors. Most of the arguably limited government benefits come from the California ZEV program by selling ZEV credits to other automakers and things like tax abatements for the Gigafactory. The former is quite frankly doing other automakers a favor, while the latter is a smaller company (compared to other automakers) taking advantage of tax breaks, the exact kind of thing conservatives are always arguing in favor of. The Supercharger charging infrastructure is entirely Tesla funded. Their biggest legal battles to date have been against the dealership model of business -- a model of business that relies on government regulations that restrict free commerce. Again, Tesla seems to be on the side of conservative right wing philosophy. Right wing philosophy likes leaders who work hard and invest their own wealth to build a business, exactly as Elon has done. I really don't see anything not to like.
I often feel very cautious about discussing my appreciation and interest in Tesla with conservative friends and coworkers out of fear they may respond in negative relationship straining ways. Perhaps this concern is misplaced.
For those of you with a lot of right wing conservative friends, would you say this vocal bunch we see online are outliers who don't reflect the more common right wing conservative disposition towards Tesla?
And is there any reason for such folks to be anti-Tesla other than simple EV hating for the sake of EV hating, with perhaps some short sellers mixed in?
The more I think about it, the more it seems right wing conservatives in the U.S. should like Tesla motors. Here's a company that's a leader in innovation in the United States, building cars in America powered by American fuel, generating American jobs. Yes there is some green agenda, but it is being undertaken through entirely capitalistic processes of building good products and selling them to consumers. Most of the money comes from consumers and investors. Most of the arguably limited government benefits come from the California ZEV program by selling ZEV credits to other automakers and things like tax abatements for the Gigafactory. The former is quite frankly doing other automakers a favor, while the latter is a smaller company (compared to other automakers) taking advantage of tax breaks, the exact kind of thing conservatives are always arguing in favor of. The Supercharger charging infrastructure is entirely Tesla funded. Their biggest legal battles to date have been against the dealership model of business -- a model of business that relies on government regulations that restrict free commerce. Again, Tesla seems to be on the side of conservative right wing philosophy. Right wing philosophy likes leaders who work hard and invest their own wealth to build a business, exactly as Elon has done. I really don't see anything not to like.
I often feel very cautious about discussing my appreciation and interest in Tesla with conservative friends and coworkers out of fear they may respond in negative relationship straining ways. Perhaps this concern is misplaced.
