I've been an investor in Tesla for over 5 years. I've been reading the Electrek site since the very first article Seth published. As my investment in Tesla grew (in both absolute and relative terms), so did my interest in Elon Musk and all the industries he's involved in / is looking to disrupt. After 5 years, I can safely say my interest in all things Elon Musk has turned into what is a bonafide obsession. I don't comment much, I'm more of a lurker, but I've pretty much consumed all available information from the sites most of us here probably also read (to varying degrees).
Over the last 18 months, I have definitely noticed an enormous ratcheting up of anti-Tesla / anti-Elon Musk sentiment. From someone who has been watching this space very closely, I would say that any TSLA longs need to take the following a bit more seriously...
...because this is definitely what is happening. And it's happening everywhere, and by a huge magnitude. Comments sections of Electrek, GTM, InsideEVs, Teslarati, Green Car Reports, Facebook groups, Instagram, hell - even on this very forum, are being peppered with harshly negative anti-Elon / anti-Tesla bias. But one in particular which has seen the most massive uptick is on Twitter. Whoever is engineering this knows that it's Musk's preferred choice of social media.
You can call me crazy, but this isn't just some conspiracy theory. If anyone out there has the capability to do so, I would challenge them to look back from 18 months up to this point and aggregate the data. I can guarantee you there has been a huge surge over the last 12 months. It's not like suddenly the world started hating Elon Musk. I'm sure there are tons of retail investors out there who are following the short story, but I don't think their numbers and fervor have increased organically at the rate I've noticed the uptick. Anyone who is going to be impacted by Elon knows that he has won the hearts and the minds of the masses. And there is a cyber-war being waged in front of our very eyes. It reminds me of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, only it has (seemingly) less sophistication and more volume / brute-force.
Our problem as investors: Elon has been watching his Twitter feed more and more actively, especially whilst sleeping at the factory and going through production hell. (He has to watch it, there's no other way he can so readily engage with his fans / followers). These attacks have seriously ramped up and unfortunately, he let the pressure get the better of him.
And let's face it... he did exactly what 'they' wanted him to do. He snapped and said something stupid. The tweets are real. I was literally watching them ping up on my notifications one-by-one.
It really disgusts me so much that the media just loves it. They're all over it. Seems like most journalists only care about clicks. Drive traffic and you've done a good job. This twitter drama gives them exactly that- more fodder, more clicks. Ugh.
Side note - I'm less concerned about his personal safety as part of all of this, but if I did put on my tin-foil hat I guess you could argue if 'they' manage to turn public opinion on him it will be less of an issue to do something truly nefarious.
Have to agree with this point. The coverage of the cave story is global. This goes far beyond just the Elon/Tesla/Space-X bubble most of us live in, and it has the potential to have a long-term impact.
Another valid concern. There are likely thousands of lawyers begging to take this case.
Fair point and agreed.
I don't even think it's worth entertaining the notion that the guy actually is a Pedo (sex tourist... perhaps. but pedo is over the top. either way, he shouldn't have said what he did).
I do think this is definitely going to hurt at market open. But there is a way for this to blow over, and that is for Musk to reach out and publicly apologize. He doesn't really have a choice. He needs to either do that + pay him off, or if the guy isn't feeling greedy (unlikely) apologise and then agree to donate a huge sum to charity of his choice in Thailand (or something).
Then he needs to go on a media tour (Oprah would be a great start, Joe Rogan would be a good one to follow, and a few more if possible). and remind the world about his grand vision and WHY he is doing what he is doing. Talk about his personal struggle, his personal sacrifices, give his take on how the media is attacking him, talk about the stress of keeping the company alive, talk about production hell, reiterate why he slept at the factory, talk about all the great people who work at Tesla and how unified they are behind the mission, etc., etc. You get the point. He needs to lay everything out.
If this is your take on the situation, then it is truly misguided. You obviously don't know all the facts. Nevertheless, this is the narrative that the general public is likely to take on. And it's pretty much why Elon should apologize. Even so, the second part of your post is crap and you're just trying to conflate the issue.
He's definitely on radio silence until him, his PR team, and the board have agreed the path forward. You can bet your ass that major investors and board personally called him and they are working on a strategy right now.
It is very incendiary to call some one a pedophile and should never be taken lightly especially from such a person of high esteem as Elon.
We obviously don’t know everything about this situation, but once again, perception is reality and if you google “Vern Unsworth” or even “Thailand Cave” literally all results come back with articles headlined as Elon calling Vern a pedo or attacking a rescuer. It’s literally every search result down the line.
Maybe the tweet context was in relation to an article recently published about “European retirees” accused of living in Thailand for the purpose of having sexual relations with underage boys. Maybe Elon was given certain information about this certain type of activity while there at the caves. Being a father of five boys, it may have touched a nerve or two.
We may never know and it is fairly irrelevant at this point—absent some shocking revelation on mr. Unsworth— to the impression being projected on google search and the broader media around the world.
It was a soccer team trapped in a cave during the World Cup soccer championship so the global press was a magnet to this story. Elon gave of his company’s talent and time which the lead rescue personnel requested and insisted upon. He followed through and delivered. As with the rest of the world, he only wanted those kids to get home safely, as did all those involved in the efforts. That should’ve been the end of the story.
But it didn’t. It turned into a bash fest on Elon and co.’s efforts as a pr stunt and not helpful to the efforts. And then for mr. Unsworth to tell him to shove the submarine up his *** this boiled Elon’s craw, which just was another bad faith attack on everything he stands for.... all amidst working extremely hard to hitting production goals for Model 3. Twitter is so tempting, just a couple thumb pecks away and here we are.
We also have to consider Elon has pretty much always defended himself against unjust press. I remember he called a times reporter a “huge douche bag” saying Elon took 2008 bailout money. Elon called out the mad money guy. He’s called out the la times. He called out short traders for a while now and we all know about the recent stuff with linette Lopez and Martin Tripp.
Elon gets sharp elbows, but he returns them also.
So, long time investors understand his personality and how he “fights back.”
As we’ve seen in that time period, Tesla has gone from a company of a few hundred employees producing a few thousand cars, to 50,000+ employees and has now produced over 200,000 (not to mention reusable rockets and working its way rapidly toward the 100th commercial launch mark)
So, I think he’ll make it through this media perception turbulence as well, and grind another day toward the goal of achieving sustainable consumption and production.
If he overreacted in his tweet, he should figure out a mea culpa strategy since he will be bombarded with this question on the conference call until he addresses it. If he knows something about Vern we don’t, he should say nothing and give no apologies and drive on. Hypothetically, his silence could indicate he stands by his statement and in this possible scenario if a curious press digs any deeper, they could discover something unseemly and that is not for Elon to disclose or get further involved with.
Either way, however this cookie crumbles, this too shall pass and Elon (and the rest of us) will move forward.