Wasn't this required since Tesla took a bunch of money from the US Federal government for charging infrastructure? And non-Tesla cars pay more than Teslas to use the same chargers.
As the face of Tesla, Elon instigated an aggressive political campaign in opposition to the people who care about EVs and climate change, so obviously those people are going to react negatively towards the brand.
"Harm" is a very subjective, one-sided view of a government efficiency and anti-corruption project.
Hundreds of millions of American taxpayers are fully behind DOGE.
I'm sure you'll find some supposedly vital science project that lost its funding, but please don't forget the hundreds of millions of people that are forced, by threat of violence, to pay for these things (that's the reality of taxation as a system). Sometimes those people get fed up, and they want government priorities to better match their own.
> "Harm" is a very subjective, one-sided view of a government efficiency and anti-corruption project.
I don't think it's an efficiency or anti-corruption project. If it is, it has failed pretty solidly. In the meantime, it's actively and objectively harming real people.
Regardless of whether or not you agree, the opposition to Musk doesn't appear to be overly tribal in nature. It appears to be a reaction to harm (real or perceived).
> Hundreds of millions of American taxpayers are fully behind DOGE.
Exactly how many people do you think there are in the United States?
How many of those are eligible to vote?
Now, of that group, how many voted for Trump, how many voted for Harris, how many voted for someone else, and how many didn't vote for president at all?
Of those subgroups, the one that comes closest to triple digit millions is "didn't vote at all". And it's still 10M short of the 100M mark.
~244.6M eligible voters in 2024. ~89.3M didn't vote at all. ~77.3M voted for Trump. ~75M voted for Harris.
Your phrasing reminds me of Pam Bondi's recent claim that Trump's policies have saved 258 million American lives. She claimed that they saved 2/3 of Americans from imminent death from fentanyl overdose. The claim is farcical on the face of it. Nowhere near 2/3 of Americans were, or are, at risk of a fentanyl overdose. She could have used the more accurate phrasing of "the amount of fentanyl seized or prevented is sufficient to make N million fatal doses" but that's not what was said. Instead she said "saved 258 million lives", which is a completely ridiculous claim that should be ridiculed for the unrealistic hyperbole that it is.
Your claim isn't quite as bad, but it's a similar mishandling of numbers.
Harm as in death. Millions of people for $0 saved. Not really sure how they sleep at night to be honest.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), established under the Trump administration and led by Elon Musk, has implemented extensive federal budget cuts across various agencies. These reductions have had significant impacts on global health, scientific research, and domestic services.
Global Health Impacts
Children: The withdrawal of USAID support may leave 1 million children without treatment for severe malnutrition, potentially causing 163,500 additional deaths annually. An estimated 4.5 million additional deaths among children under five by 2030, primarily due to the loss of access to nutrition, vaccines, and basic healthcare services.
Maternal and Child Health: A modeling study predicts that the cessation of U.S. maternal and child health funding could lead to an additional 7.9 million child deaths and 510,000 maternal deaths by 2040.
Malaria: Internal USAID memos estimate that up to 166,000 additional deaths from malaria could occur due to halted prevention programs.
Polio: Approximately 200,000 more children are projected to be paralyzed by polio over the next decade as a result of disrupted vaccination efforts.
HIV/AIDS: The dismantling of programs like PEPFAR could lead to a 400% increase in AIDS-related deaths globally, equating to an estimated 6.3 million additional deaths within four years, and up to 16 million additional deaths and 26 million new HIV infections by 2040.
Malnutrition: One million children are expected to go untreated for severe acute malnutrition, increasing the risk of mortality.
Tuberculosis: New cases of tuberculosis are anticipated to rise by 30% due to the cessation of treatment and prevention programs. Approximately 62,000 additional TB-related deaths are anticipated if foreign aid is not restored by the end of 2025.
Domestic Impacts
National Institutes of Health (NIH): Facing a 35% budget cut, the NIH has had to scale back or halt numerous research projects, affecting advancements in areas like cancer and infectious diseases.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): A reorganization plan includes the elimination of 20,000 jobs, impacting agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Social Security Administration (SSA): The closure of the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity and the layoff of 7,000 employees have led to delays and challenges in service delivery.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): DOGE operatives' unauthorized access to NOAA systems has raised concerns about the potential risks to weather forecasting and public safety.
National Science Foundation (NSF): Termination of $1 billion in grants and significant staff reductions have disrupted scientific research and education initiatives.
Financial Considerations
While DOGE claims to have saved $160 billion through these cuts, analyses suggest that the associated costs, including rehiring efforts and decreased productivity, have completely offset these savings, resulting in no savings at all.
People that bring up the word "communism" in relation to modern American Democrats greatly insult the memory of all those people killed by actual Communist regimes in the 20th century.
You were the first to abuse language with "taxation is theft" and then followed it up with a Communism metaphor. Please take your own advice.
Musk's entire gesture matches a Nazi salute close enough that if you were making an animated documentary about WWII and needed some footage to rotoscope when animating Hitler and used the musk footage without credit no one would suspect you hand't used authentic Hitler footage.
Here's a post that shows side by side videos of Musk's gesture and several authentic Nazi salutes [1].
Nearly all of the "but Democrats did it too" or "but celebrities did it too" claims are stills showing an outstretched arm. When you find the video of the movements surrounding the arm being in that position that are nothing like Nazi salutes.
I am not surprised by this reply, but at least I have clarified your lack of good faith to other viewers.
Elon clearly and assuredly did a Nazi salute. A man who has promoted Nazi rhetoric and who had his AI push Holocaust denial this week, whose time in government has been haphazardly destroying careers, dismantling oversight bodies, and having the president advertise his products.
The stills you provide clearly did not. And are people who have spent their lives fighting for civil rights, universal healthcare, and police reform.
This “political opponent” is actively destroying much of what I love about my country. Feeding our hard-earned institutions straight into the wood chipper. Establishing his oligarch buddies as the new nobility. Illegally subverting democracy with the help of his rancid think tanks. People will be dying from lack of medical care, drinking tainted water and soiled food, getting sent to concentration camps with no recourse, wallowing in abject poverty with no safety net, and all the while these ghouls will be smirking and clinking their glasses, still somehow thinking that they’re the good guys.
The word “opponent” doesn’t even begin to describe it. Musk and his ilk must never be seen in public again without being swarmed by protestors. Let them wallow in their pathetic cult bunkers with their concubines for the rest of their natural lives.
And frankly, I’d rather have BYD or Xiaomi anyway.
I'm not a fan of elon or the cheato, but there are corps in the US that deserve people's ire much more than tesla. You could just start with a list of the "incinerating the poor" industry. Or any of the other murder for hire corporations.
I would never own a tesla myself, simply because of the level of surveillance. But they do have the most well developed charging network, and the integration of that network with the vehicle's nav system is the most stand out feature of the brand. No other EV maker comes close in this regard.
I agree with the sentiment that elon is scum, but I would also say that if you want to protest against a company, there are many that do much more damage to society than tesla...
Anything that gives Musk a dollar of additional funding to fuel his megalomaniacal ambitions must be neutered, and much of Musk’s power comes from his Tesla holdings.
If the Tesla board does not want their company to be doomed, they need to evict Musk. If they don’t, they reveal their full complicity with his madness.
“I'm not a fan of elon or the cheato, but there are corps in the US that deserve people's ire much more than tesla. You could just start with a list of the "incinerating the poor" industry. Or any of the other murder for hire corporations.”
I don't think tesla "funding" will have any material effect on his political activity.
Tesla could completely go away, and he would still be the world's richest man.
This is just a sad case of tilting at windmills...
Protesting General Dynamics, or any of the other companies making bombs or landmines that are still dismembering children around the (third) world would be much more appropriate. I wonder why no one is protesting Space X instead?
Protesting an electric car company is just counter productive, regardless of who owns it...
I wouldn't argue with that, but I would say this is a subset of "consumers have no agency in relation to neither US federal politics nor the behavior of the oligarchy".
