this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2024
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[Dormant] Electric Vehicles
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Not to be hyperbolic, but this reminds me of when cult members describe the process of them becoming disillusioned with the leader until they finally decide to leave. I'm serious when I say that modern corporations, especially in tech, can often be quite cult like. There is often some charismatic, visionary, larger-than-life personality at the center. Many of the people who work at these companies aren't so much employees as they are disciples. They are members of the leader's cult of personality. Many investors, too. They have fully bought in to the leader's vision, and some will follow their leader seemingly no matter what.
This person even has that kind of wistful tone of a cult member who had to leave the cult because they couldn't ignore the leader's increasingly problematic behavior anymore, but still believes in their vision and wishes things could have turned out differently.
There's nothing wrong with having a vision or wanting to build a better future, but be very, very cautious about any movement centered around a single personality. In the case of Musk, the warning signs have been there for a while. I think the best representation of this was when Musk guest starred on the Simpsons almost ten years ago, and was introduced as "possibly the greatest living inventor!" It was the height of Musk propaganda.
I will never buy a Tesla, so long as the Musk cult exists. I'm sure Teslas are good cars, but I will not support the cult of Elon Musk. He is too dangerous.
I don't think Lambert was ever a member of the Elon cult (which of course very much exists). He's always been pretty critical of the guy. But a couple of years ago it was really not too far fetched to believe that Tesla actually wanted to change the world for the better.
Tesla did change the world for the better. Elon took the financial rewards and is using them to offset all of the improvements with catalyzing social issues into worse social issues.
He absolutely was. Early on, there was literally nothing Elon could say or do that would make Fred question Elon's integrity or genius. The change in Elon's relationship with Fred came when Fred finally actually owned a Tesla vehicle and realized it was a piece of shit. He had the audacity to ask Elon questions about quality problems people were reporting and Fred finally believed, on open Twitter, which got Elon to block Fred temporarily at least. What happened next in the community is the most predictable thing ever, as the True Believers turned on Fred and accused him of everything under the sun.
Having been a disciple, I mostly agree. In this case, the cult got a lot of shit done and the result (advancing electrification of cars) has been a major net positive for society. I got my Model 3 over 6 years ago, having been in the line to plunk $1000 down to reserve the car sight-unseen.
When I saw how long the line was, I immediately ran home and bought as many shares as I could. I have always treated Tesla as two entities: the company who produces the car and is the personality cult, and the stock which takes advantage of that. I grew disillusioned with Elon a few years ago, but I kept the stock because I saw the trend.
That trend is over now. It’s a shame, because Elon of 2010 is so different from the one now. He was far from perfect, but he and I desired the same future. Now, not so much.