“Not ALL Tesla owners”
Evan's back with an update on #TeslaTakedown.
Y’all loved Evan’s guest post last week, so I’ve asked him to give readers a quick update on where things stand. -Melissa.
UPDATE: WE’VE GOT THE BIG MO: Couple of quick items before the main post. First, thanks to everyone who engaged with my first Tesla guest post. Melissa tells me it got a ton of positive feedback and engagement. I’ve been part of a lot of campaigns and protest movements over my 18 (yikes) years as a political professional. This one has a level of organic energy I’ve only seen a few other times.
On Feb 15, about 100 people came out for our protest in Seattle. A week later at a different Tesla store in Seattle, 350 turned up. This weekend, we’ve got protests planned at 4 different Seattle-area locations, and at least 50 others are listed on TeslaTakedown.com. One of the Seattle-area protests is being hosted by a retired teacher who’s never organized anything political before—he just wanted to do something. Tesla protests have generated a ton of press all over the country and beyond. (That’s my 14yo holding a giant sign he made in the image of the BBC story. Proud dad.)
Most importantly, Tesla stock is really starting to tumble at just the right time. Some of that was inevitable pullback from post-election hype, but the timing matters, and people see the protests as linked to it. When Tesla puts out their next quarterly sales numbers, I think we’ll have done real damage—with your help, I hope. So thanks, and thanks, Melissa, for welcoming me back for some follow-up.
Before I sent Melissa the final draft of Sunday’s Make Tesla Toxic post, I went back and forth multiple times before deciding to include this “action item”:
“This one might be the hardest, but it’s important. When you see people driving Teslas, give them a thumbs down so that people start feeling a personal cost for being associated with Elon Musk. It will lead to conversations at poker tables and office water coolers, and that’s where real damage starts. (I personally prefer to show a little grace to most Tesla buyers, but I aggressively flip off Cybertrucks)”
As I expected, some readers felt uncomfortable giving a passing driver a thumbs down, and some Tesla owners were upset that I would suggest we direct negative attention in their direction.
The pushback shares a few common refrains:
“People bought Teslas to save the environment!”
“We didn’t know he was bad.”
“Don’t alienate our allies!”
“Not everyone can afford to sell their car.”
I hear you. I really do.
But making Tesla drivers uncomfortable is critical for one very simple reason: every Tesla owner is a key part of Elon Musk’s marketing department.
That’s not hyperbole. Tesla relies on word-of-mouth recommendations and positive media buzz to sell cars. Every time a Tesla driver says nice things about their car or posts pics online, they are selling Elon’s cars for him. Until very recently, Tesla had never spent a dime on advertising.
Reversing the word-of-mouth sales funnel is key to killing the stock price. That means making Tesla owners feel not-so-great about their cars, even those who bought them for “the right reasons.”
Which brings us to the next important point—your perception of Tesla owners is probably wrong.
Tesla owners who bought a car to save the world or bought on a budget are extreme outliers.
Tesla is a luxury car brand. In aggregate, Tesla owners earn double the median national income, are far less politically liberal than you might think, and care much more about status, luxury and performance than emissions.
Statistically, most Tesla owners are well-off, conservative-leaning white men.
Stop for a moment and think about what those owners will likely do when random strangers start giving them a thumbs down. They’re going to complain loudly to anyone within earshot. Which is exactly what we want them to do.
If you’re a Tesla owner reading this specific blog, you probably thought you were making the world better, not funding a fascist coup. But roughly four out of five Tesla drivers who pass me just wanted a cool luxury car to show off.
So I give every Tesla the same thumbs down, and I encourage everyone I know to do the same.
And let’s be very honest here. I still know a lot of “good” Tesla owners who say things like “Love the car, hate the man.” If that’s you, you’re still selling Elon’s cars for him. And it’s our collective job to make Tesla owners uncomfortable enough that they stop saying anything positive about Tesla, period.
The good news is that Tesla owners can help repay Elon for this mess. Think of it as being anti-racist but for your car. How?
Slap a sticker or two or three on your car to let people know you didn’t mean to give money to a neo-Nazi troll. (I advise against stickers like this or this, which continue to promote the brand and are likely to make you more of a target for angry people.)
Tell people how much you dislike the negative attention your car gets, and discourage others from buying a Tesla.
Find a Tesla protest near you and help us out — bonus points if you talk to the organizers and tell them you’re willing to speak to the media as a Tesla owner.
I am genuinely sorry that your car is a flashpoint now. But that’s Elon’s doing, not mine. I’m doing my best to kneecap him. I’m sorry you’re caught in the crossfire, but now it’s up to you to decide if making people feel icky about their cars is a worthwhile investment to possibly save our democracy.
I hope you’ll decide it is and join us.
One final thought for the Tesla owners who said, “I can’t afford to get rid of my Tesla.” Losing money sucks, but don’t fall victim to the sunk-costs fallacy. It will probably cost you a lot more to ditch that car later. Your Tesla is going to start losing value fast. You can still get a good deal at trade-in, but that won’t last when used Teslas are rotting on car lots and Elon’s slashing prices to sell new ones. Individual buyers won’t buy cars that draw unwanted attention. Just like I’m encouraging Tesla shareholders to get out while it’s still worth way too much, I encourage you to think about what your car might (or might not) be worth if Elon is still ruining people’s lives and torching our democracy six months from now.
Evan Sutton is the founder of Firekit Campaigns, a communications and digital firm that works with labor unions, Democratic candidates, and mission-aligned organizations. You can find more rants on his Bluesky.
Reading Tim Higgins's 2021 book POWER PLAY: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century made me dislike Musk intensely. It also led me to read up on how the U.S. government (starting, IIRC, during the Obama administration) enabled Musk's earlier rise in the aerospace industry. Turns out his slash-and-burn approach to the federal government is a colossal case of biting the hand that fed you very handsomely.
I've been recommending Jonathan Taplin's THE END OF REALITY (2023), which focuses on Musk and three other billionaire tech bros: Marc Andreesen, Peter Thiel, and Mark Zuckerberg. As is becoming ever more obvious since Trump's 2nd election, they're all anti-democratic to the core. It really is long past time for the pro-democracy forces to pay much more attention to the unelected fourth branch of government: Big Money.
Sigh. This kind of doubling down on a purity test is how the left always ends up eating itself.
As I said before: Getting rid of the stock, sure. Not buying a Tesla right now or the foreseeable future, also sure. Protesting at dealerships, okay.
But actively harassing people who happen to have this car at one of the stupidest points in American history is not cool.
A car is the second largest purchase after the home. It's not like demanding people switch grocery stores, or cancel their spotify account. It's a huge purchase and even if made via financing or lease, changing it comes with huge financial penalties... you're asking people to incur that as we stare down the barrel of a Trump-crashed economy.
I've wanted an EV for a while. I can tell you that used EVs aren't thick on the ground, and new ones are still quite expensive. Getting a gas car would just put more money into the hands of the people that forked over millions to put Trump in power in the first place.
EDITED TO ADD: So I just looked up which companies have abandoned DEI policies, and that includes Ford and Toyota. Are we going to be calling for those drivers to get the finger as well? Or can we stop letting the big guys make us hate each other and direct our ire at the cause of the problem instead?