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by AndrewBissell 2530 days ago
Actually the criticism that Musk gets is a result of things like:

- Calling someone's boss and threatening a lawsuit to make him take down critical writings on Twitter and Seeking Alpha (https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2018/07/27/1532692760000/Je-suis...)

- Threatening to "nuke" a departing employee who had returned to Tesla HQ to collect some personal belongings (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-05/tesla-boa...)

- Trumpian attacks on the press, including by riling up his fans on Twitter (https://twitter.com/lopezlinette/status/1014983757252780033)

- Lying with statistics, e.g. "traffic incidents are xx% less likely with Autopilot engaged" or "Tesla cars are xx% safer than the overall U.S. fleet" without mentioning the huge selection bias at play

- Running factories with tons of environmental, health, labor, and QA-related problems, then attempting to just gaslight his way through the criticism (https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/15/tesla-workers-in-ga4-tent-de...)

- Brazenly lying about his company on Twitter in an attempt to manipulate the stock price (https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2018/comp-pr2018-2...)

2 comments

This is all true. But how does it compare to companies building machines that are emitting toxic gas to billions of people and destroying the Earth’s climate?

There’s a good reason why mainstream media doesn’t talk about it as seriously as it should be doing.

There's also that story about oil companies sitting on the secret of perpetual motion...

Also, those companies happen to build products that are needed and can actually be afforded by people who need them to, you know, make a living, unlike Elon's shiny toys.

This conspiratorial mindset on part of Tesla's fans is far more detrimental than any mythical shorts' conspiracy or anything.

> But how does it compare to

Wattaboutism does not address the man's problems, including all the problems he brings onto himself, the company he runs, and its investors.

Other than the last one you've linked it doesn't appear that any of these are actually true or were proven. It seems more evident as time goes on that these sensational troll stories come out yet there's no recourse against Tesla. It's hard to tell but I would guess one of two things are happening: 1) Tesla is paying these people to go away 2) these allegations are targeting Tesla either for financial gain (shorters) or competitive (dealers/manufacturers).

While I've yet to actually see the latter I'm not so sure what to think, quite honestly. However it seems odd of the timing of this - right before earnings. I'll be curious to see how CNBC drums this up today.