[rmk]

Article does not give a single specific example of a senior engineer laid off in order to hire a (cheaper and more pliant) junior engineer. Is that so hard to do? There is a claim that every department was affected, but again, no specifics. Were H-1Bs hired to replace people across departments, or were they hired in specific departments?

Looks like someone just decided to pick USCIS numbers in support of their argument that the intention is to reduce compensation and exploit workers, but failed to provide any substantive evidence, or even a cogent argument.

[Sohcahtoa82]

Oh, please.

Elon has literally been calling Americans lazy and explicitly calls out a desire for expanding H1B programs to replace American workers.

When he lays off thousands of workers and then requests over 2,000 H1Bs, it's simply bad faith to try to claim "Well, you can't prove the H1Bs are replacing the workers that got laid off!"

The Pyrrhonian Skeptic act of "WELL YOU DON'T KNOW FOR SURE" just makes you look foolish. It's obvious what's going on, and acting like you don't doesn't make you look smart.

[rmk]

Whether I am trying to look smart or not is irrelevant. The article fails to be convincing at even a most basic level. By your logic, no company that hires H-1Bs is free to do layoffs, including of people in auxiliary functions that do not call for high-skill, limited-supply workers, which is absurd.

[Sohcahtoa82]

Come off it already. Collect and examine the evidence:

- Elon says he wants to replace American workers with H1Bs

- Tesla lays off 15,000 people across all departments, including engineering

- Tesla applies for 2,405 H1Bs

Sure, we don't have a spreadsheet that says "Bob has been replaced by Raj", but pretending the dots don't connect is willful blindness. Acting like this is some wild coincidence isn't the clever gotcha you think it is.

Like...if I tell you, "My hobby is stealing catalytic converters", and the next day, several cars in my neighborhood are suddenly missing their CCs and a stack of CCs that match all the models of my neighbors' cars and have clearly been sawed off appears in my garage, it's gonna be pretty obvious what happened. Gonna have a hard time with the "It's all coincidental" defense.

[emodendroket]

I am as skeptical of Musk as the next guy but doesn’t everyone continue hiring at some reduced rate even after layoffs? It seems hard to believe that 2,400 people are going to do the work of 15,000, no matter how great their work ethic or how precarious their visa.

[ritcgab]

> Elon says he wants to replace American workers with H1Bs

Source?

So Tesla laid off 15,000 people. How many of them are US citizens? It applies 2,405 H-1B's for later hirings, sure, but that includes renewals and transfers. Is that number higher than the laid-off part? Nobody knows.

[gscott]

It expects readers to have common sense.

[snypher]

I'd like to know why it seems that there are so many people who work free PR for Elon Musk or his companies. Some netizens go above and beyond to contradict anything negative posted about him/them, to the extent of disregarding any factual information. What do people gain from being so contrary, or, so supportive of some guy?

[GOD_Over_Djinn]

If you'll indulge some conspiratorial thinking on my part:

In the past decade, powerful groups all over the world have realized the importance of presenting their viewpoint (read: propaganda) over social media. Numerous online "reputation management" firms have been born from the existing edifices of marketing and PR. People like Elon pay big money to have a combined-forces army of humans and bots pushing their views in every online venue imaginable. LLMs are the newest and most potent tool in their arsenal.

This is compounded by the genuine human users who, once they have been sufficiently propagandized, will start to participate in this effort unknowingly.

[penjelly]

they might own tesla stock.