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I don't know why any of this is surprising. I don't know anything about the personal politics of any other major automotive CEO and my guess is that it isn't b

I don't know why any of this is surprising. I don't know anything about the personal politics of any other major automotive CEO and my guess is that it isn't by accident. These companies know their asking their customers to spend a large amount of money on their products and negative feelings towards any particular brand aren't helpful. Everyone who's ever own a business knows that money from Republicans is just as good as money from Democrats. Michael Jordan declined to throw his name behind a Democrat running for office in 1990 because "Republicans buy sneakers too". Musk thinks it's his job to influence public discourse. That's not a good thing if you're a Tesla shareholder or someone invested in one of Musks other businesses. I've been saying this forever, even on HN. Tesla is a better company without Musk running it and the board should just rip the bandaid off and move on. Musk is dishonest, distracted and unable to meet basic expectations at this point. Products are late, engineering is distracted and people are starting to realize that Tesla will never meet the expectations set by the price of its stock. The great automotive brands, even the ones NAMED after their founders are larger than any particular leader. Musk has been a great for getting Tesla where it is today, but his style of leadership isn't what you need at a company the size of Tesla today.

robomartin 4y ago
> Musk thinks it's his job to influence public discourse. To be fair, that is not what he thinks. He is after truth/facts in public discourse without undue political influence from any political camp or government agency. The reason Democrats are rattled about this is the fact that the left has behaved badly in this regard. It is the reason for which this comment will be mercilessly downvoted and flagged. The truth, sometimes, hurts. And yet, it is the truth. My standard suggestion for anyone who can remain neutral and open-minded is to imagine the opposite scenario. In this case a Twitter and media dominated by right wing politics and influence, from every single employee all the way up to government and universities. That scenario would be just as horrific and undesirable as the current status quo. It is in everyone’s interest that the masses not be subjected to undue influence by any political party, not one. That’s what Musk wants. The fact that he is being vilified is a sad reflection of a simple reality: In politics those purporting to be one thing are often the opposite. People say they are for tolerance, equity, inclusion, fairness, open-mindedness, access, etc., and yet, in real life that’s a lie. The minute someone challenges their ability to own the means of communication and messaging none of those things matter. Remarkable.
- Eddy_Viscosity2 4y ago
  > He is after truth/facts in public discourse without undue political influence from any political camp This is what he said he wants, but is not consistent with his actions which is why is he being called out about it or 'vilified'. He also said he wanted to build a hyperloop in california, but it turns out he wasn't being honest about that either. The list goes on.
  - robomartin 4y ago
    > This is what he said he wants, but is not consistent with his actions which is why is he being called out about it or 'vilified'. Have you ever run a non-trivial forum? I have, dating back to before the civilian internet was a thing. It isn't easy, at all. It is by now clear that the Twitter innards has some putrid components that must be dealt with. This isn't easy. This isn't clean. This is going to be chaotic, nasty, difficult, controversial, unpleasant and more. The only people complaining about Musk's Twitter path not being nice and linear are those who have never done or attempted to do anything even remotely approximating this level of difficulty. It is also those who refuse to be ideologically consistent and honest, which is the case for the majority of people regardless of their ideological bend. It's just human nature. Some of us are able to step out of such cognitive confinement and make an attempt to see the world with some degree of ideological neutrality. I'll give you a simple example of this. If we found that 98% of <insert large company name> employees anglo white men people would be up in arms about it. And rightly so. Large-scale racial uniformity does not lead to good outcomes. We know that somewhere around 98% of political donations from Twitter employees donated to the Democratic party. Not both parties, a single party. This is no different in terms of bad outcomes from racial uniformity. Ideological uniformity is a component of racism and racist and other behavior. When overwhelming ideological uniformity takes hold of an organization, it becomes, in many forms, racist. For example, if you apply for a job at a Christian organization having come from a university such as Berkeley, chances are you will be very low in the selection set. Apply at an ideologically leftist organization having come from a Christian organization and the outcome will be similar. Don't want to call it "racism"? Fine. Pick a word. Ideological, bigotry comes to mind. Social bigotry has the same component. An organization that is 98% devoid of LGBTQ elements will likely behave in a bigoted way with regards to adding LGBTQ members to their ranks. Everyone will quickly highlight and, in some cases, get angry about such things as racially-uniform and exclusionary organizations. However, when it comes to ideological uniformity, for some reason, people turn their brains down to 0 RPM and stop thinking. Maybe it is that they don't want to admit being wrong. That's very human as well. This is how our universities have hateful become leftist organizations with, in some cases, violently militant professors and students. How is this different from having a 100% white Nazi university. It isn't. It's the same thing along a different vector. The sooner we understand that ideological uniformity --REGARDLESS OF WHICH IDEOLOGY-- is massively bad for society and actively endeavor to not allow it, the sooner we will come to a point where we can start talking to each other again and get valuable things done. Until the, enjoy throwing feces at each other while accomplishing exactly nothing.
jacquesm 4y ago
The Tesla board are Musk stooges that serve at his pleasure. They are not going to do anything at all until they are legally compelled to (and that will likely be their last act as board members, they'll resign or be kicked out).

robomartin 4y ago

> Musk thinks it's his job to influence public discourse. To be fair, that is not what he thinks. He is after truth/facts in public discourse without undue political influence from any political camp or government agency. The reason Democrats are rattled about this is the fact that the left has behaved badly in this regard. It is the reason for which this comment will be mercilessly downvoted and flagged. The truth, sometimes, hurts. And yet, it is the truth. My standard suggestion for anyone who can remain neutral and open-minded is to imagine the opposite scenario. In this case a Twitter and media dominated by right wing politics and influence, from every single employee all the way up to government and universities. That scenario would be just as horrific and undesirable as the current status quo. It is in everyone’s interest that the masses not be subjected to undue influence by any political party, not one. That’s what Musk wants. The fact that he is being vilified is a sad reflection of a simple reality: In politics those purporting to be one thing are often the opposite. People say they are for tolerance, equity, inclusion, fairness, open-mindedness, access, etc., and yet, in real life that’s a lie. The minute someone challenges their ability to own the means of communication and messaging none of those things matter. Remarkable.

Eddy_Viscosity2 4y ago
> He is after truth/facts in public discourse without undue political influence from any political camp This is what he said he wants, but is not consistent with his actions which is why is he being called out about it or 'vilified'. He also said he wanted to build a hyperloop in california, but it turns out he wasn't being honest about that either. The list goes on.
- robomartin 4y ago
  > This is what he said he wants, but is not consistent with his actions which is why is he being called out about it or 'vilified'. Have you ever run a non-trivial forum? I have, dating back to before the civilian internet was a thing. It isn't easy, at all. It is by now clear that the Twitter innards has some putrid components that must be dealt with. This isn't easy. This isn't clean. This is going to be chaotic, nasty, difficult, controversial, unpleasant and more. The only people complaining about Musk's Twitter path not being nice and linear are those who have never done or attempted to do anything even remotely approximating this level of difficulty. It is also those who refuse to be ideologically consistent and honest, which is the case for the majority of people regardless of their ideological bend. It's just human nature. Some of us are able to step out of such cognitive confinement and make an attempt to see the world with some degree of ideological neutrality. I'll give you a simple example of this. If we found that 98% of <insert large company name> employees anglo white men people would be up in arms about it. And rightly so. Large-scale racial uniformity does not lead to good outcomes. We know that somewhere around 98% of political donations from Twitter employees donated to the Democratic party. Not both parties, a single party. This is no different in terms of bad outcomes from racial uniformity. Ideological uniformity is a component of racism and racist and other behavior. When overwhelming ideological uniformity takes hold of an organization, it becomes, in many forms, racist. For example, if you apply for a job at a Christian organization having come from a university such as Berkeley, chances are you will be very low in the selection set. Apply at an ideologically leftist organization having come from a Christian organization and the outcome will be similar. Don't want to call it "racism"? Fine. Pick a word. Ideological, bigotry comes to mind. Social bigotry has the same component. An organization that is 98% devoid of LGBTQ elements will likely behave in a bigoted way with regards to adding LGBTQ members to their ranks. Everyone will quickly highlight and, in some cases, get angry about such things as racially-uniform and exclusionary organizations. However, when it comes to ideological uniformity, for some reason, people turn their brains down to 0 RPM and stop thinking. Maybe it is that they don't want to admit being wrong. That's very human as well. This is how our universities have hateful become leftist organizations with, in some cases, violently militant professors and students. How is this different from having a 100% white Nazi university. It isn't. It's the same thing along a different vector. The sooner we understand that ideological uniformity --REGARDLESS OF WHICH IDEOLOGY-- is massively bad for society and actively endeavor to not allow it, the sooner we will come to a point where we can start talking to each other again and get valuable things done. Until the, enjoy throwing feces at each other while accomplishing exactly nothing.

jacquesm 4y ago

The Tesla board are Musk stooges that serve at his pleasure. They are not going to do anything at all until they are legally compelled to (and that will likely be their last act as board members, they'll resign or be kicked out).