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I don't think anyone is surprised about this. We don't like fascism over here. At least not the kind of people who buy electric cars.
by mcv 1y ago
I don't think anyone is surprised about this. We don't like fascism over here. At least not the kind of people who buy electric cars.
- drstewart 1y agoGiven Chinese car sales are up, it does seem you do like native ethnic genocides though
- quonn 1y agoIt's not quite the same thing, though. Nobody would really care about the CEO's private opinions, no matter how unpleasant, but funding and running public campaigns for far-right parties (or threatening to do so even in Europe) is very different.
- mcv 1y agoThe BYD CEO (whoever that is) is a lot less in your face about their support for that. Let's face it, it's easy to ignore this stuff if it happens quietly. Tesla would probably have been fine if Musk had quietly financed Musk. He's being too public and blatant about it. Most consumers don't actually care that much until you rub their faces in it. Which Musk does. It would absolutely be better if consumers were more aware of the hidden atrocities behind the products they buy. I try to avoid Chinese products, don't buy from Amazon, I've got a Fairphone, am picky about where my chocolate comes from, and avoid Chiquita, Nestle and brands like that. But I'm a tiny minority. We do need more awareness about this sort of thing. But even with all the awareness that Musk is creating about his own fascism, there are still people buying his cars.
- msgodel 1y agoSo it's ok as long as it's quiet?
- archagon 1y agoAs far as I can tell, the BYD CEO is not actively trying to influence global politics to make life miserable for me and my friends.
- msgodel 1y agoNearly every American tech company actively started going after "White people" (which is just another name for Europeans) both with political PR and with actual actions and that didn't seem to effect their European sales so that's probably not it.
- archagon 1y agoOccam's razor: your premise is false. Nobody feels aggrieved by these purported actions except far-right pundits and those trapped in their propaganda web. (And I say this as a white person.) In contrast, Musk said that people I care about were part of the "parasite class" and chuckled about cutting their benefits. Fuck that.
- msgodel 1y agoHow is that Occam's razor? Also that's a little bold of you to speak for rest of us that way.
- mcv 1y agoWhat do you mean by "go after white people"? They go after everybody. American tech companies plaster every corner of the internet with whatever they're trying to sell or own. And if you want to boycott them, I'm all for that. I don't buy from Amazon or Microsoft either. There are alternatives to Google. It's true that they've made enormous inroads into Europe in recent years, but now that they all seem to support America's increasing turn towards fascism, you will also see Europe slowly move away from them. But abandoning the cloud infrastructure that you just invested millions in, is a lot harder than buying a different car, so the change is slower.
- ben_w 1y ago
- dzhiurgis 1y agoBYD CEO is literally communist party member. > Tesla would probably have been fine if Musk had quietly financed Musk :D Did you read what was the plan for their first car?
- abenga 1y ago> literally communist party member. It's not the 50s any more Mr McCarthy. That is not in itself necessarily a bad thing.
- ZeroGravitas 1y agoMore than half of Tesla's cars are made in China.
- GardenLetter27 1y agoNeither Musk nor China are fascist, it's a shame to see this sort of hyperbole take over HackerNews too.
- kreetx 1y agoYup. I would assume people in Europe have a good idea on what it looks like from memories passed on from grandparents. I guess the losing chunk of US population can't stop shaming the other party.
- f33d5173 1y agoChina is facially a fascist state. Fascism isn't a simple pejorative, its a category of political ideologies that can and have been implemented. There's no hyperbole in stating that.
- ndsipa_pomu 1y agoMusk deliberately and publicly made two Nazi salutes - it's certainly not hyperbole to refer to him as a fascist
- mcv 1y agoMusk absolutely is. He has made that abundantly clear. His support for antisemitism and other forms of racism, his embrace of extremists, his support for AfD and Trump, his Nazi salute. He has very clearly shown us who he is. China is something else. Not entirely sure what; possible entirely its own thing, but definitely totalitarian.
- Zigurd 1y agoWould it be an appeal to authority to point to the Germans' reaction to Elon's salute and say "They might know?"