This fantasy Boston Tesla Party is extreme, but the national impulse among those repelled by co-president Musk and all his doings is smart.
Why?
• Generic conscience boycotts of big retailers, especially ones with few retail outlets to disrupt, are usually poorly targeted to get results. Sure, we can "boycott Amazon" but it will likely remain impossible to quantify whether we are having any impact. (Yes, Bezos is a pig-- but his creation does deliver actual value to many people.)
• But Tesla is an ideal boycott target because it's almost more a brand than a car these days, floating on marketing hoopla. In 2008, Tesla succeeded by being a "cool" breakthrough in EV tech. Today, Elon's fascist antics make his cars "uncool." And that matters when their value proposition is has become mostly hype.
• Once upon a time, Teslas were uniquely innovative, introducing the possibility of viable EVs in car-centered American life. But Tesla has serious competitors these days. No need to buy a Tesla to get the technological and self-congratulatory ego boost that many people get from buying a less polluting car.
• And having opened the EV market, Tesla hasn't improved its product much. The cybertruck is an ugly horror. Again, there are alternatives and new classes of vehicles.
• Tesla's market includes many people repelled by Trump and Musk's antics. He hopes he can replace these buyers with Republicans? Fat chance! Trump may be dumb enough to go that way, but most of his non-MAGA followers are not.
• Even Elon's investors fear he has lost the thread with his car company in his ketamine-addled rampages. His shareholders ask questions.
Let's keep up the pressure. Consumers have hurt Tesla's stock price and thus Elon's bottom line. And his car company is still overvalued.
Teslatakedown is working. And many people are located where they can join in. Let's make Teslas a sign of iniquity. When you live off hype, you can die from being submerged in a better story.
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