[HN Gopher] Tesla is becoming a partisan brand, says survey
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Tesla is becoming a partisan brand, says survey
Author : redbell
Score : 36 points
Date : 2022-12-12 20:06 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (electrek.co)
(TXT) w3m dump (electrek.co)
| more_corn wrote:
| This is fantastic news! I never would have thought there'd be a
| day when conservatives could own the libs by buying an electric
| car.
| goatlover wrote:
| Does it roll electric coal?
| dieselgate wrote:
| Rolling "coal" with biodiesel or renewable diesel is still a
| thing..
| throwayyy479087 wrote:
| This is honestly a great thing for the planet
| yummypaint wrote:
| I agree. Getting vanity truck engines off the roads is a
| fundamentally different problem than getting large truck
| engines off the roads in general. These decisions aren't made
| rationally for many people so attacking them with logic is
| bound to fail. If we can transition culture war conservatives
| from doing the wrong thing for the wrong reason to doing the
| right thing for the wrong reason, that would be progress.
| clouddrover wrote:
| How much longer will Tesla tolerate Musk as CEO? How much work is
| Tesla getting out of him these days when he's wasting his time on
| Twitter and stage appearances? How is he helping Tesla when he's
| alienating existing and potential customers with his petty antics
| and rants?
|
| Musk seems determined to become more cost than benefit.
| legitster wrote:
| Whether intentionally or not, I think he instinctively has been
| trying to disassociate "his brand" from the rest of the green or
| progressive movements overall. The electric car industry suffered
| for decades under the NPR and kombucha crowd. But if there is one
| common thread to his success, it has been to completely ignore
| the existing identifiable market and make your own (Paypal,
| SpaceX, Tesla).
|
| Musk wanted bros and rednecks and meat-eating red-blooded
| Americans all alike to think a Tesla is cool. Actual
| environmentalists would follow suit regardless as a captive
| market - waste no effort on them.
|
| And I think he sees Twitter the same way. Twitter's core
| demographic is a captive group of left-leaning educated users. If
| he can successfully flip a switch to appeal to everyone else in
| America, and hold on to enough captive current users in the
| process, he will have successfully grown the pie.
|
| I don't actually know if this is Musk's blatant strategy or if he
| is "crazy like a fox". But Musk has engaged in conservative-
| leaning flame wars for several years at this point. However, he
| just recently admitted to casting his first vote for a Republican
| _this election cycle_.
|
| That means during all of those years he was saying flamboyant
| things and meeting with Trump etc, he was largely saying one
| thing and doing another.
|
| So I'm leaning towards the idea that he is a bit more coy than he
| lets on and sees political drama as a sort of business asset.
| aeternum wrote:
| It would be quite amazing if this was all a ploy to actually
| gain a larger market for Tesla. During the pandemic, the
| techies had all the disposable income and were the key Tesla
| market. Now the pendulum has swung the other way and the energy
| sector and more traditional businesses have seen a resurgence.
| Makes sense to increase appeal to that more conservative-
| leaning demographic.
| over_bridge wrote:
| There's definitely some merit to this view. It's much like how
| in a political primary all candidates pander to the extreme so
| that they win and then immediately ignore them and pivot to the
| other side to scoop up votes from the other party. If you are
| true left or right you are a captive audience of your
| respective center left or center right party. It's cynical and
| dishonest but it works.
|
| There's no reason to think that Musk isn't as single minded
| about his own goals as those parties are about winning. This is
| the best case for his behavior.
|
| Unless hydrogen takes off and captures the environmentalists,
| they have nowhere to go but EVs. Watch him pivot back fast if
| that does happen, and push further into the 'rolling coal'
| crowd until then.
|
| I still wish him success but I no longer like him. I doubt he
| cares.
| NicoJuicy wrote:
| Not sure, I'm more curious about the average wealth of
| republicans vs. Democrats to make a better assumption.
|
| To me, i don't think that would work.
|
| I just think it's tax motivated => profits. Sometimes the
| simple answers are the correct ones.
|
| Fyi, take into consideration he just severely overpaid for
| Twitter...
| MrMan wrote:
| this is one of the only good takes I have seen on Musk and the
| issue of how he is steering his brand. I think he is really
| foolish and truly dangerous but he is no dumber than any other
| successful business guy when it comes to making big decisions.
| I am not that interested in how many D chess he is playing or
| if he is like Richard Branson and jut does things by feel.
| Branson is the brash marketer of past decades who I feel Musk
| most resembles - the brand is a direct extension of the person
| and the name goes on various different business. Dyson is
| another in a slightly similar vein and our former president is
| an exemplar of the style as well.
| legitster wrote:
| Honestly, Musk kind of reminds me of turn of the century
| industrialists (Ford, Edison, etc).
|
| No formalized business training, no PR teams, no market
| analysis. They just had super brash (and often foolhardy)
| visions of what consumers would buy, took huge risks in
| bringing them to market, and brought in investors by charisma
| alone.
|
| And I think you have to be born with the exact level of EQ to
| be smart enough to know what's possible and what customers
| would want, but be dumb enough to still throw yourself into
| the problem and ignore every reason previous attempts had
| been unsuccessful.
| Nomentatus wrote:
| "One Swallow Does Make a Summer, says Survey"
| ericb wrote:
| I have so much trouble squaring the "genius" narrative with the
| "alienating the core constituency that buys electric vehicles by
| making my personal brand into a MAGA hat" reality.
|
| Isn't moving humanity to mars the ultimate in cautious, long-term
| thinking while burning your personal and company brand value the
| ultimate in reckless short term thinking?
|
| The apparent rationality and irrationality blows my mind.
| Veedrac wrote:
| You're probably having trouble because neither Musk's narrative
| nor edge have come from being a cunning salesperson. This is
| "Tesla stock price is too high imo" Musk, _robotaxi next year_
| Musk, _other person is a pedophile_ Musk, _yell at legal
| authorities_ Musk.
|
| Musk's edge has come from tackling hard, technical problems,
| and doing so successfully, for long enough, on enticing enough
| problems, that people started to buy the dream.
|
| Contrast, leftist flamebait is just Musk being impolitic on
| Twitter, and an increasingly-hostile anti-left Musk is just
| what you get when the left runs campaigns specifically
| attacking him. It's not a smart business move because it's not
| a business move, merely a reflection of the increasing
| polarization of America.
| MrMan wrote:
| You are dead wrong about a lot of things here. Musk may not
| seem like a salesman to you, but he is actually one of the
| best salesmen and marketers we have seen, and created the
| major brands which have enriched him basically entirely using
| media coverage of him and his companies, and massive social
| media reach using his personal twitter account.
|
| In my opinion the one thing he is truly good at is sales and
| marketing. Selling the dream, and a very good design team, is
| what made Tesla what it is.
|
| I have no comment on whether technical solutions requiring
| the coordination of hundreds and thousands of people can be
| credited to one non-technical person, nor the political
| stuff.
| brnt wrote:
| When you consider that his PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel is
| deeply embedded in the American extreme right, openly advocates
| abolishing democracy and worse, it starts to make some sense.
| Musk in solidly in that orbit and always has been.
| V__ wrote:
| I had this same thought for a while, but I think the answer is
| simpler in reality. In my opinion, he has an ego problem, and
| his companies are his best way to feel important (or whatever
| emotion he craves). I don't know whether that was always the
| case, but to me it seems apparent that is what he has been
| doing for the past few years.
|
| I think it started happening when he realized there was no next
| big-idea which his companies could actually solve. After Tesla
| made electric cars trendy and influenced the market (actual
| accomplishments), his next idea was self-driving. Maybe he
| didn't know enough at the time or thought he could make it
| happen quickly, he promised big and failed but can't admit it.
| So he tried to pull the next shiny thing out of the hat,
| Cybertruck, semi, solar-roof, roadster, smart-summon, boring-
| tunnels, Hyperloop etc. They also kept failing or are coming
| soon TM. For some time SpaceX delivered, but right now they
| also don't have anything new shiny to show.
|
| He's trying to desperately stay relevant, but all his ideas are
| staring to crumble or are a lot harder to solve than he cares
| to admit. He started to become edgy, and it spiraled from
| there. Him being forced to buy Twitter because he couldn't get
| out of the joke he made, is probably his worst nightmare. His
| 'coming soon'-excuse isn't working on Twitter, and it's a very
| public humiliation should he fail. I actually think he is very
| similar in this regard to Trump. A big sense of self-importance
| and a need for affirmation which can't handle rejection is what
| I personally thought his presence at Chappell stand-up showed.
| I also think that is the reason he is appeasing the right so
| much. They give him a lot of attention and don't criticize him.
| Spooky23 wrote:
| The electric car market is getting crowded and Tesla offerings
| are aging.
|
| Doubling down on a consumer segment that tends to listen
| closely to influential figures and do things not their self
| interest may be effective.
| noncoml wrote:
| I am thankful that society is rejecting sociopathic cult leaders
| like Trump and Musk. I was starting to lose hope.
|
| It still is a pity that everything has to be about politics.
| Tesla paved the way for the electric cars and was a net positive
| for society.
|
| I hope the stockholders see that Musk is more of a liability now,
| and kick him out.
| throwawayacc3 wrote:
| This is a symptom of the macro-level bifurcation of the economy
| and the things/ways we consume. Completely parallel economies
| that signal what side you're on won't be fiction for long.
| Ekaros wrote:
| I hope this will lead to brands that just shut up and sell stuff.
| And do not attempt to signal anything in anyway.
| badRNG wrote:
| It is often a bad bet in the long run to associate your brand
| with specific conservative causes.
|
| Conservatism, and right-reactionary thought, often exists as a
| critique or skepticism of the ideology and programs that
| progressives and leftists wish to enact. Sometimes the
| criticism is warranted, and this skepticism is an important
| part of civil discourse. Inevitably however, sometimes
| progressive causes will win and overcome their detractors. If
| you tied your brand to a critique of gay marriage, the Civil
| Rights Movement, or women's suffrage, your brand would face far
| more damage than being critical of rightist causes.
| HPMOR wrote:
| I believe consumption patterns in general will reflect
| political leaning. For example a college kid probably travels
| to and from home requiring airline tickets, Uber, etc. Whereas
| a rural kid might have need of satellite wifi and diesel
| vehicles for long haul trips. These are inherently different
| consumption patterns that require brands to pick sides for
| their respective consumers. If anything the trend of companies
| choosing political sides will become exacerbated by consumers.
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