“We need clean air, not another billionaire!”
Musk was never going to save the planet – and neither will any other billionaire. While Musk encourages Americans to buy Teslas, he jets around the world on a private plane. He has claimed climate change alarm is “exaggerated.” He partnered with a coal mining billionaire to elect Trump, and is now working with the latter to gut federal environmental regulations.
Like other billionaires, Musk’s fortune has come at the expense of everyday people, from abusing his employees to calling his opponents criminals. His billions could fund public transportation, housing, healthcare, and education. Instead, he’s taking a chainsaw to all of the government departments which provide those essential services.
In general, electric cars aren’t here to save the environment they are here to save the car industry.
Removing Musk from the environment would have a bigger positive impact than Musk would ever consider bringing to the environment through his actions.
The best way to reduce the climate impact of transport is with public transport. Elon Musk has always been anti public transport. The reason why he started hyperloop and boring company was to take away funding that otherwise would go to public transport.
Every car company is anti-public transportation. That’s their business model.
Public transport and walkability is really nice. Big changes are needed to level up the car-first spaces we built, and people don’t want to pay that debt. But that debt carries interest, and the longer we put it off the worse it’s going to get.
Probably not the most effective metaphor because humans are famously bad at long term thinking.
While at it, can we take the rest of his shit down too? SpaceX had been blowing up billions of dollars, literally, all paid for by US tax payers and so far has barely anything to show for it. They fucking cheer every time a rocket goes up instead of understanding that they had it wrong and need to do better.
Boring company? Bury it already
Starlink? Get those shit kassler-syndrome-waiting-to-happen satellites out of my sky, I don’t want to look up at the sky and see another line of that shit shooting by polluting my view
Burn it all
While I agree public transport would be better in most places. And wholeheartedly believe Elon is not the solution and is instead actively harming untold millions directly and indirectly…
I can’t help but be reminded of a conversation I had with my Dad years ago. He thought Tesla’s time frame of having charging stations across the US within 5 years to support cross country driving was impossible. And that Tesla would go under and the other car makers would ignore EV. I believed it would happen, that pure EVs would become normal, all of the car companies woyld make them, and be easier to charge. We agreed to disagree.
Now, there are EV F150 pickup trucks and a ton more charging stations. I thought there would be more hybrids first because oil is profitable. And the Prius was gaining a little foothold.
My point is that there has been a huge shift away from depending totally on gas based cars in a relatively short period of time. And small groups of people can make a positive difference. In this case Elon was the face of this change at it’s height.
My city has electric buses now, in the South. People finally started believing EVs could be viable.
However… helping EVs by encouraging the EV idea isn’t going to be what Elon will be remembered for - it’ll all the hubris,> damage, and needless death.
Unless we lose our country and history is rewritten.
I really wish he’d just stuck to talking up Tesla instead of becoming a badly written Bond Villain.
