> I can't fathom what would drive someone to be so angry about a company as to spend more time researching it than even the most rabid fanboy
I can. And it's not random. It doesn't have a lot to do with Tesla, it has to do with worlds changing.
A lot of people grew up in a culture where men were respected, beef was the best food except maybe bacon, oil was a respectable professional and cars were a respectable hobby. Hitching up to someone you can have kids with would at least put you in position to have status in your community. And all the best people are mostly white, except in ethnic activities like cooking and basketball.
Then the world said:
- Men are the #1 threat to women's safety, even the men who are close to them
- Men are taking advantage of women financially, and interfering with their work
- Cars and gas are destroying the earth
- Beef and bacon are toxic and toxic for the environment
- Straight people are boring if not oppressive, fluid sexuality and queerness is the new symbol of vibrancy and virility
- White people cheated their way to the top
- Black people make the best art, Japanese people are the best engineers, women are the best CEOs, and gay people have the best parties
It's a lot to deal with if you grew up in the first world and find yourself in the second. Especially if you're a meat eating straight man with a nice car.
And yet, pretty much all of those bullet points are scientifically accurate. And the population overwhelmingly is accepting those ideas.
So you have a group of people with status and power who is feeling it slipping from their fingers. So they look for any and all opportunities to chip away at the bullet points. Electric cars are a sham. Queer people are snowflakes who don't understand that gender is a thing. Etc.
Frankly, I think the blame lies in the progressive world, which has left behind anyone considered regressive, trying to lionize marginalized identities rather than developing a true radically inclusive politics.
Not that I am criticizing... I think it is somewhat intentional, the centering of marginal identities. It has powerful benefits for the people who are centered, which maybe outweigh the cost of marginalizing men, white people, straight people, etc.
I guess I'm not saying those decisions were bad, so much as I'm saying someone does need to start a platform of radical inclusivity if they want to bring the incels and Tesla haters and Trump voters and all them back into the fold of liberal society.