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Comment by owenpalmer | Hacker News Reader

Not buying from Tesla because you hate Elon is just as silly as buying from Tesla because you love Elon.

There's an argument for the CEO's ethics and values to strongly guide the company.

If engineers sharing your views and concerns don't want to work there, how are you expecting those cars to fulfill your expectations and perform on the points you value ?

If this were something like bread or water, then yes. But it's not. A Tesla is a luxury purchase, not an essential purchase. Nobody who chooses not to buy one because of Elon's stupid antics is going to suffer in absolutely any sense.

Well no, buying from Tesla gives Elon money and legitimacy.

If you don't like Musk, why would you contribute to his success?

spacex and tesla already gave elon enough legitimacy for the history books.

Henry Ford and Wernher von Braun are also in the history books, but not always in the ways they might have hoped for.

Sure but there's still plenty of time to see if those histories will be the fawning sycophancy required by the totalitarian regimes he openly advocates for, the story of a brilliant businessman who was batshit insane (a la Ford) or the humorous tale of a fool who lucked into a few $billion and then squandered it all on an empire of trash.

Musk may be an asshole boss and he may post cringy right wing opinions on X, but trying to boycott his businesses based on those actions is quite disproportionate compared to the behaviors whole industries are engaging in regularly. Elon and his companies are in no way worse for the world than the average car manufacturer or businessman.

He's simply trying to dismantle the Swedish social contract right now, but he's a good boy you see? Let's make him richer and gain more influence!

Absolute rubbish. People are allowed to make purchasing decisions based on any criteria they want.

I’m extremely skeptical to buy a Tesla because of Elon. He’s erratic and constantly making wild promises his company cannot keep.

I have no problem with an eccentric CEO, but I do have a problem with the bald face lies he makes.

What other car companies are you boycotting due to their CEOs ?

People factor a lot of things into major purchase decisions, and it's really not a big deal to refuse to purchase a vehicle from one or more car companies. Some people will only buy a Honda, for example.

Personally, I don't want to fund Elon Musk's culture war bullshit. I don't like being lied to (FSD, and vehicle reported range). And I don't like their doing away with all of the instruments in favor of voice control and a single display.

What other companies have CEOs that are so aggressively belligerent?

I would guess most of them, they just dont post on twitter for everyone to see

Not really.

It's silly to buy from Tesla for any reason but you want one of their products, all other reasons are trivial.

There are many non trivial reasons that you may not want to give your money to a company or organization.

"Not voting for [xxx] because you hate [xxx] is just as silly as voting for [xxx] because you hate [xxx]"

You are using one variable to represent both Elon and Tesla. Maybe use X and Y?

Also there's a typo at the end, it should be "because you love [xxx]"

Whether we like it or not cars are a very visible and public status symbol, unlike many other purchases.

Of course this isn't true.

Why?

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