It's more a testament to "Do really dumb shit and find out". Cybertruck (as the article points out) is a mess, and was a bad idea from the start.

The fact the stock is above $50 a share is a testament to how Elon hypes investors. He really has them sold on robotaxi and FSD licensing now.

"Never discuss politics or religion in polite company."

Sometimes, grandpa's advice was good advice.

Tesla's problems stem from the overall slowdown in the EV industry coupled with the problems with Tesla itself - AND also the fact that there are many very worthy competitors from pretty much all major car brands now. This has nothing to do with the woke vs anti-woke rhetoric.

Everything about Tesla and culture war is hilarious. We've got progressives hating electric cars and conservatives loving them.

When your company is more about ideology, left or right, and not about the excellence of its products this is bound to happen. Because if the products were excellent and no one would care about this woke or anti-woke.

Let's face it Bud light was crap beer and has always been crap beer and was sustained by marketing power and cultural illusion around it more than it was around its taste. Because if Bud light was an excellent tasting beer that people genuinely enjoyed and there wasn't a dozen similar beers of the same or better taste for the same or cheaper price they're woke marketing campaign wouldn't have mattered.

You can see a counter example of this with Chick-fil-A. This is a totally right wing run fast food chain. To the point that they close their stores on Sundays. Their leadership is anti-abortion they are against insurance funded contraception and a whole host of other right-wing issues they stand behind and support very publicly too. That stupid drive-thru line is always spilling out of the lot. People of all political persuasions are beating a path to their door to buy their chicken because they think it's tasty and they don't care about the politics.

So you have a mediocre car product, the Bud light of the car industry, those cars are primarily purchased upon how it made people feel rather than the quality of the product, and then you make a marketing blunder that no longer makes a significant portion of your customers feel good. Very much sounds like the Bud light of the Auto industry.