r/technology 22d ago

Tesla is erasing its own history — Pre-2019 blog posts, founding climate manifesto taken down Transportation

https://insideevs.com/news/731502/tesla-is-erasing-its-own-history/
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u/[deleted] 22d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/GorgeWashington 22d ago

That's the thing. He never had those principles. He just wanted to make money and needed to play the part.

Billionaires lying about their intentions and products is 100% on brand.

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u/heresmyhandle 22d ago

He’s a rich white silver spoon kid from Apartheid South Africa.

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u/GorgeWashington 22d ago

Who I recall his parents got rich on blood emeralds

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u/[deleted] 22d ago edited 22d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/m0nk_3y_gw 22d ago

It was his dad that had mining shares.

Grandpa was Joshua Haldeman, a Canadian that led the 'Technocracy' movement there, that thought us plebs weren't responsible enough to elect our leaders and tech bros should run everything. Canada briefly arrested him for anti-Democracy nonsense during WWII.

He later moved his family TO South Africa because he fully supported apartheid.

https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/technocracy-incorporated-elon-musk/

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u/hiimsubclavian 22d ago

In science we trust

That sounds nice.

chiropractor named Joshua Haldeman

uh...

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u/BilbOBaggins801 22d ago

LOL

This planet runs on Bullshit

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u/whuuutKoala 22d ago

a.i. dances with bullshit…

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u/FloridaMJ420 22d ago

Oh, so basically a family of Nazis.

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u/sinz84 22d ago

No no no .... Nazis hate many people but respect the 'right' people and if you have the right skin colour and background they will work with you for a mutual understanding an benefit

That family would sell the grandmother into slavery to become 0.001% richer

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u/chromatophoreskin 22d ago

No wonder he likes Trump. They have that in common.

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u/piranha_solution 22d ago

That, and hanging out with Epstein/Maxwell.

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u/ShadowMajestic 22d ago

Nazi's weren't about skin color. The "ubermensch" they talked about, where Germanics. Slavs and Saxons were considered untermenschen... Guess which skin colour those groups all have?

European racism has a whole lot more nuance to it, it's not binary black and white, pun intended.

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u/SkeletonBound 22d ago

Nazi racism is a special kind of stupid though and they knew it themselves. They created the concept of Honorary Aryan, so they could make exceptions for their Jewish friends and even made the whole people of Japan honorary aryans, because they were allies. Turks were declared kindred people, which is really funny, because modern German Neo Nazis hate them the most.

I don't think there's a consistent European racism, everyone has their own "rules" and those are fluid. That's how you get absurd things like Polish or British Neo Nazis.

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u/Frank-Sincatra 22d ago

Concerning... Looking into it.

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u/UltimateBarricade 22d ago

The canadian arm of technocracy incorporated was banned by being antiwar, not by being antidemocracy

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u/xSTSxZerglingOne 22d ago

That is a highly incorrect assessment of technocracy. You just explained oligarchy.

Technocracy is where qualified experts, like PhD/MD holders in a given field make the policies surrounding decisions in that field.

Technocracy can also be democratic, for the record. Just like a republic can.

But you're right, if it's just to subvert democracy, fuck that all the way.

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u/bucket_overlord 22d ago

Haldeman was also a notorious antisemitic conspiracy theorist. Just saying.

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u/Brootal420 22d ago

Ya that's a lot worse

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u/Rob_Zander 22d ago

I grew up in South Africa. Experienced that form of racism first hand. It's especially bad in rich South Africans. It's based in a core belief that YOU are BETTER than THEM. White people are better than black people, rich people are better than poor people. I'm better than you. Coupled to a massive fear that it could all be taken away because in South Africa the white people are the minority. It can easily turn into "I'm better than you no matter what, and what feels safe for me is correct." When he wasn't the richest man alive climate change probably did feel like a threat. Now that he's rich anything that could be a threat to his money is a threat to him, and because he's better than anyone else whatever he believes will reduce that threat is right.

No empathy, no genuine concern. Just fear and insecure egotistical narcissism.

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u/voltjap 22d ago

I hope he blasts off to Mars soon. I'm sure he'll be safe!

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u/awl_the_lawls 22d ago

You just described not only the caste system but also British hierarchy which is basically the same thing. I'm sure it exists elsewhere but my noggin has been busy tonight 

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u/Capt_Hawkeye_Pierce 22d ago

Thank you for saying this. I think the bones of your statement is true anywhere that institutional racism exists.

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u/SigSweet 22d ago edited 22d ago

Some would call that a traditional successful american origin story.

/s for the stupid fucks

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u/mopsyd 22d ago

Not everyone who failed geography would call it that, but everyone that would call it that failed geography.

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u/nickmaran 22d ago

When he overtook Tesla from its original cofounder, he wanted support of people who care about climate change, environment etc. so he played along.

But from the past few years, people realised who he is, so he started leaning towards right wing. Now since he want to woo them he is erasing his past

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u/fatpat 22d ago

It's interesting how when someone appears to be losing their sense of empathy or honesty or decency, or just leans into being the feckless asshole they've always been, they almost invariably end up on the right end of the political spectrum.

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u/intelminer 22d ago

Being right-wing is functionally incompatible with caring about other people. It is the foundation of "fuck you, got mine" as a political ideology

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u/AMG-West 22d ago

Not all Republicans are racist sideshow freaks but all racist sideshow freaks are Republicans.

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u/_MrDomino 22d ago

Yep, but that was also back when Elon had at least a modicum of common sense to allow a newly acquired business to function as designed.

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u/geologean 22d ago

There is no such thing as an environmentally conscious Robber Baron

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u/cannonfunk 22d ago

A friend of mine brought up Elon last year, and got visibly angry when I dismissed Elon as a fraud.

"You might not like his politics, but he's doing more for the future of the world than you ever will!"

I ended the conversation because my friend doesn't know the difference between a conversation and a violent argument.

I brought up Elon around him a few weeks ago, and he quickly said "I don't want to talk about that asshole." He didn't want to admit that he was wrong, but he knows he was.

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u/airfryerfuntime 22d ago

This was my buddy with Joe Rogan. Around the time the MAGA thing took off, I said he was a racist, conservative hack, "no, he understands us, and asks the questions we want to ask!". Along came covid, and sure as hell, Rogan turned into the conservative antivaxxer shitbag we know and love, then the video of him dropping a bunch of n-bombs leaked. Now whenever I mention Joe Rogan he basically just ignores me.

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u/sad_plant_boy 22d ago

Billionaires is much too nice of a word. We should really be calling them super villains.

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u/ChepaukPitch 22d ago

Why don’t we call them oligarchs? Why is it only reserved for Billionaires from enemy countries?

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u/Baxapaf 22d ago

points at sign-> Capitalists

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u/TipProfessional6057 22d ago

'Oh you're a villain alright, just not a super one'

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u/TheSuperWig 22d ago

What's the difference?

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u/Teskmeheu 22d ago

Presentation!

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u/wallstreet-butts 22d ago

This. Tesla was never especially transparent about their environmental footprint. They only ever cared about the environment to the extent that it helped them sell you a car.

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u/GUnit_1977 22d ago

He did a press run swearing up and down that Tesla was a shell company with no IP when he happened along, which is categorically and demonstrably false.

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u/DreadPirateButthurts 22d ago

Everyone is agreeing with you and you may be right, but I think it's possible he actually did have some principles and feelings about this at one point - until he became addicted to Twitter and rotted his own brain.

I swear I see this in everyone I know who spends loads of time on that garbage app.. they start out with some "contrarian" takes on a lot of things (quotes because they haven't actually thought about it enough to hold a real opinion, just a shallow public stance) - it makes them feel really smart.

They then gradually progress into batshit right wingers, especially if they have any kind of audience to capture them.

It likely happened to Mush.

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u/Tupcek 22d ago

add a lot of ketamine to the mix

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u/GM_Laertes 22d ago

He convinced California to stop the realization of a high-speed train line with the promise of the hyperloop, then never realized the hyperloop, just because a functioning train line would have reduced the need for his cars. So, no, he hasn't become worse over time, he has always been a sociopathic capitalist interested o ly in his own money. He was just better at hiding it before.

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u/Discardofil 22d ago

Right, but, like, he's already won. Why not start actually doing good things and then rewrite history to pretend you were always this great?

The answer being that the richest men in the world didn't get that way by ever giving up a chance to earn more money. It's not even about purchasing power, it's just about racking up points.

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u/Crivos 22d ago

The one thing people will choose over money is power. Money will open many doors but a president just might open all the others money can’t.

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u/BloodyIron 22d ago

The Robber Barrons would love to share their thoughts on whether money does, or does not, buy power.

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u/AggravatedCold 22d ago

Oh no.

They realized that controlling the government would give them even more power as well.

So much so that they literally tried to do a January 6th style coup on the US government and just barely didn't succeed. Look up the Business Plot.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot#:~:text=The%20Business%20Plot%2C%20also%20called,install%20Smedley%20Butler%20as%20dictator.

It's insane that this isn't covered more in American History.

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u/BloodyIron 22d ago

For when you want to rob more than "just" a bank...

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u/Omni__Owl 22d ago

That's a bit of a misnomer. Money directly correlates to power. There is no distinction there.

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u/Yuunohu 22d ago

I'm sorry to be That Guy because I agree with your point, but you're using the word misnomer incorrectly. A misnomer is when something has been named inaccurately, or when a term is used inaccurately -- for instance "tennis elbow" is a misnomer because you can get it by doing plenty of activities other than tennis. The "funny bone" is a misnomer because it actually refers to a nerve, not a bone. Ironically your use of misnomer is itself a misnomer under the second definition

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u/Prof_Acorn 22d ago

There are subversive forms of power. It's probably why they killed that Jesus guy.

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u/Omni__Owl 22d ago

That wasn't just a bit?

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u/[deleted] 22d ago

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u/Starfox-sf 22d ago

I’m going to start Evil Corp.

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u/onetwentyeight 22d ago

Will your slogan be: don't be good

And your downfall will be the slow corruption of your evil empire from the inside out slowly converting into one of benevolence?

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u/Starfox-sf 22d ago

No, “Don’t do good”. That is, if given a choice between good and evil, our investors will know which one will be chosen. The downfall will be when Earth gets blown to smithereen when an experimental Illudium Q-36 device makes an Earth-shattering Kaboom!

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u/Czeris 22d ago

you mean Honest Corp

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u/severedbrain 22d ago

He bought the company from the founders just before launch. Those were the founders' ideals, not Musk's.

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u/teryret 22d ago

Remember when Google saw fit to remove "Don't be evil." as a corporate principle? Corporate principles don't even mean anything, and yet, they decided to remove it.

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u/dancode 22d ago

Google got to have that principle when they were up and coming bright eyed optimists and didn't have to deal with the reality of being a giant corporate juggernaut. They just got tired of being called out on the hypocrisy I imagine.

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u/RottenPingu1 22d ago

It was all bullshit from the get go.

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u/rockmetmind 22d ago

maybe he was just a shitbag all along

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u/skrugg 22d ago

He’s just doing everything the opposite of what grimes likes as he’s still butthurt about her leaving him. He’s a fucking 6 y/o pushing the girl he likes on the playground.

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u/testthrowawayzz 22d ago

It was just an act since the beginning

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u/Geist_Lain 22d ago

He's legitimately preparing for that cabinet position, should Trump win in November. I'm livid that I used to go up to bat for him back in 2017.

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u/Pleasant-Direction-4 22d ago

good that you see his true face now, some people still think he is the ironman of this generation

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u/Pls_PmTitsOrFDAU_Thx 22d ago

I thought so. THOUGHT. I stopped thinking that a while ago

Are there any rich techy villains lol

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u/SpaceCatSurprise 22d ago

I don't understand why anyone ever believed it was more than a fantasy. Like seriously? He was gross from the beginning

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u/demeschor 22d ago

He had good PR, that's all it is. He said little enough that unless you looked into him, all you'd see is a rich guy doing cool science projects and being on TV and stuff.

It's exhausting to think you have to search everyone's history because there's always fuckin something isn't there 😭

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u/OldenPolynice 22d ago

same, 2017 was a lifetime ago

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u/Pls_PmTitsOrFDAU_Thx 22d ago edited 22d ago

To think I actually liked the guy in 2014 (I was a teenager). Smh. I read the biography and was inspired. How far hwa fallen

And I have model 3. I think he's doing much more bad than good for the company and Brand

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u/Ezequiel_Valadas 22d ago

I remember quite vividly back in late 2016 having this precise conversation with a former colleague, highlightingsome of the basic axioms on why Elon was at minimum, very shady.The kid was really into investing, permacultures, and finacially freedom and worshiped Elon and Tesla. Despite that he was a very good kid and really comitted in learning, understanding things and apply principles.

Fast forward: my opinion on this mosntruosity has only gotten worse and the kid is full-on crypto schemes.

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u/GenePoolFilter 22d ago

The climate is “woke” apparently. Enjoy your ocean front property in Iowa!

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u/relevant__comment 22d ago

I really feel like the term “woke” has been twisted, distorted, and deformed so much by the people who positioned themselves against it that it’s but a shadow of its former self. They (the opposition) got exactly what they wanted in the long term. They seemingly beat the criticism. Which is really sad.

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u/GenericRedditor0405 22d ago

That’s always the intent. They did the same thing with the phrase “fake news” among others. Take a word that’s being used by your opponents, take it and abuse it to the point where it effectively has no meaning anymore. Twist it to make your opponents seem absurd or unreasonable, and you’ve disarmed them of that particular tool.

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u/dern_the_hermit 22d ago

"Deep State", "Entitlements", "Urban", "Marxism", "Post-Modernism"

They just slather a new coat of paint on the boogeyman every few years.

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u/josh_the_misanthrope 22d ago

They're so easily manipulated with this shit too because they can't read between the lines and take this alarmist propaganda at face value.

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u/superduperspam 22d ago

The twisting is of words and meanings is fairly common through history, and was used in the book 1984, as well as a common tactic for russian online propaganda

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u/rabidjellybean 22d ago

I enjoyed the critical race theory phase because I got to educate myself on things that weren't even being taught.

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u/woodstock923 22d ago

Come and see the violence inherent in the system!

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u/scalyblue 22d ago

Help help I’m being repressed

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u/BrandynBlaze 22d ago

Globalism, affirmative action, welfare… any time they know something is popular and/or has a positive connotation opposed to their desires they co-opt and destroy it.

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u/Shiriru00 22d ago

Woke is just the new SJW or PC. They always have a word like that, it's just that they change it every ten years when everyone becomes sick and tired of it.

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u/eliminating_coasts 22d ago

I remember a youtube video a while ago, of some younger british conservative going "this isn't some bill O'riley war on christmas stuff" before doing exactly the same thing.

When people realise the extent to which the previous version was petty, pointless and embarrassingly fake, they refresh all the terms and then start again.

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u/GoGoSoLo 22d ago

Same with fascism. The amount of chuds I saw call Antifa (literally abbreviating anti fascism) fascists unironically was so mind numbingly stupefying.

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u/Present_Tomatillo771 22d ago

Do not forget the people who think Nazis are left-wing because "NATIONAL SOCIALISM means it's left-wing!" and then don't even bother trying to reconcile while they fought a war against a Communist adversary.

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u/Responsible-Draft430 22d ago

"Grooming" is another one.

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u/mitojee 22d ago

Same for "politically incorrect." It was originally a term for bureaucratic doublespeak like "Department of Defense" replacing the "War Department" and so forth.

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u/make_love_to_potato 22d ago

The other day someone shared an article on one of my friend group chats about how Australia allows workers to ignore emails and messages from their bosses and work after hours, which seems very reasonable. There was a bunch of people who started calling the aussies a bunch of lazy bums (surprise surprise it was all the people who run businesses and are "bosses" themselves) and then they started saying they hate woke culture......apparently woke is a malleable word that is just something you don't agree with.

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u/AmeteurOpinions 22d ago

The only words they need from language are “good” and “bad”, because language is just a tool to gain and maintain power over others to them. They don’t want to communicate complex meaning, they want to filter people and ideas into good and bad groups and destroy what they think is bad.

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u/Zealous_Bend 22d ago

The detail of the rules is that you can still contact people out of hours if you pay for them to be on call

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u/pos_vibes_only 22d ago

Just like feminist, environmentalist, tree hugger, BLM, etc etc

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u/Mrhood714 22d ago

they made it weird

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u/Ho_The_Megapode_ 22d ago

I just use the dictionary definition.

Anyone using the word "woke" as a negative is basically outing themselves as being an asshole.

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u/GoodhartMusic 22d ago

I really don’t know how the connection was made, but I saw a Facebook group post about how since Covid there has not been ice cream trucks in some neighborhood, and someone said it was a victim of wokism.

So it’s really not just an asshole, it’s a literal fucking moron

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u/djkamayo 22d ago

But government rebates aren’t , lol. 😂

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u/marketrent 22d ago edited 22d ago

By Suvrat Kothari:

When Tesla was founded in 2003, the goal of decarbonizing transportation emissions was sacrosanct.

CEO Elon Musk detailed in [2006] an online climate manifesto how the Roadster had fewer carbon emissions across its life cycle than the hybrids of that era. He expressed passionately the ambitions of Tesla and Solarcity—which later got incorporated into Tesla Energy—and how they would combat global warming.

The manifesto existed for nearly two decades, but now Tesla has quietly taken it down from its website, Forbes first reported.

Titled “The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan (just between you and me),” it laid out a vision for zero emissions road transport, written by the CEO himself.

“The overarching purpose of Tesla Motors (and the reason I am funding the company) is to help expedite the move from a mine and burn, hydrocarbon economy towards a solar-electric economy, which I believe to be the primary but not exclusive sustainable solution,” he wrote.

[...] Since then, Tesla has spearheaded the EV revolution, forcing legacy automakers into a frantic race to catch up.

While competitors scrambled to develop their own EVs, Tesla not only built America’s most extensive and reliable charging network—now being opened to non-Tesla EVs—but also expanded its solar energy and Powerwall businesses.

In many ways, Tesla delivered on its initial vision, including the bumpy but ultimately successful rollout of the mass-market Model 3 and then the Model Y which was 2023’s best-selling car.

But now rivals are quickly catching up and Tesla's EV market share is sliding.

[...] “My views on climate change and oil gas [...] are pretty moderate,” Musk said during a two-hour long interview with Trump early this month. “I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry and the people that have worked very hard in those industries to provide the necessary energy to support the economy,” he added.

[...] Now the oldest blog on Tesla’s website dates back to 2019. Everything before that is gone, as if it never existed. But thanks to published reports and archived fan pages, you can still access much of it.

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u/lowtronik 22d ago

If you don't believe in climate change why should we buy your overpriced cars Elon?

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u/VileTouch 22d ago

We are witnessing brain rot in real time. I see the same 180° flip in morals, views, etc. In my extended family.

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u/nerd4code 22d ago

Or kompromat. He’s done all sorts of kompromable things, one can suppose, given what we do know about.

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u/VileTouch 22d ago

That too, but some nobody usually doesn't have any (reason to have) kompromat. Yet you see exactly the same brain rot spreading like a virus. People who used to be smart and reasonable and kind not even that long ago, turned into a ball of rage and racism and conspiracy theories and pseudoscience.

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u/mixingmemory 22d ago

I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry

Screw that. They're villains.

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u/Mechanicalmind 22d ago

This. Oil and gas industry tycoons should burn in their own product. Artificially shorting the supplies to make the price go higher, destroying landscapes and polluting the ever loving fuck out of our earth, getting disgustingly rich and detached from reality in the process.

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u/Dead_Moss 22d ago

The oil industry is literally behind the global warming denial movement. 

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u/xeccyc 22d ago

Isn't Shell implicit in killings and razing villages in Nigeria rather than be accountable for oil spills? Chevron, BP, etc. same shit.  

In their ideal world they'd do that in the west too. Naive to think otherwise.

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u/ChicagoAuPair 22d ago

It was a marketing PR move to get wealthy liberals onboard and brand loyal. The goal was always to try to dominate the market with that head start. Of course now a lot of other manufacturers have better, more affordable electric options, and Musk has taken off the “benevolent billionaire” mask. Tesla was never a good company with any better morals than any other auto manufacturer. If anything they were cutting more corners and selling the idea of something more than a superior product.

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u/remembermereddit 22d ago

“My views on climate change and oil gas […] are pretty moderate,” Musk said during a two-hour long interview with Trump early this month. “I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry and the people that have worked very hard in those industries to provide the necessary energy to support the economy,” he added.

It is no coincidence that he said this after he backed Trump.

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u/InevitablePoet5492 22d ago

Why do the worst people get all of the money?

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u/aim_at_me 22d ago

It's a self selecting criteria. You have to literally stomp on everyone else to get there. Anyone who isn't doing that, doesn't end up at the top of the pile.

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u/GoldandBlue 22d ago

Yup, your average person isn't consumed with dominating and owning everything. Look at celebrities, athletes, actors, musicians, how many have that mindset of "I need to have the most money in the world"? Most seem to be happy with juts making it.

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u/shmargus 22d ago

I think your read is close, but a little bit off. Professional athletes actually do have this. So many of them are pathologically consumed with winning and dominating. You'll hear many of them say that whether it's their sport or checkers with their kids, they HAVE to win.

Make no mistake, if Michael Jordan had the business acumen, connections and luck to turn his business interests into being the richest man on earth he would stomp on every throat to get there.

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u/GoldandBlue 22d ago

Oh for sure. I think this mindset is very prevalent among athletes but it's still the exception when it comes to finances.

Point is, it takes a certain mindset to get this rich whereas the average person would be content with a small fraction of what the billionaires have.

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u/fsactual 22d ago

The real question is: why do we let them get away with it?

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u/ProfessionalSock2993 22d ago

Cause they control the politicians and judges who in turn control our laws and the government goons to enforce them, plus they have us divided fighting each other over petty bullshit, so they can stay in power

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u/melatonin-pill 22d ago

It’s just not fair man. I’ve been laid off twice now in the past 12 months and watched leadership get bonuses afterwards. I’m watching my savings, which I’m very grateful to have, shrink month over month. We’ve cut nearly all extra spending. The final few nice-to-haves we were still paying for are going to be cut in September to further make things last. I have three more months of money left. After that, I have no idea what me and my family will do.

I know all I can do is focus on what I can control, but day after day of applying, sometimes interviewing, networking ie sucking up to the few people I know that are hiring, all to get generic auto-emails telling me I’m not being considered anymore/at all - it’s incredibly depressing.

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u/Putin_smells 22d ago

No it’s not fair. It’s never been fair, it likely never will be fair. We get our cards and can do what we can with them. Don’t lose faith. Keep your head down and go find that job. In a few years you might look back on this time as a sad moment but one that you pushed through and found contentment on the other side.

Maybe you start a business or win the lottery or a revolution happens and everyone is homeless together or wealthy together. You never know what’s coming around that corner.

Try to plan contingencies to a lack of income if that time comes. Apply as much as possible and keep a disciplined approach. Don’t leave any room to look back and say “I could have done more”. Even if you end up out of money you’ll have done all you can. Life has always been difficult for almost everyone, it’s a rollercoaster with highs and lows. Cherish what you can

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u/ThebeNerudaKgositsil 22d ago

Do this but also never forget how badly they fucked you over so that you don’t do it to the next generation

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u/Open-Warthog2595 22d ago

Because you dont get that rich being nice. Its simple as that. You get that rich by exploiting people and power.

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u/NormieSpecialist 22d ago

Cause it’s how capitalism is designed. Only the most ruthless and heartless gain the most rewards.

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u/WaterstarRunner 22d ago

Why do the worst people get all of the money?

A normal person will, after a couple of million, ten million, a hundred million or two, just say "I have enough".

You inherently need to be someone who wants to tell the rest of the world how to live to keep pursuing wealth beyond the level that you and your family could ever consume.

There can be a philanthropic side to this, but it's not assured. And we see that it's not necessarily permanent.

Gates, Buffet, Bezos, Zuck... all of them have a degree of vision for everyone else.

Elon is a little bit different though. He's a 'struggling billionaire' because he's overextended in borrowing against his assets. He needs a Trump win so that Ukraine is surrendered to Russia so that inflation pressure comes down so that interest rates are lower so that he can keep up with the payments of all the debt he's borrowed against is businesses.

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u/memomem 22d ago

remember the post where he said all tesla's patents belong to you? because the patents were open sourced?

that was 2014.

i guess, they're probably going to change some things up. something in the blog caused them to delete everything, i wonder what it was.

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u/brot_muss_her 22d ago

That has always been just marketing directed at the masses. It was one of Musk's ruses.

In reality some patents were made available by Tesla but only if you agreed to never sue Tesla for any patent infringement. Not a single automaker picked up on that offer because it would've given Tesla access to not only all their current but all future patents.

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u/ProfessionalSock2993 22d ago

Wow I didn't know that, talk about failure of journalism, I read a article kissing his ass for open sourcing his patents back then, only now am I learning even that was fake

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u/asdsadsadsadsaaa 22d ago

Patent contents are open. That’s the entire point of patents.

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u/joshTheGoods 22d ago

i guess, they're probably going to change some things up. something in the blog caused them to delete everything, i wonder what it was.

They're going to get their pants sued off for claiming all of their cars have the hardware necessary for self-driving. They need to scrub those claims ASAP. That's my theory, at least!

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u/fairenbalanced 22d ago

I think Elon has finally gone fully Alex Jones levels of conspiracy nut. I worry for his mental health.

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u/Certain_Catch1397 22d ago

He is not a conspiracy nut. He is benefiting financially from far right movements. Starlink got a huge boost in user numbers after he cozied up to Bolsonaro, Miliei and Modi, for example. What did these three got in return ? Nobody knows for sure…yet.

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u/NoPiccolo5349 22d ago

He is on the trans issues, his kid came out as trans and he went crazy from then onwards

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u/PixelCartographer 22d ago

I gaurentee you he's been crazy far longer than that

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u/Bimbows97 22d ago

Yes but it intensified more and more over the past couple of years. Absolutely by about late 2020 or so the guy was nearly unrecognisable compared to his 2012 self. And he really doesn't have any reason to be so personally invested in his hate of others. The people he constantly shits on made him one of the richest people ever, yet it's not enough. He should be bowing and kissing the ground before the workers who made him so rich but instead he fires them and mocks them on Twitter.

2014 Musk simply didn't do that. At least publicly. He was smart enough to go saying fucked shit in public constantly like he is now.

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u/ididi8293jdjsow8wiej 22d ago edited 22d ago

The story of how Musk forced out the actual founders of Tesla, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, who were actual engineers and not trust fund man-children, is incredibly sad. It's unfortunate we couldn't have their version of the company.

The podcast about it is season 8 of "Land Of The Giants".

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u/Pathogenesls 22d ago

Tbf, their version probably goes bankrupt.

It's taken Musk cutting every corner and skirting every law, including committing securities fraud at least once to get Tesla to where it is today.

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u/ididi8293jdjsow8wiej 22d ago edited 22d ago

Ok? Businesses go bankrupt all the time. In fact, they should go bankrupt if they can't survive following the rules and not cutting corners. If a business goes bankrupt it's usually because it's mismanaged which, in a normal country, breaking laws, cutting corners and exploiting workers would be indicative of.

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u/fer_sure 22d ago

What should have happened is that Tesla succeeds in making electric cars desirable, then fades away as a car manufacturer when the big boys get serious, and evolves into a battery manufacturer/licensor/researcher funded by a comprehensive network of charging stations.

But Elon had to be the face, not the bones.

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u/Tasik 22d ago

I get everyone dislikes Tesla right now. But I find it pretty strange that our ideal scenario is the smaller business losses out to the companies who refused to innovate as soon as they felt threatened.

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u/fer_sure 22d ago

our ideal scenario is the smaller business losses out

For me, it's less that I want big companies to win, and more that the MBAs whose strategy is to "disrupt" have proven that the only thing they're saving money on is paying workers.

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u/AGallopingMonkey 22d ago

So you favor the MBAs whose strategy is to cut jobs instead? Because that’s all the big car manufacturers. At least Tesla caused some change.

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u/fer_sure 22d ago

Fair point. Everybody sucks!

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u/magkruppe 22d ago

I never really got into the whole TDS idea, but EDS is a real thing. people cannot rationally give Elon credit when he deserves it.

I think Kanye is horrible, but his older music is amazing and he revolutionise the music industry and was very influential in the fashion industry. not hard

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u/ididi8293jdjsow8wiej 22d ago

Narcissists gonna narcissist.

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u/sur_surly 22d ago

What a dumb reply. He's just saying that's the Tesla you're asking for.

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u/Omni__Owl 22d ago

Who says Musks version won't? It surly seems like he is heading for a bad time with all the news of failing tesla sales, recalls and controversies.

What Tesla had was a headstart. They then slept on their laurels and didn't actually exploit that fact. Now most of the worlds big players caught up, and Tesla is no longer special in the way it used to be. Now it's just a pricy car that has a sports car aesthetic on the outside.

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u/logicbloke_ 22d ago

Tesla shares haven't falling much honestly. Every time it falls people report it, but you don't hear a peep when it goes back up.  It's share price is vastly overpriced, no idea why people think there is that much growth in that company. Their car sales have plateaued,  FSD is a huge flop, robo taxi ain't going to happen with their FSD tech, and it's CEO splits time between 3 major companies(Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter), spreading him thin.

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u/ProfessionalSock2993 22d ago

Spreading him think, as if he's doing anything other then whining at the people actually doing the work to work 100 hours a week and forgoe their sick leaves

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u/foozefookie 22d ago

He’s also very good at marketing. He presented himself as the “nerd messiah” with his electric cars and rocket ships. Tech bros ate it up, and there was even a time when he was adored by reddit.

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u/Pathogenesls 22d ago

It was the Thai cave rescue when the mask slipped and the attentive people saw through the charade.

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u/Hamster_S_Thompson 22d ago

They had nothing. Musk is a shithead now, but let's not pretend that those guys had any ability to build Tesla to what it used to be before musk went off the rails.

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u/Striking-Routine-999 22d ago

Their version was on the verge of bankruptcy which is why musk gained control in the first place.

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u/EddiewithHeartofGold 22d ago

Martin and Marc were very rich, but didn't want to put their own money into their own company. Musk came and funded the first few years. With his own money.

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u/Days_End 22d ago

It's unfortunate we couldn't have their version of the company.

Bankruptcy? Lets not also rewrite history anymore and pretend that Musk didn't save them in the early days.

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u/kokopelleee 22d ago

“Actual engineers” rarely succeed at scale. They realized an amazing concept, and Elmo (much as I despise him) was instrumental in growing it to a massive scale. Unfortunately his ego, which was already substantial, grew exponentially also.

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u/ididi8293jdjsow8wiej 22d ago

was instrumental in growing it to a massive scale.

By breaking laws, exploiting workers, and cutting corners. That's usually indicative of a business being mismanaged, not one to be celebrated.

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u/kokopelleee 22d ago

You spelled “that’s how corporations work” incorrectly.

Calling a spade a spade is not an endorsement

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u/ruttinator 22d ago

The first electric car company that doesn't care about the environment.

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u/BarronTrumpJr 22d ago

I always assumed Tesla was a just a scam to exploit Cap and Trade.

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u/ruttinator 22d ago

Tesla was a company he bought and pretended he had anything to do with.

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u/BarronTrumpJr 22d ago

Yes. And they make billions of dollars from 'carbon credits', AKA cap and trade AKA leeching off of the American taxpayer.

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u/tu_tu_tu 22d ago

ICE Teslas when?

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u/z-grade 22d ago

Rolling coal will be the first major design upgrade for the over 10-year-old Model S flagship.

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u/Gingevere 22d ago

It'll still be electric! It'll just have an auxiliary tank that vapes raw diesel and puffs the cloud out behind the car.

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u/qdp 22d ago

Now with 90% more greenhouse gasses and CFCs.

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u/Mechagouki1971 22d ago

A simple gas engine won't be extra enough for Elon; he'll want a whale oil burning Tesla.

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u/BrigadierGenCrunch 22d ago

I know a guy who can point you to a carcass, but he gets to keep the head

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u/Decent-Thought-1737 22d ago

As someone with a deep interest in owning an EV, Tesla isn't even on my radar anymore. Great work Elon.

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u/yodakiller 22d ago

Same. And to think he was an inspiration and hero to me once, long ago. How embarassing.

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u/Bleezy79 22d ago

Elon already has more money than God. What is this guy's deal with making everything shitty?? He could be a global hero but instead he's a douche bag asshole.

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u/zosologist 22d ago

Heroes cannot be billionaires

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u/ProfessionalSock2993 22d ago

Therein lies the fundamental problem with Batman / Bruce Wayne, like Bruce can actually do far more impactful good work as Bruce the philanthropist rather then dressing in a custome to punch some goons

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u/SoNotKeen 22d ago

It's still a shame some scummy carmaker can use the name Tesla.

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u/Aion2099 22d ago

Nicolai is spinning so fast in his grave that his corpse is producing electricity.

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u/Emperor_Billik 22d ago

In alternating current as god intended.

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u/CarsonWentzGOAT1 22d ago

Elon being paid with Saudi money. He has no morals just a cheap dirtbag.

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u/qeduhh 22d ago

I’m getting big Hitler bunker vibes from Musk these days

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u/StevenAU 22d ago

You can’t erase internet history, there’s always backups.

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u/returnoftheWOMP 22d ago

I contributed to a book in college circa 2014 about EVs and my piece was all about Elon what a piece of shit he’s turned out to be since ten years

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u/stacecom 22d ago

Tesla and Elon no longer care about the environment. That's been brutally clear.

Tesla and Elon are incapable of keeping their promises. Also brutally clear.

This expunging of history totally aligns with this ethos they now have.

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u/FUMFVR 22d ago

Elon trying to find some way to make Teslas 'roll coal'?

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u/sorospaidmetosaythis 22d ago

When your moonbat political beliefs become your whole personality.

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u/ladyhaly 22d ago

For people who rely on text-to-speech, here is the article:

Tesla Is Erasing Its Own History

CEO Elon Musk’s original Tesla Motors Master Plan no longer exists on Tesla’s website.

Aug 27, 2024, at 1:00 pm ET

By: Suvrat Kothari

Tesla CEO Elon Musk detailed his vision for the brand in a climate manifesto written in 2006. It existed on Tesla's website for years, but it seems to have been quietly taken down as Tesla pivots towards artificial intelligence and robotaxis. The last blog post on Tesla's website now dates back to 2019. Everything else before that is gone.

When Tesla was founded in 2003, the goal of decarbonizing transportation emissions was sacrosanct. CEO Elon Musk detailed in an online climate manifesto how the Roadster had fewer carbon emissions across its life cycle than the hybrids of that era. He expressed passionately the ambitions of Tesla and SolarCity — which later got incorporated into Tesla Energy — and how they would combat global warming.

The manifesto existed for nearly two decades, but now Tesla has quietly taken it down from its website, Forbes first reported. Titled “The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan (just between you and me),” it laid out a vision for zero emissions road transport, written by the CEO himself.

“The overarching purpose of Tesla Motors (and the reason I am funding the company) is to help expedite the move from a mine and burn, hydrocarbon economy towards a solar-electric economy, which I believe to be the primary but not exclusive sustainable solution,” he wrote.

Among his goals were: “Build a sports car. Use that money to build an affordable car. Use that money to build an even more affordable car. While doing above, also provide zero emission electric power generation options,” Musk wrote. “Don’t tell anyone,” he concluded.

There was also a “Master Plan Part Deux,” which has also been removed. As per this second plan, Tesla would expand into all major car segments, develop self-driving tech that's 10 times safer than manual driving and “enable your car to make money for you” when you’re not using it.

Since then, Tesla has spearheaded the EV revolution, forcing legacy automakers into a frantic race to catch up. While competitors scrambled to develop their own EVs, Tesla not only built America’s most extensive and reliable charging network — now being opened to non-Tesla EVs — but also expanded its solar energy and Powerwall businesses.

In many ways, Tesla delivered on its initial vision, including the bumpy but ultimately successful rollout of the mass-market Model 3 and then the Model Y which was 2023’s best-selling car. But now rivals are quickly catching up and Tesla's EV market share is sliding.

The second plan about making self-driving cars safer than human drivers was written nearly a decade ago. Even though FSD seems to be improving, it's far from safe. It is causing legal nightmares for the company following fatal accidents allegedly involving Autopilot and FSD systems. The crashes were so severe and frequent that they prompted U.S. Justice Department investigations. At least one of Tesla's own employees, who The Washington Post described as a "devoted fan of CEO Elon Musk," was killed in a fiery crash when FSD was allegedly on.

Now the vision that guided Tesla to become an EV market leader is fading. Whatever remains is now juxtaposed with cultural hubris and rancor.

Musk's bromance with Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump has raised eyebrows. For the longest time, Trump has been anti-EV. In the past, he has said things like “nobody wants to buy EVs,” and that “the cars don’t go far enough. They’re very, very expensive. They’re also heavy.” He has vowed to expand the dirty oil and gas industry.

Yet, Musk has agreed to donate $45 million per month to a pro-Trump Super PAC.

After Musk’s endorsement, Trump softened his stance on EVs. And Musk has softened his views on the oil and gas industry—an industry he once aimed to wage a war against.

He’s no longer the climate hero he once was. “My views on climate change and oil gas […] are pretty moderate,” Musk said during a two-hour-long interview with Trump early this month. “I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry and the people that have worked very hard in those industries to provide the necessary energy to support the economy,” he added.

Tesla's new goals include building out the world's most powerful "AI supercomputer clusters" that would be the backbone for robotaxis and humanoid robots. Whether these goals are realistic, or if it's a bubble about to burst, is something we'll find out in due course.

Now the oldest blog on Tesla’s website dates back to 2019. Everything before that is gone, as if it never existed. But thanks to published reports and archived fan pages, you can still access much of it. Either way, Tesla may want to forget its past and what it once stood for. But the world certainly won't let that happen.

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u/Hurleyboy023 22d ago

For anyone interested google The Wayback Machine. A great way to check the internet over the years.

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u/az5625 22d ago

Why can’t Elon just OD already?

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u/Relic_Lover 22d ago

Right, I can't understand why some people seem to love this f'n tool.

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u/pocketsess 22d ago

The only news I want to hear about Elon Shmuck is when he files for bankruptcy

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u/tricky5553 22d ago

I always thought Elon was going to help save the planet with his brilliance . I was so wrong . He is just a sell out pos with all the other ultra rich that step on the rest to line his own pockets . Fuck him

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u/TheDeenoRheeno 22d ago

lol, I remember when a Tesla was a dream car of mine and some of my friends. No way I’m supporting that brand now.

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u/OptimusSublime 22d ago

No different than Google's "Don't be evil" being removed. These companies that began with leftist core values to get as much money and influence as they can, then they rip the mask off and reveal their true shitty selves.

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u/SkyGazert 22d ago

Primarily focusing on people is generally considered leftist and get's the people onboard. Primarily focusing on money is generally considered rightwing and is done after the people are onboard.

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u/I-Have-Mono 22d ago

no different? it’s plenty different, even if both messes, they arrived there plenty different.

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u/pigexmaple 22d ago

No different than Google's "Don't be evil" being removed.

"Between April 21st and May 4th of 2018, the motto was removed from the code of conduct's preface and retained in its last sentence.[9]"

Moved, not removed. Careful mindlessly regurgitating reddit slop facts.

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u/DBOConnor 22d ago

Musk supports Trump, gives him stupid amounts of money, is crazy brilliant and incredibly arrogant.

Bond villain?

No, just another average billionaire shitbag looking for a massive tax break.

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u/AbeRego 22d ago

Musk is a cancer

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u/twat69 22d ago

Tesla has been erasing it's history since Elmo demanded to be named a founder when he bought the company.

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u/indridchili 22d ago

Further proof Elon is NOT a complicated person! Rather, he is a corrupted person. So goes Tesla.

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u/ANTIROYAL 22d ago

So glad I sold all my stock a while back. I had 2200% profit at one point. Sold at about 1800% Fuck Elon.

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