It genuinely angers me to see the Tesla pile-on. I think what Trump and Musk are doing is criminally insane,…

It genuinely angers me to see the Tesla pile-on. I think what Trump and Musk are doing is criminally insane, but I never for a second think any sort of solution to that is to destroy Tesla. Righteous zealotry has replaced public life. Watch this short clip. /1 https://t.co/If4gpJJguO

Tesla’s VP of Vehicle Engineering and Chief Designer talking about the core principles behind Tesla car design. We fail to appreciate the genius of what’s gone on there. Cars used to be placed into segments. Performance cars, family cars, efficient cars, etc. /2

Tesla’s genius was to say, we’ll give you as much of that as possible, all in the same vehicle. At a family price. Electric motors make that possible. Both the cheapest to run and highest performance, collapsing multiple segments. /3

Also some of the safest cars on the road, great fun to drive, astoundingly efficient even amongst EVs, great sense of humour in the software and functionality (dog mode, camping mode, farting indicators etc.) None of this is ‘fascism’, for fuck’s sake. /4

Tesla annoys the self-appointed guardians of the various segments at every turn. Which means they’ve nailed the brief. This is engineering given free rein to amaze us. A bit like Google used to be, when it astonished people. /5

It makes me want to tear my hair out seeing the determination people have to smash everything the people at Tesla have achieved, to (they think) bring down Musk. That’s such an American thing to do, and now all of us, because social media has replaced our societies. /6

We have not one idea how to process public life except to launch guerrilla hashtag campaigns, that now spill over into actual arson and violence in real life. Kids steal cars to make TikTok videos of the theft. We’re all teenagers now, and social media is trapping us there. /7

No matter how many times you type ‘fascist’ and ‘Nazi’ on social media, you’re not getting rid of Trump or Musk. No matter how much senseless vandalism and violence the righteous cause evokes, the same. You’re feeding the monster. They exist because of those team sports. /8

It fuels the idiot movement of Trumpism, to have people respond in that way. It fires up their troops, a joy to their recruiting arm. Meanwhile one of the only companies in the world taking the emergency need to transition to renewables-based life seriously is under assault. /9

Stop equating social change with righteous mob outrage. Mob outrage is indiscriminate, it feeds the team sports and only brings destruction. Slacktivism won’t save the world. Engineering can, if we let it and stop trying to destroy it. /end