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“Berlin to Warsaw in one charge”

“model SS coming soon”

“Putting on the turn signal suggests you are going to take the third right”

This is all a good laugh — gallows humor, you know — but I’d venture that it’s also concrete action.

Elon Musk’s wealth is heavily, heavily tied up in Tesla’s valuation as a company. And Tesla is •wildly• overvalued, just way beyond what the fundamentals would say. A stock like that can crash fast and crash hard under the right circumstances.

Making Teslas gross, laughable, socially toxic, cringe-inducing? That has positive, concrete real-world effects.

So yes, keep calling them “Swasticars.”

And if you’re one of those people who owns a Tesla and wishes you didn’t?

Sell it. Sell it now.

Do whatever it takes to sell it, ••no matter how large a hit•• you have to take to get it to sell. Flood the market with used Teslas that nobody can unload anywhere near purchase price, and just watch what happens to the stock price.

Oh, so you have one of those “I bought this before…” bumper stickers? Nobody cares; this isn’t about you. You want to do something •real•? Put your money where your mouth is. Sell it at a loss.

P.S. I’m going to say that selling your Tesla is far better than symbolically destroying it. Not that anybody’s actually doing that, but: selling it keeps supply up while demand is decreasing, which drives the price of Teslas down, which drives down potential profits (and thus stock valuation) and also drives down resale value (and thus further reduces demand).

DISCLAIMER: I am not an economist

Reply asked me to work this out a bit, and I’m sure others have questions, so: LONG POST WARNING

[Prerequisite assignment] Read up on the “law” (phenomenon, really) of supply and demand if you aren’t already versed in it. Then:

If the supply of used Teslas increases, the price of used Teslas goes down. At least some prospective buyers would consider new or used; new competes with used, as is typical. The lower used price thus depresses demand for new Teslas, which drives down the new vehicle price as well.

(But what if nobody will •buy• the used Teslas? Then the people wanting to sell will offer lower prices until they •do• find a buyer. This is •why• the supply and demand phenomenon happens; please refer to the prereq reading.)

Furthermore, people have typically bought Teslas with the expectation of a high resale value, which makes them tolerate a higher price. If resale value drops, that reduces demand (and thus price) for •all• Teslas, new and used. This may create a feedback effect.

People buy stocks on the assumption that a company will be worth more in the future, so that the stock is worth more when they sell it than it was when they bought it. Stocks are thus priced based on an expectation of a company’s •future• profits. If profits decrease — or if people merely •expect• them to decrease — then the stock price tends to decrease too. This is why companies’ stocks so often move immediately after earnings reports: those reports adjust future expectations.

Musk’s wealth is not all cash. A very large portion of it is tied up in stock, especially Tesla stock. It’s hypothetical money until he sells the stocks. Because he owns such a large portion of the available Tesla stock, he cannot sell too much too quickly without causing the stock value to tank. And if Tesla share prices drop, a bunch of Musk’s still-hypothetical money vanishes — either because he sold, or because he didn’t.

(I welcome corrections from anyone better qualified than me to do this writeup.)

Add to my over-long armchair analysis above this insight from @sindarina:

https://ngmx.com/@sindarina/113959695454201537

If there’s a •movement• to sell Teslas, then even people who only care about their money and don’t mind Nazis will •still• have reason to hurry up and sell: resale value is going to tank, so get out now! Waiting will only make it worse! You might take a bath, but at least you’ll recoup •something• if you move fast!

(In an ideal fantasy version of this scenario, the only buyers for Teslas end up being Musk/Trump supporters who love the idea of owning a Swasticar so much they’re willing to lose money. The whole “Sell your Tesla!” movement thus becomes a wealth transfer away from the most gullible of the right-wingers.)

The thing that would •really• tank Tesla stock, of course, is a mass hack of the control software, especially one that really alarms owners and isn’t just a temporary glitch. The danged things have computers that (1) receive OTA updates and (2) are connected to the drivetrain…which all seems just bonkers to me, but, well, there it is. Modern cars.

Imagine a software update that bricks every Tesla in the world overnight. Or causes physical damage to the drivetrain. Or, say, makes them all start inexorably backing up at 0.5kph. (We tech folks have been hand-wringing about this sort of possibility for years now.)

However, that’s not something ordinary people can control. But if you own a Tesla…well, there •is• something you can do. Sell it.

Somebody needs to start making “SELL YOUR SWASTICAR” stickers (bumper or otherwise) and selling them free or at cost

@inthehands I was thinking of making stickers of this:

@jef @inthehands

I've been thinking of making bumper stickers saying "SORRY I BOUGHT A NAZI CAR" and slipping them under the wiper for folks to use if they are not actually a nazi.

@jef @inthehands And maybe one for Cybertruck owners that says "I'M NOT A NAZI, I JUST HAVE A SMALL PENIS".

@mikemccaffrey @jef @inthehands Sticker design: "I'm not a [swastika] I just have "

@mikemccaffrey @jef @inthehands Anyone remember when was added to Unicode? There is a certain Type of Dude who decided to make it their hill to die on that this was the most horrible "misandrist" thing to ever happen, and the Venn diagram of these dudes with Cybertruck owners is a circle.

@dalias @jef @inthehands How have I never noticed that emoji before? What is it supposed to symbolize? Head crushing?

https://youtu.be/8t4pmlHRokg