“Why Should Buying A Car Be Political?”
A reader provides an answer to my question, perhaps inadvertently.
Last Thursday a friend reinforced an insight into the motivation of the domestic terrorists and their enablers and supporters who are engaged in terrorism against Elon Musk, Tesla, and Tesla owners. His comment reciting the history of political reasons to buy (or not buy) a particular brand of car affirmed the motivation and gonzo thinking of today’s “activists” who refuse to buy Teslas because Musk is a Hitler-loving Nazi.
And don’t let anyone push back by denying that the people engaged in these acts are “terrorists.” This is not like the left’s habit of calling anyone whom they don’t like as a “Nazi.” The FBI’s definition of “domestic terrorism” fits:
Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.
As does the AP:
Cybertrucks set ablaze. Bullets and Molotov cocktails aimed at Tesla showrooms.
Attacks on property carrying the logo of Elon Musk’s electric-car company are cropping up across the U.S. and overseas. While no injuries have been reported, Tesla showrooms, vehicle lots, charging stations and privately owned cars have been targeted.
Background for context — My “Domestic Terrorism Alert”
On Thursday I posted “Domestic Terrorism Alert.” It disclosed a just-published “Threat Advisory” from the U.S. Army Special Operations Command. That Advisory warned all USASOC personnel of possible acts of terrorism that may occur on March 29, when there is a nationwide “protest” planned against Elon Musk and Tesla.
The Advisory noted that shadowy organizers had planned “protests” at 500 locations worldwide, including at all 277 Tesla showrooms in the U.S. It further noted that these came in the context of a wave of threats against Musk, Tesla facilities, and Tesla purchasers, and that they should be taken seriously.
USASOC recommended, among other things that all USASOC personnel should stay on “high alert” at all times and, if possible, remain in “a safe location” on March 29.
I noted that this sort of Advisory from the military addressing terrorist threats and possible attacks in the U.S. was unprecedented. It is more akin to State Department warnings to civilians to get out of such terrorist havens as Libya, Syria and Afghanistan immediately. As a result, it should be taken seriously.
After publishing that article, I had an exchange about it and the USASOC Advisory with an erstwhile legal adversary who is now a close friend. My friend is a true-blue Democrat, and we agree on few things politically. Despite that disagreement, we sometimes have spirited, but respectful debates over current issues. Unlike many in the “Never Trump” crowd, my friend is rational and considers other points of view with an open mind.
My friend’s comments on “Domestic Terrorism Alert” and what they reveal.
Almost immediately after my article appeared warning readers to take the threats against Tesla owners seriously, my friend posted a short comment:
I’d sell my Tesla, but I have a feeling that the market for Teslas is softening. Ironically, my guess is that most Tesla owners, like me, were not Trump supporters. I’m trying to think of the humorous side of this, and all I can really come up with is the fact that I’m going to cancel my reservation for a cyber truck that I put money down on. Politics makes strange truck bed fellows, I guess!
I posted a quick response in the form of a rhetorical question a little over an hour later:
Why should buying a car be political?
My reply generated some discussion including a lengthier comment by my friend. The relevant part for today is this:
Buying a car has long been a highly political act. Early on following World War II there was tremendous resentment against people who bought German or Japanese cars.
My friend is right, of course. He made a good historical point that some Americans were prejudiced against buying cars made in Germany or Japan and that their position was motivated by politics. But the larger point he made, perhaps unintentionally, reveals the sorry state of the Democratic opposition and its unbridled hatred for Elon Musk.
Why could buying (or not buying) a car be political?
In the early years after World War II, there was prejudice against buying Japanese and German cars. Many WWII vets (and others) retained that understandable prejudice for years. For example, my former father-in-law, Major General Wally Kaine, was gravely wounded fighting a German SS division. He later commanded one of the first two battalions that liberated the prisoners in the infamous Dachau concentration camp. Because of the things he had seen the Germans do, for the rest of his life he steadfastly refused even to consider buying a Mercedes or any other German car.
Other Americans also refused to buy German or Japanese cars. In the post-war years they learned more about these evil regimes from the accounts of the men who liberated Hitler’s concentration camps, as well as from the survivors of those camps, and the survivors of Japanese barbarism. They had seen or at least knew about things depicted in the above images. They hated the people who had started a worldwide conflagration that did this, killing tens of millions of people in the process. So, they just refused to buy cars from Nazis, Fascists or their supporters.
The anti-Tesla “activists” really want you to believe that Musk is a Nazi.
My friend’s historical example of a political motive for buying (or not buying) a car answers the rhetorical question posed in my reply, “Why should buying a car be political?”. The decision not to buy a particular make of car has been political when the manufacturer is a Hitler-supporting Nazi.
Thus, this historical example is telling because it reveals the motive behind the anti-Tesla, anti-Musk violence. Those trying to destroy Tesla believe that Elon Musk (like Donald Trump) is no different than Hitler. A Nazi. They tell us so. And they want you to believe it, too. And the historical precedent confirms it — the only precedent for their widespread refusal to buy cars for political reasons is the boycott of former (real) Nazi auto manufacturers in the immediate post-war years. They facilitated genocide, so you shouldn’t buy a car from them. In the eyes of the “activists,” the boycott of Tesla and the harassment and threats directed toward those who drive Teslas is like the only other similar historical precedent — both arise out of opposition to Nazis.
Much of this “activism” targets people who bought Teslas. Some have sold their cars; others have announced their intention to sell. I do not contend that every Tesla owner who has surrendered believes that Musk is a Hitler-loving Nazi. Many have caved because they cannot afford to sell and buy a new car. Some who cannot or choose not to sell have sought refuge by “paying the Dane geld.” They have put signs or stickers on their Teslas proclaiming their opposition to Musk, their devotion to the environment, and other slogans they hope will appease the barbarians. Good luck with that.
Of course, Musk is a Nazi. Haven’t you seen his haircut?
Think I am exaggerating about the Musk-Hitler comparisons? Of course he is a Nazi. Just look at this hair. Here is The Economic Times’ attention-grabbing heading: “Did Elon Musk get a hairstyle like Hitler? The ET says the image of Musk’s haircut comparing him to Hitler has “has gone viral on social media,” “amassing millions of views.”
And a far-left political group that calls itself “Led by Donkeys” projected this image onto Tesla’s Berlin facility:
I could go on, but you all have seen the attempts to link Musk (and Trump) to Hitler and the Nazis, such as “Squad” member Rep. Ayanna Pressley who claimed that Musk was a “Nazi nepo baby.” There are many more of this ilk, but there is no need to rehash them here.
More than a boycott and more insidious
There have been other boycotts for political purposes, such as the Montgomery bus boycott after Rosa Park’s refusal to surrender her seat to a white passenger, and black boycotts of white-owned business that discriminated against black Americans.
But “boycott” understates the nature of the “actions” that are now being perpetrated and planned against Tesla and Tesla owners. Vandalism of privately owned Tesla vehicles, fire-bombing dealers’ vehicles with Molotov cocktails. Shots fired at dealers. Threats of violence against Tesla owners. Doxing owners to create fear that other crazies will harm them or destroy their property. All this comes in the context of the “day of action” threatened for 377 dealerships across the country from California to Vermont. California alone has 70 Tesla dealerships so we can only hope that authorities in that state are preparing to control the mayhem that many are promoting.
No, I stand corrected. That is not our “only hope.” We already see that the DOJ under Pam Bondi is taking steps to throw the book at these people. And that must be followed by investigations, prosecutions, and sentencing of every criminal offender and their financiers and enablers for aiding and abetting domestic terrorists. At long last we have an Attorney General who can depended upon to follow through by enforcing the law.
For my entire life Democrats have called people with whom they disagree all sorts of names; now their preferred execrative is Nazi, or fascist.
In doing so, Democrats are adopting the very same tactics real Nazis and real fascists used historically. In order to assert their moral superiority over their political opponents Democrats find it useful to “other” them, to make them less than human, to make them villains. If you don’t agree with Democrat / Progressive orthodoxy you are an Untermensch and the normal rules of civility don’t apply, and you don’t deserve the protections afforded to those who are part of the greater Progressive “Volk.”
It’s been a long time coming but a great many of our liberal fellow citizens have decided that pogroms against conservatives are morally defensible and, indeed, justified. There are next to no voices on the Democrat / Progressive side vigorously calling for the rhetoric and violence to be toned down, in fact, their leaders like Schumer openly call Republicans “bastards” and boast about sending activists to disrupt town halls to force Republican representatives to change their votes “like rats leaving a sinking ship.”
Hopefully, normal people will reject all this and the Democrat party will go the way of the Whigs. But the loudest voices in the Democrat / Progressive base are commie revolutionaries at heart, and their goal is to burn everything down if they don’t get their way.
Whenever you have a discussion with people about this you can short-circuit and avoid wasting time by asking the simple question "Do you support the firebombing of Teslas and other terrorists attacks against their facilities or cars, or people harassing individual Tesla owners?"
If the answer is anything other than an immediate "no, that's wrong and should not be condoned" or the equivalent, you know you are dealing with someone morally unfit to be bothered with. Move on with your life and drop contact with them if at all possible.