I have seen a lot of tesla vandalism online the last few days and I’m kind of on the fence about it.
I’ve seen several examples locally here in BC, Canada.
I think totally warranted at newly purchased teslas going forward. Also it serves as a deterrent for potential future buyers.
But vandalizing a car that is a few years old I think is lame. Those driversare already being punished enough by driving something around that’s worth less than scrap.
My hot take? No, it’s not
You’ll never change a mind with cruelty. You are merely selfishly expressing your anger
Best case scenario, this person now feels bad about buying a Tesla, but is now stuck with the car. They will likely have to waste resources fixing it and it may happen again. Sure, you could assume they’re rich and can afford to fix it but that wastes literal resources extracted from our planet to fix or replace the car. And if someone buys the used version they’ll have the same problem and may not be quite as rich the next time someone vandalizes the car.
More likely scenario, you piss the owner off and they dig in deeper. That’s just how humans work
Alternatively, you can view vandalization as, essentially, a sin tax. If the person is willing to pay the cost to keep their current setup whatever… but vandalization will provide an economic motive for the victim and others around them to revise their behavior.
Hey, let’s just… let the market decide.
I do agree that you’re unlikely to make the vandal change their beliefs, but given enough vandalization you’ll end up stealing Musk’s money.
Unless you’re completely destroying the car beyond repair (thats serious felony material), your vandalism is actually acting to enrich Elon Musk. Where do you think replacement parts for a vandalized Tesla will come from? The victim will be forced to buy those parts from Musk even if they hate him.
Caveat: other than the original Roadster, I’ve never considered Teslas good cars. The Cybertruck might be the dumbest vehicle made in the last 40 years. SO, on to MY hot take.
I’ve spent years and years restoring a 1973 Porsche 914 from a bucket to a beautiful driving machine. Blood, sweat, tears, and money. Hard earned money and my own blood, my own sweat, and my own tears.
It’s unbelievably pretty now. It looks expensive. It drives like a bat out of hell on rails. It’s everything I strived for.
If someone vandalized it, it would be pike gouging at my heart. Writing words in any dust in it would scratch the paint.
With that out of the way, I’d still laugh if I saw a vandalized Swasticar.
A bit of a scary thought, not predominantly due to finger biting over those cars specifically. I’m just imagining the kind of violence we might inflict on each other in the coming years.
For instance, pretend tomorrow’s headline is… oh , say:
How long would it take before we saw some significant White House action? And what might a social response look like in the streets? Would any Priuseses be safe?!
overall?
In the grand scheme, yet another darn distraction?
499 other companies in the S&P 500 to worry about as well, and… other stuff :)
I am really glad this is the top response. I came in here expecting a very different top comment. Something of encouragement and some bs rationalization about why it’s ok.
If it’s not your stuff and you don’t have permission to touch it there are very few reasons why you should ever touch anything that isn’t yours.
You’ll never change the mind of the one you are being cruel to. But you might change the minds of some observers.
That’s basically the entire Republican platform right there.
look around you zorque, it’s working
I couldn’t have said it better. I feel terrible for my parents right now. They bought a Tesla a few years ago. A good portion of my teen and early adulthood was spent going to the junkyard to get parts or spending hours trying to revive a part we couldn’t replace because we had no other choice. I was so happy when they were finally able to get a new car for the first time in 30 years. It wasn’t what I would buy, but my dad has always been a tech nerd and this was his dream car. Now they’re scared to visit me in the city because someone might scratch a swastika into their car that they’re now embarrassed to drive.
With the price of these things they could have afforded a new car way before they bought that Tesla.
Yes, that’s how it works when one thing is more expensive than another thing. But people do save up money through one part of their life to spend during another part of their life. And they aren’t the only people who used to think that Tesla’s were cool tech cars.
I don’t care about changing hearts and minds. That time is long past. I want them afraid to express fascism in public. Is that too much to ask? Yes, for losers and pansies it is.
When you mentioned buying used it really got me thinking.
I bet this could kill resale value so bad that used tesla might actually be technically the most frugal thing to drive soon. Would you buy a $10k used model 3 if you were in the market for an EV??
Not American, but definitely would. I’d get it a new fun/tacky paintjob for shits and giggles, maybe a realistic/stylized total rust bucket look, or grandma’s crocheted lace. Or, if possible, just black and enhance any scratches with fineline gold paint, overscratch swastikas and replace them with flowers, etc.
When something breaks, it’s going to cost you more than you paid for the whole car. Cost of ownership is an important factor in the long run.