The parent has a point: the fans/consumers of those brands are very willing to overlook the drawbacks, and to accept their marketing claims that are usually overblown, to a greater degree I think that people who are not fans of those brands.
Counterpoint: Wouldn't actual owners of these products know more about their advantages and drawbacks than forum trolls?
Don't get me wrong, I can't STAND Tesla forums. But a (non-Tesla) car forum I'm on has a number of very vocal complainers who post EVERY negative blogpost they can find about Tesla in every thread about Tesla, because... reasons. I mean, everyone needs a hobby, but as someone who actually owns one Tesla and many Apple products, I see no need to spend all day digging up positive OR negative news about the companies.
I can't fathom what would drive someone to be so angry about a company as to spend more time researching it than even the most rabid fanboy, but they're out there.
Some people have nothing better to do with their time than tear something else down.
Not that this is always a bad thing: back at the height of their abusive monopoly, Microsoft definitely deserved all the bashing it got. But Tesla isn't anything like that, simply because they're a small player (by volume) and nowhere near a monopoly. If you don't like Teslas, it's simple, don't buy one. There's no shortage of other cars out there, including electric ones.
> I can't fathom what would drive someone to be so angry about a company as to spend more time researching it than even the most rabid fanboy
I can. And it's not random. It doesn't have a lot to do with Tesla, it has to do with worlds changing.
A lot of people grew up in a culture where men were respected, beef was the best food except maybe bacon, oil was a respectable professional and cars were a respectable hobby. Hitching up to someone you can have kids with would at least put you in position to have status in your community. And all the best people are mostly white, except in ethnic activities like cooking and basketball.
Then the world said:
- Men are the #1 threat to women's safety, even the men who are close to them
- Men are taking advantage of women financially, and interfering with their work
- Cars and gas are destroying the earth
- Beef and bacon are toxic and toxic for the environment
- Straight people are boring if not oppressive, fluid sexuality and queerness is the new symbol of vibrancy and virility
- White people cheated their way to the top
- Black people make the best art, Japanese people are the best engineers, women are the best CEOs, and gay people have the best parties
It's a lot to deal with if you grew up in the first world and find yourself in the second. Especially if you're a meat eating straight man with a nice car.
And yet, pretty much all of those bullet points are scientifically accurate. And the population overwhelmingly is accepting those ideas.
So you have a group of people with status and power who is feeling it slipping from their fingers. So they look for any and all opportunities to chip away at the bullet points. Electric cars are a sham. Queer people are snowflakes who don't understand that gender is a thing. Etc.
Frankly, I think the blame lies in the progressive world, which has left behind anyone considered regressive, trying to lionize marginalized identities rather than developing a true radically inclusive politics.
Not that I am criticizing... I think it is somewhat intentional, the centering of marginal identities. It has powerful benefits for the people who are centered, which maybe outweigh the cost of marginalizing men, white people, straight people, etc.
I guess I'm not saying those decisions were bad, so much as I'm saying someone does need to start a platform of radical inclusivity if they want to bring the incels and Tesla haters and Trump voters and all them back into the fold of liberal society.
This maybe describes a phenomenon in general, but it does not at all describe what's happening with Tesla.
People genuinely believe they've stumbled over the next Theranos or Enron. Maybe it was seeded by the shorts, but it's taken on a life of its own. Tesla has done more than enough shady shit that it's not entirely undeserved.
I would recommend digging in to something before attempting to diagnose it, or else resisting the temptation. The world is a complicated place.
While I am partial to Japanese cars, I think some people might argue that the Germans are at least as good at engineering.
Of course, it was us Americans who really excelled at rocketry and sent men to the Moon... oh wait, we had to import Nazi German scientists to do that.
