Tesla funds fascism

I’ve been pleased to see demonstrators targeting Tesla dealerships, waving a variety of signs, my favorite of which read, ‘Don’t Buy Swasticars.’ The activists, inspired by the newly minted Tesla Takedown campaign, are encouraging the public to sell their Tesla cars and stock in protest of Elon Musk, the company’s chief executive officer.

Musk, for those who don’t know, supports far-right parties around the globe and plays a central part in President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle American democracy. In case there was any doubt about the political sympathies of the world’s richest man, on Inauguration Day, he gave a speech in which he repeatedly performed a Nazi salute.

So long as Musk leads Tesla, any association with the company should be deeply stigmatized. It’s really no exaggeration to say Tesla produces swasticars which fund fascism. Thankfully, there are many other electric vehicles available on the market. Environmentally-conscious consumers needn’t hand their money to a Nazi-sympathizer.

For instance, Ford makes a number of popular models, including the Mustang Mach-E and the F-150 Lightning. Hyundai produces the IONIQ 5. Honda makes the Prologue. Chevrolet produces the Equinox EV. Cadillac makes the Lyriq. Rivian produces the R1S. These are just a handful of alternatives currently available in the United States.

When the public sees a Tesla vehicle on the road, they shouldn’t associate it with environmental sustainability or futuristic cool. They should associate the car with a right-wing authoritarianism fundamentally at odds with basic democratic values. They should think of Musk at the inauguration, repeatedly giving a Sieg-Heil salute.

When liberty-loving Americans defeat the fascist gangsters currently running our government — and we will defeat them — Democrats will need to impose consequences on Trump and his cohort. This criminal group includes Musk. At the very least, Democrats should confiscate the outrageous fortune of the billionaire carmaker and use it for good.

As an animal activist, I’d like to see a portion of these funds go to public funding for cultivated-meat research. For those who don’t know, cultivated meat is grown livestock cells, without slaughter. There are few things, in my view, which have the potential to reduce more suffering and premature death than the development of this technology.

But Musk’s obscene wealth is so great, it could be put toward any number of worthy purposes. We could build new roads and bridges. We could expand care for the elderly and the disabled. We could send out generous stimulus checks and so much more. The only limitation on how we might use these funds is our society’s political imagination.

I never want to hear from Democratic elected officials again about what they can’t do. The second Trump administration, for all its terror, has shown just how much power a governing trifecta has to remake the country as it sees fit. For better or worse, what we had thought were guardrails haven proven to be nothing more than unenforceable norms.

So, for now, let’s picket Tesla dealerships. Let’s fight Musk and his goons at the Department of Government Efficiency. But when the Democrats win back the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, they must impose consequences on fascist criminals like Musk. At a minimum, they should confiscate his fortune.