I feel so much anger seeing these on the road.

A bad design that costs too much, the only people who bought these were ideologues committed to the vision of a man responsible for millions of unnecessary deaths, the gutting of the American state, and some of the most destructive politics of hate in living memory.

I celebrate their passing.

  >the only people who bought these were ideologues

You have strong tribal feelings. Neat! However, short of telepathy, you don't know the internal motivations of thousands of different people.

Some of us just got one because it’s a fantastic self driving electric family car. I have a family and live somewhere nice, life’s too short to get so wound up about politics. And you’ll still be seeing them on the roads for many years to come :)

Life is certainly too short to support nazis

Anyone who says that he is a nazi is an idiot, frankly. You’re just dismissing someone with different ideas by calling them a name.

unfortunately even hackernews is no longer immune to odious political commentary these days

…have you seen his ideas? I think it’s fair to dismiss him based on his ideas on race

The guy literally tweets and retweets neo-nazis and white nationalist content on a regular basis. He celebrates an election win with a literal nazi salute. He openly supports fascist parties and politicians. Being aghast at someone calling him a nazi is ridiculous.

His brain is damaged from all the ketamine use

Do we let drunk drivers off the hook after killing a bunch of people due to their reckless behavior?

Yes, sometimes.

If someone’s “different ideas” involve literally praising hitler then it is logical to call them a nazi. The only way someone believe what you said is if they have not listened to a word Elon has uttered for the last 8 years.

He did a Nazi salute on national TV!? Three times!

The modern Democratic Party is more authoritarian than the Republicans. Neither are Nazis though and it's disheartening how far that term has been watered down. When the real Nazis show up, no one will listen.

I was one of the people who believed it was "just an awkward gesture". Egg on my face when a few days later he went and spoke at the far right German parties conference

You should have seen his Twitter feed. Just fuming, virulent white supremacy 24/7. (Of course, he wiped a lot of it after the election. Fucking coward.)

The AfD is not a Nazi party either. Jesus. People are completely unhinged.

Yes they are and even openly so.

Völkisch nationalist is an explicit ethno-nationalist ideology. What's the difference?

Bullshit. Like, you are just straight lying in both of your sentences.

We see what modern republican party does - literally last two years.

In what way is the Democratic party more authoritarian?

Republicans are the ones that insist on protecting police no matter how much they trample on people's rights.

- Deciding not to prosecute crimes they don't agree with / which are commonly committed by their base. Two ways to use the police against the people, you know.

- Speech controls (they wanted compelled speech, which is a line the Americans have so far managed not to cross - Biden managed to get it in to Title IX)

- Rabid, senseless, confusing opposition to gun rights, a civil right in the U.S. Gun ownership does not result in more or worse crime, it's very clear.

- Totally opposing widespread, bipartisan support for voter ID

Let me be clear, I'm no fan of either side.

> Deciding not to prosecute crimes they agree with / which are commonly committed by their base.

Like the Jan 6 pardons and Trump's immunity?

> Speech controls (they wanted compelled speech...)

https://democracyforward.org/news/press-releases/ooo-win-law...

"A federal court today ruled that the Trump-Vance administration unlawfully compelled civil servants at the U.S. Department of Education to transmit partisan political messaging from their government email accounts during the ongoing federal shutdown — violating core First Amendment protections."

> Rabid, senseless, confusing opposition to gun rights, a civil right in the U.S.

As is their First Amendment right. Do you oppose that civil right?

> Totally opposing widespread, bipartisan support for voter ID

Why not? When put to the people for a vote, it fails. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6178993-california-pro...

I can understand having strong feelings, but the question was about the Democrats so my answer was about the Democrats. The "what about"s aren't compelling.

> I can understand having strong feelings, but the question was about the Democrats so my answer was about the Democrats.

The question was actually, and I quote:

"In what way is the Democratic party more authoritarian?"

So I'm left wondering why these authoritarian acts don't count in a comparison between the two.

Fair

You can’t reason with OP because they don’t even know what “authoritarian” means. MAGA are a little sensitive this week.

Another propagandized fool who thinks they see the world for what it is and the rest of us don't. The real nazis did show up. They are wearing the same red hat you have in your closet.

You mean like creating an autonomous paramilitary force that operates masked agents across multiple state lines kidnapping people without due process or any regard to the constitution?

ICE, CBP, DHS, and their predecessor agencies, have been forcibly removing illegal immigrants for decades.

And in this iteration, they murdered, intentionally and proudly abused, treated whole cities as occupied territories, lied to courts, beated citizens (and murdered them) ....

... while republican party and administration openly supported it.

As Trump would say "this is the opinion of a very low IQ person"

Awww did your widdle downvote tantrum make you feel better?

Not really relevant to this conversation.

completely relevant.

Life's a lot easier when you just close your eyes and pretend the problem disappears, huh?

Have fun driving a Scarlet Letter, bro.

You...you do know who the "bad guys" were in the Scarlet Letter, right?

Probably a better question for Elon's harem of birth-mothers

Again, I'm begging you to go look up a plot summary. Hester is the hero protagonist!

Congratulations, you've rewired the metaphor.

Hahaha. This is too good. These hateful people are so caught up in their outrage that they don’t realize they’ve become the bad guys.

It is worse. They think their hatred is somehow justified.

The scarlet letter didn't have "Good guys" and "Bad guys". That was sort of an important theme of the book since the priest himself was the baby daddy.

The main message of the book is "Wearing your choices on your sleeve can be painful in a judgmental world, but is ultimately healing; attempting instead to appear spotlessly moral will tear you apart from inside out"

Now apply to this thread.

I mostly agree it's not as simple as good guys and bad guys, but if anyone's a bad guy it's the most judgmental townspeople and the priest who lets Hester take the full brunt of judgment while he pretends he's squeaky clean.

Yeah, why worry about the politics you’re supporting with your money? Presumably you believe you aren’t a likely target for the hate and violence Musk spends that money you gave him advocating for. Must be nice not to have to worry about your or your family’s personal safety or emotional well-being. Thanks for the advice about “getting wound up” over politics.

<< Presumably you believe you aren’t a likely target for the hate and violence Musk spends that money you gave him advocating for.

I am confused. Are you suggesting that parent is a likely target based on their car purchasing habits? If so, US has some fun times ahead.

It's surprising how out of the loop people are if you don't think a new Tesla is a political signal. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt but there is a lot of doubt immediately if I see they have a cybertruck. And if you think that's the rough in the US I assure you in Europe they are likely to think even less of an owner.

Eh, if everything is a political signal then nothing really is. If anything, I find it more problematic that there are people who explicitly think that way. Frankly, that way madness lies. I don't even even drive a Tesla, but that is based purely on its anti-customer-features, reliability and so on.

As for Europe, it is possible. I have not visited in a while so I will take your word for it.

I pity the family of someone who cannot get “wound up” about a man who gleefully dismantled USAID at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives,[^1] ploughed hundreds of millions of dollars into far right politics, and did a fucking nazi salute.

Outside of Mad Max it’s hard to conceive of a more dangerous car to be involved in a pedestrian collision. The cybertruck is a symbol of staggering ignorance and selfishness.

We’ll probably still see them on the roads for many years to come—and laugh at the lickspittle Elon toadies who gleefully bought them, knowing full well what they symbolize.

[^1] https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-shutdown-has-led-to-hund...

Hear, hear. As much rage as there is that gets directed at this man, it’s only a tiny fraction of what he deserves for the atrocities he’s committed. I hope he rots in prison.

It's easy to "not care about politics" when they aren't voting to take away your rights.

The rest of us assume you’re a supporter and collaborator because you’ve adopted the symbols of hatred. But hey life is too short amirite??

so privileged. politics is life.

I own one. I hate Elon and everything that he has become. I wanted an EV truck that can drive itself on my road trips.

What you do matters more than what you say.

Agreed, so please spare us the virtue signaling and go start an EV company that makes better cars than Tesla

Do you boycott every company with a CEO that you don't agree with politically? Musk is much more open about it than others but you'll find that most of them are fine with screwing over everyone for their own (personal+company) benefit. For example, pretty much every major ICE automaker lobbies against EVs, including ones that sell EVs. Most people would be better off with an EV. They don't need to be expensive (see BYD) and the charging situation would improve with higher adoption rates.

You sound very ideologue yourself.

Someone with a trillion dollars being an ideologue is different than a middle class person being one. Wealth is power and power brings with it ethical responsibilities. Always.

It's absolutely valid to expect more from politicians and people who hold power over our lives than we do from regular people.

Probably every third car in my area is a Tesla.

The drivers are like 98% East Asian or Indian. Like half the cars have a "new driver" or "baby on board" sticker.

Teslas are unpopular in rural areas.

So ironically I think the ideologues (on either side) are the only people NOT buying Teslas.

They're not driving cybertrucks, is the point.

> ideologues committed to the vision of a man responsible for millions of unnecessary deaths

Utterly insane take. Your media sources have filled your mind with poison.

That is literally what happened, even if you refuse to believe it. (Swap “millions” with “hundreds of thousands for now” if it makes you feel better.) Maybe spend some time off Twitter.

Either missing /s or you’re one of those “terminally online” people that the interwebs keeps telling me about.

This is nothing but comic villain energy. Sorry for whatever happened to you.

I hope you find peace and a better use of your time

As a pedestrian I certainly don’t enjoy being around them, or any of the absurdly oversized American trucks.

Why you discriminate on differently mobile, fam?

As an owner and daily driver of one of these absurd oversized tonkas, I have to say that it's almost like they're precision engineered to murder children.

I'd trade this princess in for a hi-lux or a road-worthy late 90s ranger any day of the week, but try finding that on the market.

I hear ya. There is a reason when you watch Houthi's videos you don't really see much outside Toyota and Nissan trucks.

I agree.

I own a large truck for logistical reasons (mostly hauling water and equipment and egressing a snowy area). I had a 2wd 4-banger tacoma prerunner and was going to sell it, but it's a lot better for actually driving the oil field roads where I live and much easier to park than the long bed.

I don't see why anyone would drive some giant truck when they don't have to- it's not a fun vehicle to drive, certainly not safe for other folks, and I avoid driving it in places where there are humans.

Having lived in the truck bed for a while it's nice to have some space.

I'm on off-grid solar and am looking forward to paying $90K ($14k in 2026 dollars) for a chinese fully electric when they become sale-able in the US.

Yeah they're fine/reasonable rural vehicles - functionally ok and the critical features work well. But the size is just.. comical, and an absolute hazard in urban environments. I have similar needs to you - I semi regularly use private wooded unmaintained roads where there's some chance of needing to saw a fallen tree out to keep moving.

I don't really want a second vehicle as it would get rare use. Urban driving with it is just an unpleasant experience. I am forced to be hyper-aware of any and every corner a tyke COULD have walked out of and entered into my driving range without me seeing, especially when running errands for the kid to places where other kids are around. Cannot relax for a moment.

Around me it’s a bunch of Mercedes g-wagons posturing on their way to the nail salon.

As a pedestrian a tesla is the least likely vehicle to actually hit you.

The best collision is no collision.

Ah yes, the Tesla driver, noted for their excellent driving. Let's take a look at the worst drivers by make..

> Tesla: Rank #3 with 42.8 incidents per 1,000 drivers

Ah.

Source? Please don't say LendingTree.

I agree. I was personally getting really sad on how all design appeared to be converging on one 'allowed' shape without considering any other possible -- ah ha - angles. I posted on this before, but I will repeat it here, because it is relevant.

Those cars did have uses, but those uses revolved around drawing attention ( think advertising ). Whenever I saw one in my neck of the woods, they were selling something.

> Lastly, having the cyber truck drag race a Porsche 911, while towing a Porsche 911 (and win) has to be one of the best marketing stunts of all time.

I suppose, if you don't really like cars much, this was interesting. No one debates the ability for EVs to have absurd 0-60, 0-100 times, but there's almost no overlap between why you'd buy a Cybertruck versus a 911 besides status symbol, which gets back to... maybe it's neat, if you don't really care about cars much.

Agreed. Even if the design is polarizing, has quality issues, whatever about elon and politics, it is refreshing to see something different and distinctive on the road in a sea of blobby SUVs and extended cab trucks.

[delayed]

I get that.

I'm not an Elon fan in the least, but it does feel like most cars are designed by committee and converge on a few well-defined shapes and segments. And they sell a ton of them, so sure, of course.

But there's certainly some charm when you see a weirdmobile that doesn't conform and somehow got by the bean counters and into existence. The MINI Clubvan, for people who needed something compact and cargo-focused. The Cadillac CTS-V wagon, for people who wanted to haul ass ... and the family. The Toyota MR2, which felt like Toyota engineers decided "let's take these Corolla parts and build them in the shape of a Ferrari".

With the high costs of certifying a new car for sale it seems like we see fewer and fewer of these oddballs, and that feels like a shame.

So even though I'd never personally consider driving a poorly rendered dumpster from a 1980s video game, perhaps the world is a bit more interesting due to its existence.

I saw someone sleeping on one on a highway. They should be regulated out of existence.

Joy. Heh. What they remind me of is the atrocities that Musk committed, and also that the driver probably doesn’t give one iota of a fuck about them.