Elon Musk, the billionaire who bought Twitter and turned it into X, has become notorious for his ridiculous posts. It’s a lot of right-wing nonsense that you might expect from a rich guy.
But he’s also the CEO of Tesla, the electric car company. That means he probably — if he wants to sell his wares — should cater to the people who tend to buy electric cars. That means Democrats.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Prius with a Trump sticker on it, but I did see a Tesla Model S with a sticker that said “We Bought It Before He Was Crazy.”
That’s what’s happening to Musk now.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the percentage of Democrats buying Teslas dropped by a staggering 60 percent last fall.
Maybe that’s because Elon has turned his social media platform, once a stage for comedians, an outlet for truth, and a messaging system for countries in turmoil, into a place where literal Nazis are welcome.
I understand the concept of the “marketplace of ideas,” but some of the garbage that people no longer get banned for since Twitter turned into X is disgusting. Even Elon himself has joined in the conversation far more than Jack Dorsey, the former CEO, who limited his participation to just the occasional post.
In 2022, Democrats made up a full 40 percent of Tesla buyers. That dropped by one percentage point over the next year. This year, it’s just 15 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage of Republicans buying them has increased drastically.
Now, I’m not saying that all Republicans are Nazis on X.
But the commentary that keeps running through my mind is that, for the Party that calls other people “snowflakes” and boycotts companies that are “woke” (nice to the marginalized), it sure was a steep increase in Tesla-buying after Musk bought the platform and made it more accessible to right-wingers.
In fact, it’s hard for me to just scroll my own feed on X without seeing countless posts from Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, or an innumerable swath of right-wing posts.
It used to be that the algorithm of Twitter would pick up what you clicked on the most and send more of that your way. Now, we are force-fed conservatism all day unless we get a notification from a specific person we follow who’s not a conservative.
In March, Musk actually posted on X saying “There is either a red wave this November or America is doomed.” I don’t think he could make his political leanings any more clear.