
Right-wing group launches campaign against Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX - doener
https://electrek.co/2016/11/22/elon-musk-right-wing-trump-propaganda-campaign-against-tesla-spacex/
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norikki
I love that pie chart. So crony-capitalism subsidies paid to Standard Oil in
the 1930's mean that its Elon Musk's turn to get federal loans and rebates.
"It's his turn" people!

The huge federal tax payer funded rebates on Tesla automobiles is absolutely a
subsidy for his company. To not count it towards the 4.9 Billion dollars in
Federal aid is absurd. There's no reason someone shelling out $100,000 for a
car should get a $20,000 rebate from the government. That's not 'helping the
environment' thats rich people stealing tax money from the poor and middle
class.

~~~
lj3
> There's no reason someone shelling out $100,000 for a car should get a
> $20,000 rebate from the government.

The fact he's single handedly building out a nation-wide electric car charging
infrastructure counts for nothing?

~~~
rahrahrah
Hold on. Who elected him entrepreneur-in-chief? If he manages to pull that
off, he will have a large stake on a successful company. Let him play by the
same rules as everyone else.

~~~
lj3
> Who elected him entrepreneur-in-chief?

Nobody.

> Let him play by the same rules as everyone else.

He is. The building of publicly accessible next-gen infrastructure should be
rewarded, especially when the government isn't willing to do it.

> If he manages to pull that off, he will have a large stake on a successful
> company.

That's the point. He's also taking the risk that he's sinking millions
(billions?) of dollars into an infrastructure that might go the way of the
betamax.

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ttctciyf
The transcript[1] from a secret recording[2] of seasoned propagandist Rick
"Dr. Evil" Berman, laying out his strategy for smearing environmentalists and
muddying debates on behalf of Big Oil at a Western Energy Alliance[3] summit
(in 2014) was an eye opener for me, in regard to this type of enterprise.

Among other gems:

> You want to get people to say, one of my north stars is to get people to
> say, "You know, I never thought of it that way before."

> Because, if you can get people to say that, here's what you get: instead of
> getting the 'he said, she said debate,' what you will get with the factual
> debate, often times, you're going to get into people get overwhelmed by the
> science and 'I don't know who to believe.' But, if you get enough on your
> side you get people into a position of paralysis about the issue.

> We're not experts and so you don't want them trying to be experts. But if
> you put enough information out there and say, "Well, it could go to $10.10
> but ou could also lose a lot of jobs, the Congressional Budget Office says
> you can lose a lot of jobs." And again, we got a lot of ads on this thing.

> You get in people's minds a tie. They don't know who is right. And you get
> all ties because the tie basically ensures the status quo.

> People are not prepared to get aggressive and in moving one way or another.
> I'll take a tie any day if I'm trying to preserve the status quo. "

But for a fuller insight into this type of PR mindset, the whole transcript
(pdf below) is worth reading.

1:
[https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1349...](https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1349204/berman-
at-western-energy-alliance-june-2014-doc.pdf)

2: [http://boingboing.net/2014/10/31/secret-recording-of-
corpora...](http://boingboing.net/2014/10/31/secret-recording-of-
corporate.html)

3:
[http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Western_Energy_Alliance](http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Western_Energy_Alliance)

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Cuuugi
I find it hard to respect an article that links to it's own previous work 4
times more than anything else.

In the spirit of fairness, i think people should understand this is just as
"propagandistic" as anything attacking Elon.

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mindcrash
For those interested the site they are talking about is located here:
[https://stopelonfromfailingagain.com](https://stopelonfromfailingagain.com)

The about page says the following about the intention of this particular
website:

"Stop Elon Musk from Failing Again is an initiative launched by the Sunlight
Project, under Citizens For The Republic, to root out corruption, fraud and
abuse of taxpayer of[sic] money in major corporations. Elon Musk has defrauded
the American Taxpayer out of over $4.9 Billion in the form of subsidies,
grants, and other favors. We are challenging not just Elon, but the entire
culture of corporations making billions of dollars off of the American people
for almost zero return to the consumer. CEO’s like Musk are taking advantage
of Americans, and it is our intention to end their free ride.

StopElonFromFailingAgain.com is a collection of sources and news meant to
inform and develop an understanding of Elon Musk, Tesla, SolarCity, and
SpaceX. Unless stated, articles are not our content but that of those around
the web. We do not take credit for any article unless stated."

~~~
jljljl
Is the name "Sunlight Project"[1] intended to confuse people with the
"Sunlight Foundation"[2]?

Funnily enough, when you click through the Sunlight Project website, they
claim to oppose government waste in several industries, but the only thing
they seem to write about is Elon Musk.

[1] [http://www.cftr.org/the-sunlight-project/](http://www.cftr.org/the-
sunlight-project/) [2]
[https://sunlightfoundation.com/](https://sunlightfoundation.com/)

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informatimago
Most of the industries are subsidized. Even Apple is basically reusing without
paying for it (taxes paid lightly in Ireland), research paid for by other
public or private entities.

Given that you're seemingly incapable to set up a purely libertarian economy,
would you be able instead to set up a simulator of such, to see if it is at
all possible?

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sharemywin
he's a private citizen not sure why he wouldn't sue them into next week.

~~~
MisterBastahrd
He's a public figure in the eyes of the law.

~~~
bb88
I think I detect more than a whiff of actual malice here.

