I’ll work that reasoning out a bit:

- Musk’s power depends entirely on wealth. Not genius; he’s a nincompoop. Wealth.

- A large portion of Musk’s wealth is tied up in Tesla stock. A •very• large portion.

- His wealth is further dependent on investors believing that he alone is uniquely capable of leading companies into being “unicorns,” i.e. companies with massive future growth potential. His cult of personality is why Tesla’s stock is so wildly overvalued.

- And yes, Tesla stock is overvalued wrt fundamentals, to an absurd degree. Even after losing ~40% of its value since its peak, it’s •still• overvalued. It has a lot of room to fall.

So, what do we do about that?

2/

The proximate primary goal of #TeslaTakedown is to reduce demand for Tesla’s product. Lower demand → lower price → lower margins → lower profit. Anything that increases their financial liabilities is a bonus (e.g. overload of used vehicles from broken leases that they can’t sell), but reducing demand is the name of the game.

If Tesla becomes an unprofitable company, and a company that simply cannot become profitable as long as it has the Musk millstone around its neck, then (1) the stock tanks and (2) having Musk in charge becomes a liability.

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How do we reduce demand?

- Make the Tesla brand SOCIALLY TOXIC: shameful, embarrassing, cringy, un-sexy, nauseating. Buying one should •feel bad•. Make people a little sick to their stomach when they come in for that test drive.

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- Make the Tesla brand a PRACTICAL LIABILITY: maybe you don’t feel bad about buying one, but…people vandalize them, and so many people are getting rid of them that the resale value is going to be crap for a long time. Owning one is a headache, and you’re going to lose a lot of money on it.

(I get a lot of replies to the effect of “How does it hurt Musk to get rid of a car you already bought??” Get your systems thinking hat on! A supply glut in the used market both creates downward price pressure on new cars •and• changes people’s financial expectations when buying a new one.)

4/

- Make the Tesla brand FRIGHTENING: They surveil you. They trap you inside. They burn people alive on a regular basis. They’re extremely vulnerable to hacking, even more than other modern cars with OTA software updates. One of these days, some hacker is going to make every Tesla in the country drive through its garage door…or worse. Driving a Tesla puts you in danger.

(This isn’t just logical; it’s visceral. Bombard people with images of Teslas vandalized, smashed, on fire. Make it a Pavlovian reaction: Tesla = danger, chaos, destruction.)

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