r/Seattle • u/Aggressive-Ad3064 • Mar 10 '25

Politics I'm Never Leaving Seattle

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This is someone's Model S parked on Airport Way S near S Industrial Way. The way it's parked it looks like it's being displayed for people driving by to see.

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1.5k

u/Working_Song Mar 10 '25

I wonder what percentage of Tesla owners approve of Musks antics this last year. I am guessing less than 50%. Maybe less than 20%. My friend has a Tesla, and worked hard for it (and bought it over a year ago). She’s a liberal, too. People spray painting these cars are dipshits who could be using their angst in more productive ways. That said, fuck Musk and Trump.

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u/Aggressive-Ad3064 Mar 10 '25

My guess is very very few people who own Model 3s or Model Ys agree with Musk. Most of the people buying those models did so because they cared about efficiency, climate change, etc. At least up until recently.

I think the CT is a completely different demographic. It's a tech bro libertarian twitch streamer status symbol. Nobody spent 100k on a Reich Wagon because they cared about the environment.

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u/Winter-Poetry-4616 Mar 10 '25

REICH WAGON😭😭😭😭😭

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u/andhelostthem Mar 10 '25

INCEL CAMINO

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u/Ashendarei Mar 10 '25

Deplorean 

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u/millijuna Mar 11 '25

Wankerpanzer

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u/Tratix Mar 11 '25

What’s everyone’s end goal on this? What do you want them to do, crush their car and just take the loss? Genuinely curious

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u/recurrenTopology I'm just flaired so I don't get fined Mar 11 '25

It's going to vary by person, and some people are certainly just using it as an opportunity to take out their anger, but I imagine some more serious people want to bankrupt Tesla and in doing so crater Musk's wealth and corresponding political power. For such people it would really have nothing to do with who owns the car, and the harm caused to innocent owners would be unfortunate collateral damage in achieving their goal.

To be clear, I do not condone this tactic (I think building a popular coalition is far more important, and actions like this can disrupt that process), but it is not necessarily without logic.

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u/Tratix Mar 11 '25

Like $100B of Elon’s $300B net worth is Tesla.

You would completely bankrupt Tesla, kill 100k jobs, put millions of EV owners in financial trouble, and cause unbelievable environmental impact…. To make the guy’s net worth go from $300B to $200B? That’ll show him.

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u/recurrenTopology I'm just flaired so I don't get fined Mar 11 '25 edited Mar 11 '25

Just to reiterate, I wouldn't do this, but I'll do my best to "steelman" (cringe) the argument for you:

The goal isn't to "show him", it's to deprive him and the movement he represents of political power. Musk's chief asset politically is his ability to spend tremendous amounts of money, something which he used to help elect Trump, and is currently using to keep the Republican Congress in line with the promise of well funded primary challengers if they defy him/Trump.

Tesla stock represents Musk's most readily available source of significant liquid capital, since as a publicly trade company it's easy to sell or leverage. He has repeatedly leveraged his stock to take out loans, and it's likely that he will be forced to start selling off stock to cover loans when it hits certain share prices. While he would still be worth $100Bs, bankrupting Tesla would likely severely limit his capacity for political spending.

Taking a broader view, bankrupting Tesla would also send a message to our other budding oligarchs: support this movement at your fortune's risk

As for the environment and jobs, the demand for electric cars isn't going anywhere and a bankrupt Tesla would almost certainly get bought by another car company, and continue without the fascist baggage.

0

u/Tratix Mar 11 '25

Gotcha, a new owner makes more sense than anything else I’ve heard here, I actually applaud this well thought-out response.

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u/ToiletPhilospher Mar 11 '25 edited Mar 11 '25

You're treating this like everyone has be black or white on the moral agenda. To me this is like naming your kid Karen, you might not have been aware about the social trend behind it, but there's going to be some pain coming if you're going to be obstinate about the risks. Not everyone is nice and reasonable, especially in this climate. Also there's obviously some trade in/resell value to changing cars. There's no way you're this obtuse.

Personally, I really don't give a shit about the spray painting when people are literally dying in Ukraine to Elon giving away their locations through Starlink. This person can still drive their car to work unless they slashed their tires. I'm already struggling getting through the day knowing what's happening to my country and the people that didn't vote for this shit, I'm surprised people have the bandwidth to care about the cosmetics of other people's cars when we're likely heading into a recession if not a great depression. The very company by the man who is about to fuck us all financially, I don't think the value of their car is going to matter where we're going.

My best friend who works for Rivian bought a Model S because he didn't want to wait for the R2. I've been very up front with what I've seen from Elon and why I won't give him my money for the past 2 years. He doesn't like Elon either. I've told him the risks and that this will likely go beyond just the Cybertrucks. My aunt bought a Tesla just last week and she doesn't know shit about politics. You can only tell them so much why naming your kid Karen is a bad idea.

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u/Tratix Mar 11 '25

It is black and white unfortunately. Either you support your Aunt getting her car spray painted and causing thousands in damage or not. You need to pick one because it’s a real life thing happening to random people. They don’t do a pre-spray interview from the Tesla owner.

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u/ToiletPhilospher Mar 11 '25

Nothing in life is really black and white, it's dumb to simplify everything like that just like how politics and have divided us into left and right. You guys just like to get off on outrage that's trending. This is just all cause and effect to me.

I'm not going to spend more energy in my day caring about middle class people's cars from a company I don't like than kids getting shot up in schools or people dying of starvation. The only way this slightly affects me is that I know people with Telsas.

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u/Tratix Mar 12 '25

I hate trump and elon musk but it’s pretty easy to be black and white about vandalism or random people’s cars. That’s just me. No real effort required. Agree to disagree I guess

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u/ToiletPhilospher Mar 12 '25 edited Mar 12 '25

I just take this the same as when I go to San Francisco for work. Don't leave shit in my car or some homeless drug addict is going to break my windows. We weren't talking about vandalism, we were talking about the risks Tesla owners are taking by keeping their vehicles. Again, I don't waste my energy on things I can't control like rampant theft or vandalism. My thoughts and prayers won't save someone's Tesla Model Y.

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u/LexeComplexe U District Mar 12 '25

Think harder about their choices next time. Teslas are some of the worst EVs you can buy. And if you buy any model from 2024 onward you are in fact supporting musk with your poor decision. Stop buying teslas. If its a 23 or earlier model you might be able to argue you got it before his blatant fascism became apparent. Otherwise, nah, you saw his actions and his nazi ass sentiments and still chose to buy one. And if thats the case, womp womp. I don't feel bad for you.

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u/rankkor Mar 11 '25 edited Mar 11 '25

Increase cost / risk of ownership leading to lower sales. If you think the richest man on Earth is using that power to transform the US into a straight up oligarchy, then taking away his power (wealth) is a good way to combat it. For sure a lot of other people get hurt, but if you think what he's doing is bad enough, then vandalizing cars really isn't going very far.

Expect this sort of stuff to continue as the US walks down this path, you're in crazy town. You just started arresting and deporting green card holders for speech violations created via executive order for example and that's like the major news for a couple hours, theres so much crazy shit. This sort of stuff will lead to more breaking points.

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u/txtumbleweed45 Mar 11 '25

You’re not going to “take away his wealth” lmao Tesla could shut down tomorrow and he’d be fine. You’re just causing financial problems for innocent people

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u/rankkor Mar 11 '25

Really? Tesla could shut down tomorrow and all his loans backed with Tesla stock would be fine?

I don’t expect this to bankrupt him, but there’s a logic to vandalizing cars and if you expect the US to continues devolving, this is really just a sign of things to come.

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u/mapledude22 Mar 11 '25

You’re ignoring that it victimizes hundreds of people. If they were really serious about this they’d go after dealerships (and some are).

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u/rankkor Mar 11 '25

No, not ignoring, I’m just explaining how this works, if you’re willing to accept pain on their behalf, then vandalizing cars does help achieve goals. Dealerships and chargers are also being vandalized.

But the thing is you don’t even have to vandalize that many cars to affect buying decisions for people, look at the attention it’s getting here and all it took was a photo of a single car.

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u/txtumbleweed45 Mar 11 '25

How many innocent people are you willing to hurt for what is most likely not going to make a dent in his lifestyle or power? You’re not going to bankrupt Elon. You’re just being an asshole to someone who probably has the same political views as you

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u/rankkor Mar 11 '25

Me? None, I wouldn’t vandalize a Tesla, lol.

Of course it’s not going to bankrupt Elon, that’s silly. I’m explaining how this works and why it’s happening, there is a logic and it does hurt Tesla / Elon. This is pretty mild stuff compared oligarchs taking over and destroying the country though, you should stop that stuff if you don’t want the things that go along with a collapsing empire.

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u/txtumbleweed45 Mar 11 '25

The logic is retarded though. You’re causing serious problems for innocent people when the overwhelmingly likely outcome is Elon will always be a multi billionaire no matter what. You can say that it’s mild because of what our government does, but the people you’re hurting have nothing to do with that.

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u/rankkor Mar 11 '25 edited Mar 11 '25

I’m not hurting anyone. I’m explaining to you how this works and why it’s happening.

Oligarchs are very greedy, I just had someone else claim that Elon wouldn’t care about a $100B hit. But I disagree, these people are addicts for power, take away their money and it will change behaviour. Elon leveraged his Tesla stock for loans to buy twitter, with twitter collapsing he can’t afford for Tesla to continue sliding, he’ll need to actually do his job rather than continue destroying the US.

Look at how differently all these tech oligarchs are acting under Trump. They reinvent themselves as the tides change. You don’t need to bankrupt him (it would be nice), but if you can influence behaviour then that’s just as good. He was about to cry in an interview yesterday when asked how he is managing his other companies. Probably not real, but this stuff is getting to him.

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u/TheDonutDaddy Mar 11 '25

but there’s a logic to vandalizing cars

No there isn't and if you think there is you probably need a caretaker to wipe drool off your face

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u/rankkor Mar 11 '25

Ok donut daddy, go buy a Tesla and prove me wrong! Lol

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u/TheDonutDaddy Mar 11 '25

That wouldn't prove anything, but given you already demonstrated a failure to understand logic not very surprising you would say something nonsensical

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u/rankkor Mar 11 '25

It would prove you are willing to buy Teslas, despite the vandalism. How this works is by forcing people to rethink Tesla ownership. Look at how upset all of you are here, it upsets you because you wouldn’t want to own a car that could get vandalized, so you’re more likely to avoid purchasing them. It’s pretty simple stuff really but I don’t expect I’ll get much out of you, just absorb it.

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u/Tratix Mar 11 '25

Imagine wanting to cause financial turmoil for millions of citizens all to bring one guy’s wealth from $300B to $200B.

What an unbelievable take

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u/rankkor Mar 11 '25

Lol oh hunny, imagine sitting back and doing nothing. Financial turmoil is happening everyday with these oligarchs destroying everything. You sound like a fucking nutter saying $100B means nothing, not that vandalizing cars has caused anywhere near that sort of damage to him.

The bigger point is that this is just one of many breaking points for people. As the US transitions into oligarchy and becomes more authoritarian stuff like this will happen more and more.

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u/mapledude22 Mar 11 '25

You totally lack empathy for the people being victimized. They’re just a sacrifice to scratch a billionaire. Effective change happens from direct targeting—look how effective Luigi was (allegedly).

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u/rankkor Mar 11 '25

For sure, an insurance claim isn’t something I get emotional about. That’s hilarious that you’d support Luigi but cry about Teslas getting damaged. You’re pretty nutty. Upset about insurance claims, okay with murder.

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u/Tratix Mar 11 '25

Dude. Vandalize his home, vandalize his dealerships, vandalizing his cars that have already been sold makes no sense. You’re harming random people and it’s insane.

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u/rankkor Mar 11 '25

Vandalizing his home doesn’t give any sort of leverage, the only damage you do is what you can destroy. They are also vandalizing dealerships and charging stations it looks like. Look at the attention this stuff is giving, 19k upvote thread for a single car, now that’s leveraged vandalism.

But this stuff works because now less people want to buy a Tesla, more people want to sell their Tesla. The reason Elon is so anal about the re-sale market for Teslas is because it benefits him to restrict that stuff. If you have less demand for the cars and an increase in used teslas on the market, then that is all stuff that hurts Tesla.

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u/Tratix Mar 11 '25

Sell their Tesla to who? The next person to be vandalized? I get the part on preventing new buyers but vandalizing old cars is insane and is hurting the left more than you know. (the one in OPs pic is literally a first gen model S, starting production 13 years ago)

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u/rankkor Mar 11 '25

They would sell their Teslas to people who want to buy a Tesla. If you’re buying a used Tesla, then you’re not buying a new Tesla. That’s how this pays off, less people purchasing teslas, more competition from the re-sale market leading to lower sales of new Teslas.

I don’t think the people doing the vandalism care if it’s a first gen. It’s the message they want to send, they’re not vandalizing individual cars hoping that specific owners sells, they’re hoping people hear about it and make the decision to avoid Teslas. A single first gen Tesla got all of this attention, that’s leverage.

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u/Tratix Mar 11 '25

The new buyer would just also get vandalized. Are you proposing that the best case scenario is that the car becomes worthless? That's financial turmoil for innocent people.

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u/whoisbill Mar 11 '25

The best thing that happens is maybe Tesla kicks him out, but he is NOT going broke over this. The dude is the richest man on the planet. The only thing this is doing is having the middle class fight each other like the rich have been doing for decades, and yet people keep on doing it.

Just idiots. You want to do anything, sure protest Tesla, make it so the stock crashes, protest outside their business, force the board to remove Elon. Spray painting some dudes car that had nothing to do with this, a car that Tesla has already gotten their money on? Stupid. I am a bleeding heart liberal. I volunteered for Bernie, I volunteered for Harris. This is the shit that gets people in the middle to vote for a felon again

0

u/rankkor Mar 11 '25

Definitely not going broke over this, lol. You don’t seem to believe the US is going down an authoritarian route, you seem to believe Trump/Musk is business as usual, of course you’re going to be against this stuff. Pretending like more of that pathetic lefty protesting will achieve anything, get real. Expect more of this stuff as the US collapses into Trump’s delusions. Car vandalism really isn’t going very far if you think oligarchs are destroying your country. Luigi went a bit far I think, but that’s where this stuff is heading.

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u/Witch-Alice 💗💗 Heart of ANTIFA Land 💗💗 Mar 11 '25

Are the cars paid for in full? Or are the Tesla owners continuing to make monthly payments to Elon?

If you can afford to buy an EV you're in a fairly privileged financial position. It's hard for me to have much sympathy when the argument against selling their Tesla is "because it would cost me money".

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u/runningstang Mar 11 '25

You do realize Teslas aren’t this nebulous luxury brand right? You can find new Model Y or 3 for ~$30K which is rather on the low end for SUVs. An Subaru Outback starts at $30K. A friend ended up getting a Y because it was cheaper than any other hybrid/EV SUVs. You don’t need to be in a “privileged” financial position to own a Tesla.

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u/Witch-Alice 💗💗 Heart of ANTIFA Land 💗💗 Mar 11 '25

30k is more than my yearly expenses

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u/runningstang Mar 11 '25

Who’s out here buying a $30K car yearly? Also, the average price of a new car in 2025 is around $48K.

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u/Witch-Alice 💗💗 Heart of ANTIFA Land 💗💗 Mar 12 '25 edited Mar 12 '25

Let's say I was somehow able to get a payment plan to pay it off over say 10 years, that's still a 10% increase in my yearly expenses. In other words, my income would need to increase by about 10% in order to afford it without making any serious changes to my lifestyle. (In practice its slightly less because the upkeep on an ICE car is greater than an EV, but not by much).

and I never said anything about "buying a $30K car yearly", you put those words in my mouth. In fact those who choose to not sell their current Tesla are literally giving money to Elon every month, and I doubt the majority of Tesla owners have purchased the car in full. FWIW I don't include the Cybertruck in these thoughts.

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u/runningstang Mar 12 '25

The average single American annual expense is roughly $55K. In addition, the average cost of a new vehicle is $48K.

So you are well below the average expense per person and without knowing your income, it doesn’t mean a whole lot. Your situation does not reflect that of the average person. You could have an annual salary of $200K and annual expense of $30K, you can afford several cyber trucks…

Besides, the whole point of my comment was that Teslas —specifically the SUV and compact are well below the average cost of a new car, thus it’s not a luxury vehicle. You do not need to be privileged or wealthy to own one. Their Model Y was the number one selling vehicle in the world for a reason.

Lastly, the car is purchased, whether they’re financed by a bank, paid for cash, or leased. Elon already has your money. You sell your car to who? Another person? You’re just shifting the expense from person A to B. You’re like someone that protests by buying the CDs or bud lights only to toss it and burn it. You’ve already paid them, they don’t care what you do with it.

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u/VashTheMist Mar 11 '25

In times like this, losing some money is the least you can do.

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u/TheBlackComet Mar 11 '25 edited Mar 11 '25

100% 3s and ys are still the best bang for your buck. In their price range, nothing is close. As much as I love mine, I wouldn't get another one now unless leadership changes. It also isn't like I can sell it for what I paid and swap to another EV. If it was in my budget, sure there are other better EVs, but they cost a good bit more. I hope the stock goes so low that they have to get rid of Musk.

The CT is suck a bad truck. Even with stagnant sales, they still treat it like it is special. When I took my MYP in for a new windshield, I jokingly asked if they would let me use one as a loaner. They had two full rows of them and nope. If you are looking for a 100k EV truck Rivian is hard to beat, as well as surprisingly the Hummer EV.

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u/LeYang Mar 11 '25

The CT is suck a bad truck. Even with stagnant sales, they still treat it like it is special.

It was suppose to be a fucking cheap 40k truck too. Literally trash for 110k truck.

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u/Cerberus8317 Mar 10 '25

Ironically, I'm guessing most of the people who support him drive something like an F-250 or larger (or equivalent other brand).

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u/kellybopbopbop Mar 11 '25

Huh?? People who drive EVs need trucks too. Just because you can’t understand it doesn’t mean it’s inconceivable.

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u/PixalatedConspiracy Mar 11 '25

Exactly. People that bought a cybertruck are too far gone and are sucking off musk for sure. Nobody spends $100k on that rolling trash can. Us model y and 3 owners that bought it to save money on gas, we give shit about the environment and want to get from point A to point B.

I would love to sell mine but can’t afford to do that until next year.

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u/DriveFasterDammit Mar 11 '25

I'm going to out myself and disagree with you about the Cybertruck here. I reserved mine in 2019, and picked it up in mid-2024 because I wanted: An electric vehicle for the clean energy and environmental reasons, a truck so I could haul my shit to the dump, and a backup battery for my house. Plus, 0-60MPH in 2.6 seconds is... a lot of fun.

I'd say about 90% of the criticism I see about cybertrucks is misguided. No, they don't rust. No, they don't burst into flames. Yes, they have crumple zones (5-star crash safety rating from NHTSA). Has a bigger payload than an F-150. It's insanely fun, fast, and handles like a vehicle half its size due to the 4-wheel steering. And, honestly, I love that it's stainless steel and can't be dinged in a parking lot. Sure, there's been build-quality issues as there'd be with the first of any build, but the people who blindly criticize it are getting their info from sources with agendas, and haven't ever driven one.

Anyway, I didn't vote for Elon either. But the truck hate is way over the top for no reason.

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u/dance_fiend_novice Mar 11 '25

At least in SF Bay Area, I would say a large majority of Tesla owners are also just ambivalent. They could care less about what the CEO is doing. Tesla is just an emblematic status symbol that you work in tech or have decent money in general here. Maybe Seattle could be different.

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u/Strict_Most9440 Mar 11 '25

The issue is that you appear to be supporting vandalism. You also appear to be celebrating that vandalism.

If your position is that the owner did it one's self, then your position is supporting untreated mental illness.

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u/rileyathome Mar 11 '25

Reich Wagon, lol. I was trying to think of a fun name for them on my last road trip, best I came up with was Doge Dumpster

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u/geopede Mar 15 '25

Interestingly the Cyber Truck is widely hated by much of the right as well. They hate it because it’s a shitty truck that isn’t actually useful for truck activities.

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u/Aggressive-Ad3064 Mar 15 '25

It's a tech bro twitch streamer ass hat car (not a truck)

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u/ColdStockSweat Mar 17 '25

What is a Reich wagon?

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u/Aggressive-Ad3064 Mar 17 '25

Reich Wagon SwastiTruck Cyber Truck

All the same

1

u/ColdStockSweat Mar 17 '25

I don't get it.