The brand is forever damaged. Sell while you can.
I feel bad for Nikola Tesla having his name associated with all this nonsense. Not even death let him escape from rich assholes taking credit for the work of others.
if Nikola Tesla weren’t a eugenicist i’d agree with you
The year 2100 will see eugenics universally established. In past ages, the law governing the survival of the fittest roughly weeded out the less desirable strains. Then man’s new sense of pity began to interfere with the ruthless workings of nature. As a result, we continue to keep alive and to breed the unfit. The only method compatible with our notions of civilization and the race is to prevent the breeding of the unfit by sterilization and the deliberate guidance of the mating instinct. Several European countries and a number of states of the American Union sterilize the criminal and the insane. This is not sufficient. The trend of opinion among eugenists is that we must make marriage more difficult. Certainly no one who is not a desirable parent should be permitted to produce progeny. A century from now it will no more occur to a normal person to mate with a person eugenically unfit than to marry a habitual criminal.
Oof, that’s a tough read.
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Eh, I don’t buy this. There were always dissenters and weirdos and people knew differently. There were trans pioneers. There were vegans. There were abolitionists. Not everyone was like that.
Tesla wasn’t a biologist, let’s leave it at that. Humanity’s greatest biological strength is their adaptability, which requires variety. Eugenicism is inherently disadvantageous to humanity because it reduces their ability to adapt and respond to environmental threats. A counter to that would be E.O. Wilson, see Half Earth, a short read that emphasizes biodiversity.
Eugenics only makes sense to cowardly people who are afraid of being treated how they would treat others. It’s a bad idea to Cavendish Banana Hapsberg people (oh and btw eugenics is deeply tied to incest kinks, see Elon and Trump).
Again, this is thinking that is pretty intuitive if you aren’t bloodthirsty and pathetic
I have read a number of comments from people with illnesses or other issues that are genetic, saying they don’t want to pass their problems onto the next generation.
So, bizarrely enough, there is a certain amount of eugenics happening, it’s just purely voluntary.
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Fair enough.
Kind of me, I have a genetic heart defect I don’t intent to pass on. Though realistically, it was unlikely to happen in the first place.
Oof.
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Imagine disregarding the entire domain of Tesla’s work - changing the entire world as we know it with his research and innovations - and the comment they need to make for online points is some virtue-oriented pat-me-on-the-back-im-ethical blorp about random social norms of the time. lol but cry.
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He had really bad autism. He was in love with a pigeon. Brilliant he was, but mad as a hatter.
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I think he was just intuitively good at seeing what exactly is the portrayal of electricity and magnetism. A unique genius with a certain insight.
I sometimes feel that there were many businesses concerns that grew around his early research and they were so successful that his newer research must have been a threat to that.
Through all the mystery, half-truths, and frankly magical thinking people have with this man, it’s really hard to know what he was up to in his final days of work, before he became a homeless bag-man. I somehow feel, without making any kind of declarative statement, that he was working on transmission of energy with longitudinal (vs transverse) waves, and discovering methods of conveying and extracting electrical potential from and through Earth.
Inline Edit: To expand on the above paragraph: The Earth doesn’t really “absorb” electrons like a pillow absorbing a ping pong ball. The energy in the negative charges that the Earth grounds must move in waves, therefore they’re grounded but now the waves are bouncing around in the Earth; that energy still exists and may sum with other waves in an additive way. I believe, again without making a declarative statement, that Tesla recognized this and was pioneering research on how to transmit energy via, and gather momentum from those waves. There were successes transmitting energy and encoded information through Earth which can be repeated today with garbage dump salvage electronics. I believe he was discovering a few dangerous things as well: Harmonic discharges of electrical devices to ground could be captured (think telecommunications and military); and he was conducting novel elemental research on tapping Earth to harmonize and extract force(s) - what these things portended led to his complete scientific alienation.
The word “free energy” always obliterates any form of rational discourse. But there was something to it in a way, but to clarify, not in a literal way. Not in the sense of violating fundamental laws of conservation, rather seeing the “other side of the coin” that if the Earth is effectively infinite Ground then it’s also effectively an “infinite” source of power if harvested.
I’ve never really “researched” the man directly but what I do know comes from quite a bit of my casual STEM self-study over decades.
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People say that because they support it and they don’t think it’s a big deal. There were always anti-eugenicist movements (and always people opposed to fucking children, and having slaves, and even eating meat or going to war, and other morally shitty things justified with this excuse). That’s literally how the movements against these things came about - people throughout time have been against them. You just discount them because you align yourself with the other side, for some reason.
Tesla was not mentally well. But he had the power to make weapons, including a so called “Death Beam” https://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_mispapers.html
And look, Trump connection:
After a three-day investigation, Trump’s report concluded that there was nothing which would constitute a hazard in unfriendly hands, stating:
“His [Tesla’s] thoughts and efforts during at least the past 15 years were primarily of a speculative, philosophical, and somewhat promotional character often concerned with the production and wireless transmission of power; but did not include new, sound, workable principles or methods for realizing such results.[233]”
In a box purported to contain a part of Tesla’s “death ray”, Trump found a 45-year-old multidecade resistance box.
https://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_mispapers.html
An operation code-named “Project Nick” was heavily funded and placed under the command of Brigadier General L. C. Craigie to test the feasibility of Tesla’s concept. Details of the experiments were never published, and the project was apparently discontinued. But something peculiar happened. The copies of Tesla’s papers disappeared and nobody knows what happened to them.
The morning after the inventor’s death, his nephew Sava Kosanovic´ hurried to his uncle’s room at the Hotel New Yorker. He was an up-and-coming Yugoslav official with suspected connections to the communist party in his country. By the time he arrived, Tesla’s body had already been removed, and Kosanovic´ suspected that someone had already gone through his uncle’s effects. Technical papers were missing as well as a black notebook he knew Tesla kept—a notebook with several hundred pages, some of which were marked “Government.”
P. E. Foxworth, assistant director of the New York FBI office, was called in to investigate. According to Foxworth, the government was “vitally interested” in preserving Tesla’s papers. Two days after Tesla’s death, representatives of the Office of Alien Property went to his room at the New Yorker Hotel and seized all his possessions.
Dr. John G. Trump, an electrical engineer with the National Defense Research Committee of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, was called in to analyze the Tesla papers in OAP custody.
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It’s not about “judging,” it’s about not feeling sorry for Tesla’s name being attached to a shitty eugenicist since he himself was a eugenicist
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I’m actually a big fan of Edison Motors, who are working to make heavy trucks into hybrids. And they’re Canadian!
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Me too. I want to get another of the car I drove in high school and slap a hybrid kit in it
The car I had in high school is absurdly rare these days.
I had a 1989 Ford Probe.
Did the probe share parts etc with the eagle talon and the Mitsubishi eclipse or am i thinking of something else?
His legacy can live on with Dr Parkinstein. (Parker Edmondson)
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Who knew that being a publicly facing cunt makes people not want to buy your product. Shocking discovery.
These people literally live in reaffirming social bubbles they have created. On and offline both. They don’t see that they are overplaying their hand.
This article should bring you joy.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/elon-musk-human-meme-stock/682023/
a cultivated image of Musk as a Thomas Edison or Tony Stark type
LMAO! See Tony Stark blow Musk off like a loser in Iron Man II:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxe1HCR7uEk
I’d be humiliated were I him. His head’s so far up his ass he likely sees that cameo as a plus.
thats why hes been called phoney stark, for a while his profile has him wearing the ironman outfit.
Ublock works just fine on the Atlantic.
Sure, but not everyone is using Ublock? One could argue that they should be, but what’s wrong with offering an alternative?
I never said there was anything wrong. I was letting them know ublock works just fine on the Atlantic. Imagine that, the words I wrote were what I meant. You people are so fucking weird reading so much into the simplest sentence.
Coulda fooled me
Not me me on Firefox (Windows). Something I’m missing?
So, I’m using IronFox on Android with uBlock Origin on medium mode. Not an ad or other problem to be seen on that site. On Windows I use LibreWolf with the same uBlock setup.
These are aggressive setups that can break some sites, but after a while of tweaking it carefully you don’t notice it’s there anymore.
oh yea too many adblocking or cookie blocking can break the site. so i just restrict some adblockers .
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What was not nice about imparting information?
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No I’ll just block you instead. Seriously, what is wrong with people?
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Boo hoo, don’t care. Hope they all lose their asses.
especially the assholes that slap “I bought it before we knew Elon was an ass” style stickers on their cars.
Musk has always been a miserable piece of shit. You just turned a blind eye to it because you wanted to hero worship a emotionally stunted perpetually 13 year old troglodyte, until you couldnt anymore.
I also remember the hero worship in 2015-20ish, even when projects like Hyperloop and countless others were a well known scam. I worked in top tech and their product team worshipped him, they hated me after I tried expressing skepticism. These people probably think he’s nuts in 2025, but also say “that wasn’t a Nazi salute, stop overreacting”.
So you’ve never done business with a company who’s CEO is an asshole? Never bought gas, used Windows, googled something, gotten on Facebook?
I knew full well this guy was an asshole. So is pretty much every CEO in America. You can’t opt out, you can only choose which asshole you want to do business with. The holier-than-thou bullshit because Musk is the asshole of the day helps no one. If you buy oil at all, you’re funding an industry that has lobbied governments around the world to buy more oil for literal generations, all while knowing the harm it was causing and the people it was killing and would kill.
It’s cool that you’ve picked the Nazi you hate over the ones that had the good sense to stay home, but it’s childish at best to think that makes you a better person.
The irony of someone calling other people 13 year olds during the most 13 year old take I’ve ever heard lol.
True to your username to just assume everyone who bought one turned a blind eye to him so they could have a hero to worship. Thats just a weird thing to say
FAFO
For its part, Tesla has been trying to boost its image with the help of President Trump.
Yeah, that’s part of the problem, Elon.
Elon out here thinking Twitter bots are real people. Too much ketamine.
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I shamefully admit I almost pulled the trigger on a Tesla Model S Plaid back in 2021 or 2022. Flush with a shit ton of cash, but fortunately I was reading reports of production build quality issues, many recalls, and ultimately pulled back my deposit.
Looking back at it. The one decision I have no regrets on.
That’s the part I never understood. Even if you weren’t a Musk fan boy and before Musk showed his true colors, Telsa has always, ALWAYS been shit quality. I remember back in 2015, or so, there was a video of someone finally getting their Telsa and it had a massive crack running the length of the driver side A-pillar, yet they just ignored it.
I’ll have to be honest and admit back when I was in high school or so, I was enthusiastic about electric cars and his seemed like some of the best. He was also opening up the charging standards so that there could be a mixed playing field. Back then, I was likely ready to dismiss small critiques as the retaliation of the fossil fuel industry.
God I hate old me.
All your reasons were valid though. Teslas were the best electric cars for a long time, probably not so anymore. Tesla as a brand has done good things, like you say opening up their charging standard which is superior to all the other competitors.
Personally, I wouldn’t get a Tesla because they are sort of like the apple of car companies, e.g. anti-consumer and anti-repair. Plus, Musk owning it is another big negative.
Just like model ts were the best for a long time because they were the only ones.
tesla just had good marketing, while thier TESLAS have been lacking QC for quite a while.
You’re always supposed to hate or be embarrassed by the old you; that means you learned. It means growth. It’s a good thing.
Take it from an old man, at a certain point you will grow beyond having to feel “embarassed” by your former self, because your ego won’t be tied to it.
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Probably not that much different tbh.
I think you can understand something without embracing it or condoning it. I did a few bad things, it’s understandable that kids with that age and upbringing will, as long as you own what you did, put right what you can and atone for the rest, there’s no need to hate yourself.
Tesla was a long way ahead of the competition for a very long time, to the point where they were the only option for a vehicle that was genuinely a replacement for a combustion vehicle.
Without them, I very much doubt EV market share would be anywhere near what it is today.
I’m not sure how it even managed to get so big when the EV1 was so beloved but supposedly killed by the automotive industry.
The EV1 was too far ahead of its time. The tech wasn’t there and to even accomplish what they did cost far more than they could hope to sell it for. An estimate that each EV1 cost GM around $100k to make in the early 90’s (so around $200k in today’s dollars).
Battery tech has progressed massively since then and makes all of this possible now (even if it’s still expensive).
Don’t know about that. Leaf has been pretty important as well.
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Yes, because it was cheap.
Even now, the Leaf only goes 200 miles. Less than a 2018 Model 3. Not good enough.
I agree, Tesla was the viable option fora long time. The charging network is part of that even still.
The NACS connector is a big deal.
Range is important, but so is cost. Teslas are too expensive for Leaf owners.
My 7 seat EV only does at most 150 miles. But even now, two years later, there isn’t anything else that comfortably fits 7 adults. Let alone not over twice the price. So 200 miles seams ok to me.
I agree standard charger connectors are important. But CHAdeMO is standard, just not in Europe or North America. Can’t blame the Leaf for not knowing that would happen.
The Leaf is also one of the very few cars, least in the UK, which can be using bidirectionally. https://www.indra.co.uk/v2g/
I don’t own a Leaf, but I respect what they did. You see loads of them here.
It has been, but the leaf was very much a “second car” for a very long time. They had relatively short range, an air cooled battery, and as a result couldn’t be charged particularly fast. The battery would also overheat if you tried to charge it multiple times.
Tesla, on the water, had a water cooled battery pack, and could be fast charged multiple times per day, and much faster than other vehicles, meaning a road trip was actually possible.
The Leaf was cheap. It introduced many to EVs. They are super common third or fourth hand now. It was aimed at the other end of the market than the Tesla.
Tesla is basically a case study in top down engineering. Radical ideas promised by marketing, sometimes good and sometimes bad, executed in a massive fucking rush which results in tons of build quality and general delivering on promises issues.
Which only worked at first because they were a start up. At that point many people will accept the early adopter woes, but Tesla never quite matured out of it.
yep. They rested on their laurels, thinking their success of being first would always be success.
and now the big automakers have their own electric cars, that are properly built, and damn cheap compared to tesla prices.
and the first tesla musk had any design input on was the cybertruck, which is nothing more than the fever dream of an edgy emotionally stunted 13 year old, and built to about the same quality as you would expect from one
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If you were an EV early adopter, Tesla is the only brand that delivered the range.
So, they were the only game in town for a lot of buyers.
Not nearly as big a problem now. Tesla has real competition which is why sales are crashing.
Sure am glad I couldn’t afford one of those things back when I wanted one.
Right? Who knew that making a product that half of the population wants to buy and then making your brand based around the exact half of the population that lives in contempt of this product instead was a bad idea?
1/3. These cretins are a loud, fascist minority.
Saw a Tesla today that someone stuck an old Rover badge on, cracked me up
@juergen@feddit.org “Fuck Elon” is becoming the punch buggy of this generation.
Combine a toxic brand with a level of ridiculously poor Quality Control we haven’t seen from a US automaker since the Saturn brand, and you get a price point/distressd asset that PE will be looking at. They’ve already calculated the value of selling Tesla for parts and just waiting for the stock to hit a number to act. Elon is so over leveraged, there will be nothing he can do to stop it.
I hope they lose money because they bought a 1939 Volkswagan with an electric motor on it, and then claimed
Well how was I meant to know the man who lives on the internet 24/7 and can’t shut up about his opinions of women, non-whites, fascism, lgbt, and lies like he needs his pants to be warm for the winter, was somehow a bad guy? I bought a cool sticker, so I’m absolved of giving him any money :^)
These people bought them because they thought he was a real life Tony Stark, especially the early models and Cybertrucks. I consider everyone driving in one a useful idiot for Trump and Musk.
Who will service those when Tesla goes out of business? Where will you get parts? Yeah, it’s time to jump ship
You can still get aftermarket parts for Pontiac vehicles. Then again Pontiac didn’t go around suing everyone who even thought about making aftermarket parts for their vehicles.
Pontiac was a part of GM, who standardized most parts across all their brands decades ago.
There’s no parent company for Tesla.
There are already aftermarket batteries. The biggest problem would be autobody panels.
That said, while I hope Tesla stock continues to crash, not much chance of them going out of business.
It’s a pretty big chance, yeah, even with bailouts
I hope byd buys them for pennies on the dollar and they keep people employed
But most importantly I hope it’s for pennies on the thousands of dollars
