this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
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Their engineers and designers did the work. He was the money. At most he stirred up some attention.
Also, side note, why do these points always mention the engineers and designers doing the actual work, and almost never the assembly workers for example?
The challenge was to make people talk about it and to make them want one, and that required a vision more so than just solving the engineering challenges. Their choice to first make a sports car - the Roadster - didn’t come from the engineers.
Divide and conquer by the rich. Pit white collar workers against blue collar workers so they don't collectively rise up against the real exploiters. White collar workers are told right from the start of university that they're on a better path and are better people than those bottom tier laborer serfs and that general attitude gets normalized even if you don't actually believe you're better, and it comes out without even explicitly intending to, which is precisely the point.
The engineers and designers were not the people who changed the perception of electric cars - which was needed to got us to where we are now. Both the actual founders and Musk were instrumental in pushing this.
Which was definitely needed, and which he does deserve credit for. He’s still a piece of shit regardless, but that doesn’t mean we should overlook and/or dismiss the part he actually did play.
Like yeah, you’re right about engineers and designers doing the actual engineering and designing work, but it’s a generic (though correct) dunk on Musk that has little to do with the point I’m making.