"Mostly Peaceful Protests"
A former hero of the EcoLeft gets targeted by his former allies in not-so-peaceful ways. What are they really saying?
'The lady doth protest too much, methinks. – Queen Gertrude in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
In the early morning of August 25, 2020, CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez was on the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin reporting on the second night of unrest following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. As Jimenez stood in front of yet another scene of arson, burning buildings, protesters hurling objects at police and general mayhem during the tumultuous summer of 2020, CNN’s scrolling chyron read “Fiery but mostly peaceful protests.”
“Mostly peaceful protests” became an instant meme. Nearly five years later, a Google search of the term returns ~100,000 results, few particularly favorable to CNN’s depiction.
By the time CNN chose the absurd framing, American’s trust in legacy media had been plummeting steadily for twenty years. The infamous 2020 Summer of Love might have been the final straw that broke the camel’s back. Gallup polling indicates that late 2020 and early 2021 was the death cross when, for the first time in the history of its tracking, a higher percentage of Americans reported trusting legacy media “none at all” than the percent who responded “a great deal/fair amount.”
We admire Elon Musk’s entrepreneurialism and irreverence toward Statism. On the other, we find his reliance on that very political system to build Tesla while using social media posts and “non-GAAP” accounting tricks to pump the company’s stock price when it tanked or maintain it beyond any reasonable valuation detestable. Then again, we cheered the global liberation of free speech he unleashed when he acquired Twitter in 2022, an event future historians may record as a pivotal political moment in western politics.
Musk has become the target of death threats, and Tesla dealerships, charging stations and vehicles owned by private citizens (note: about 38% of Tesla vehicles are owned by Democrats) are being violently attacked by the usual malevolent Leftist forces. Why? Because they do not like his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) forensic deep dive into U.S. government finances.
Vacuous shouts of threats to “our democracy” (code for “our Statism”), fears of privacy violations, and absurd allegations of stealing taxpayer funds are given as justifications for the mayhem. But the violence and vitriol merely crystallize before the eyes of the world what they are trying to protect.
A product, widely lauded for years as a key solution to the “existential crisis of climate change,” became an overnight magnet for Molotov cocktails without changing at all. What does the Left’s treatment of Tesla and Musk tell us about the supposed “liberal” protectors of the environment and free speech? And, after you cut through their signs and rhetoric, what are they really attempting to defend?
Get out your decoder glasses and message de-encryption software. Without them, you might not see the real message through the pablum on the signs or decipher the real meaning of the spittle-frothed chants of the protesters.
Our story begins with the most amazing of ironies. For more than a decade, Elon Musk was a darling of EcoStatists™ across the western world.
From the U.S. to Canada to Europe, by virtue of Tesla’s mass produced electric vehicles (EVs, 2012), its Powerwall battery storage units (2015), and its acquisition of Solar City’s solar photovoltaic (PV) business (2016), Musk became a celebrity in the “clean tech” and “energy transition” world. Sustainabilchemists™ and their institutions across the globe showered Elon with accolades in recognition of his visionary products in service of “the existential crisis of climate change.” A sampling of those awards frames the depth of his former status as EcoCelebrity:
· In 2012, the Environmental Media Association honored Musk with its Corporate Responsibility Award
· In 2013, Musk received the Millennium Award from Global Green, a nonprofit focused on environmental sustainability.
· In 2015 Musk received the Zayed Future Energy Prize, recognizing his contributions to renewable energy through Tesla's advancements in battery technology, solar energy, and electric vehicles.
· In 2016, Musk was awarded the United Nations Champions of the Earth Award for Entrepreneurial Vision, highlighting his role in pushing boundaries in sustainable energy and transportation.
· In 2017 Musk received the Oslo Business for Peace Award which noted his efforts at Tesla and SolarCity to combat climate change by promoting renewable energy and reducing carbon emissions, aligning business success with environmental goals.
· In 2020 Musk received the Axel Springer Award from the European publishing house by the same name, for his innovations from electric vehicles and battery storage to space travel.
· In 2021, Time Magazine honored Musk with its annual Person of the Year Award, recognizing Tesla’s role in mainstreaming EVs, a key climate mitigation strategy, and his broader influence on sustainable transportation.
Musk was sometimes even portrayed as a geeky, “sustainability”-oriented, version of Tony Stark from Marvel’s Iron Man movies, especially after his cameo appearance in Iron Man 2 (2010). At the big Tesla Model 3 EV “reveal” in 2016, with an awkward, techno-cheesy and contrived Stark-like aura, he began the presentation with three questions:
“Why does Tesla exist, why are we making electric cars, why does it matter? Because it’s very important to accelerate the transition to sustainable transport. This is really important for the future of the world.”
As a graph behind him displayed a reconstruction of atmospheric CO2 levels over the last 400,000 years from ice core data, Elon continued:
“We have record high CO2 levels. We recently passed over 403 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere.”
In April 2023, Musk unveiled the third of his “Master Plans.” While the first (2006) concentrated on building his EV business and the second (2016) more on integrated energy generation (solar) and storage (batteries), “MP3” was much broader and ambitious. In the third iteration, Elon articulated an “energy transition” vision so bold and so broad (and so unlikely) that it actually eliminated fossil fuels altogether.
His six-part plan was music to the ears of the “alternative energy” choir, including Stanford Civil Engineer to the Hollywood Climate Know-Nothings™ Mark Z. Jacobson, who said “Their overall plan is extremely consistent with ours” (which was our confirmation the plan had no chance beyond a spreadsheet in a university). As MP3’s Table of Contents shows, “renewables,” EVs, heat pumps, fuels for industrial heat such as hydrogen and sustainable maritime and aviation fuels would ultimately (theoretically) replace fossil fuels:
But the Left’s love affair with Elon Musk began to change in October 2022, when he acquired Twitter. Loosening restrictions and letting libertarian and conservative accounts out of the “jail” imposed by Twitter’s prior ownership was unpopular with history’s traditional defenders of free speech (an ironic and quaint notion today).
By fall of 2023, months after releasing his Master Plan 3, Musk further distanced himself from Democrats and “progressives” and expressed a more conservative political tone, which drew more criticism like this November 2023 Guardian article.
Still, the popularity of Tesla vehicles continued to more than offset any disgruntled social media users. But that would only last another year.
In the summer of 2024, everything changed in an instant for Elon Musk. Or, more specifically, at the speed of a bullet.
The pivotal moment in Musk’s metamorphosis from environmental hero to “right-wing fascist” villain in the eyes of left-wing political activists occurred on July 13, 2024, when Trump survived the failed assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, after which Elon immediately endorsed him for President. At that point, hatred directed to Musk began to appear more steadily in legacy media and from the usual left-wing pundits and political operatives.
Then President Trump named Elon Musk to lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) a week after he beat Kamala Harris in the 2024 Presidential election. This further raised the hackles of Democrats and everyone on the left.
But it wasn’t until DOGE actually began its forensic examinations into the detailed financial workings of a U.S. federal government bloated from years of creeping Statism and ascended from the murky quagmire like Pacific Islands freedivers, holding their fish above the water, smiling for the villagers to see. That’s when all hell broke loose.
Knocking Donald Trump off his perch as the Left’s most hated figure is no easy task, but by late February what DOGE had uncovered and what that threatened made Elon Musk Progressive Enemy #1™, relegating Orange Man Bad – incredibly - to second place (something, for the first time in a decade, he did not seem to mind).
What quickly ensued were nationwide protests against DOGE, against Elon Musk, and against Tesla. And not just Tesla the company, but the cars themselves, as in, vehicles the company had sold or leased to actual people. As if somehow keying your neighbor’s car would sure show that (former EcoStatist hero, now) “evil fascist” Elon Musk. Such is the “wisdom” and emotional IQ/self-control of the modern political Left.
Once again, we were treated to more “mostly peaceful protests,” a term which is now understood to include both actual peaceful protests as well as the arson, vandalism, and destruction of private property that characterizes the “by any means necessary” wing of American and European “liberal” (read: Leftist) parties. To make sure Musk and their political opponents – who happen to make up more than half of America – got the message, a few of the unhinged, violent political terrorists fired shots at Tesla dealerships in frothing left-wing stewpots like Salem, Oregon.
The title Eggings, Swastikas and Dog Poop The Guardian chose for a March 15th article suggests “mostly peaceful protests” instead of the arson, bullets and Molotov cocktails the article actually describes. As the story notes about the Tesla showroom in Salem, OR:
At around 4am, surveillance footage shows him firing multiple rounds into the empty Tesla showroom, once again shattering windows and hitting a car parked inside the building.
ATF agents believe both incidents are linked to Salem resident Adam Lansky, who has been apprehended and charged. Lansky’s lawyer did not return a request for comment.
The Guardian article continued, describing acts of arson across America:
In the small Colorado town of Loveland, police rushed to a Tesla showroom in response to a report of a fire burning by a Cybertruck on 29 January. Underneath the vehicle, they found a spent Molotov cocktail.
As with the Salem incident, the suspect in the Loveland case returned to the scene, according to court documents. Four days later, the word “Nazi” was spray painted on the dealership’s sign. Over the following weeks, the showroom was targeted three more times with Molotov cocktails and graffiti. Lucy Grace Nelson, a resident from a nearby town, was charged for the series of incidents. Her lawyer declined to comment on the case.
Police in North Charleston, South Carolina, are also investigating a vandal who threw a Molotov cocktail at a Tesla charging station earlier this week, setting both it and himself on fire and forcing officials to cut the station’s power. The words “long live the Ukraine” were spray painted in red on the pavement next to the charging stations, according to the Associated Press.
The violence spread across the country along with the “mostly peaceful protests.” Scenes like this one at a Tesla dealership in Las Vegas became common:
In the U.S., signs emerged that the protests, which were portrayed as “grassroots” by most of the legacy media, were funded and coordinated by activist left-wing non-profits. At some dealerships, virtually all of the protesters mysteriously packed up and left at the same time, leading some to speculate that they were being paid. Across the country, pre-made protest signs bearing identical messages added to the suspicion.
On March 8th, Elon Musk used his platform to name non-profits he believes are behind the protests:
Democrat Charlaticians™ fueled the animosity. At a town hall rally in Wisconsin on March 18, Kamala Harris’ former running mate and unapologetic Statist mediocrity Tim Walz gleefully took pot shots at Musk and Tesla from the cheap seats:
“On the iPhone, they’ve got that little stock app. I added Tesla to it to give me a little boost during the day — $225 and dropping!”
A “spontaneous” nationwide protest directed at Tesla emerged in late March. #TeslaTakedown quickly spread through Leftist social media channels, and on March 29th, approximately 200 demonstrations took place at Tesla dealerships and service centers across America. The puerile, panic-ridden signs and utterances from protesters, replete with their obligatory, mindless “fascist” and “nazi” tropes, were a reaction to something even deeper than the unfathomable amounts of taxpayer waste (and worse) Musk and DOGE are uncovering: DOGE’s efforts could rein in the bloated, self-perpetuating leviathan Administrative State and, by extension, everything on which it depends.
At his Substack, former Wall Street Journal writer Asra Nomani asked Who is Behind the Tesla Protests? Nomani’s post lists well-known regressive “progressive” Democrat non-profits like ActBlue and Democrat Socialists of America. Several of the lesser-known names Nomani lists include those Musk identified in his X post on March 8th.
One of those non-profits is “Indivisible Project.” Three days after being identified by Musk as one of the agitators, its Co-Executive Director Ezra Levin issued the following statement (emphasis ours):
"The richest man in the world doesn’t want you to criticize him. He’s using his puppet, the President of the United States, to threaten the tools of the state against peaceful Americans expressing their opinions. Donald Trump and Elon Musk are trying to outlaw dissent and silence regular people who threaten their power. This is nothing less than an authoritarian assault on our First Amendment rights.
"Indivisible has always been committed to nonviolent action…”
Indivisible Project no doubt considered the implications of the recent North Dakota verdict against Greenpeace when stating that they strictly support “non-violent” action. In public, Greenpeace took the same stance throughout the Dakota Access pipeline protests. Is Indivisible Project worried about a similar problem? Or could they care less?
Other non-profits and #TeslaTakedown organizers implicated by Musk like Troublemakers distanced themselves from the violence against Tesla dealerships, service centers and charging stations. Authorities caught several of the perpetrators of the violent mayhem and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi intends to make examples out of them.
The question of whether the anti-Musk/Tesla protests are entirely grassroots or astroturf funded by the same murky, monied left-wing ideologues behind other violent demonstrations is an open one. It may never be answered.
Given that Trump and DOGE have no authority outside the U.S., it would be reasonable to assume that the violence and mayhem were restricted to America. But hard-core left-wing activism and “reasonable” do not belong in the same sentence.
Because Europe is the international center of gravity for such groups, naturally the same anti-Musk, anti-Tesla mind virus and its “mostly peaceful protests” spread there. More EVs that could have helped “save the planet” were torched across Europe as a result.
In Germany:
In Italy:
In France:
Tesla’s cars have not changed, nor have its Powerwalls or its solar PV modules. Tesla did not replace all-electric drives with internal combustion engines. Powerwalls have not converted to natural gas-fired Generac-like generators.
So, what changed? Musk endorsed Trump then, leading DOGE, he began to look into every dark corner of federal spending, including too many that put him too close to discovering things Big Government Democrats would prefer to stay hidden. The result? Former hero becomes villain, faces violent destruction of his climate-friendly business and death threats, and car owners – nearly half of whom vote Democrat/Leftist – have their cars damaged and destroyed despite aligning politically with the people who perpetrated the violence.
That a former hero is now a villain to the political left teaches that absolute fealty to Statist ideology is far more important than any climate benefit from widespread adoption of Tesla products. The vitriol, fear, threats, intimidation, violence, and property destruction directed toward Elon Musk and Tesla outside the U.S, in sovereign nations where he, DOGE, and Trump have absolutely no power, makes this clear.
What does this say about the American, European, and Canadian citizens who are damaging cars on the streets that they know have been purchased (or leased) by their fellow citizens, not Tesla vehicles sitting at a showroom? What would they say to the damaged car owners? “Sometimes you gotta breaks some eggs to make omelets. By any means necessary! Forward!” (With fist raised, and no apologies for your vehicle.)
We close by noting what is really going on here: Statists who incrementally swelled the U.S. government to absurd levels over the last forty-odd years realize that what DOGE is exposing threatens that continued expansion and the power over citizens that extends from it. Leftists across the Atlantic fear similar inquiries will uncover skeletons in the political closets of Europe and the UK (likely to be worse). The worldwide leftist panic manifests as anger, with some prone to violence.
Protestations about Musk’s powers and intent lean toward the absurd, an intentional deflection from his real purpose: trim the waste out of an overextended federal government running a nearly $2 trillion deficit and put both parties on notice that the days of runaway Administrate Statism are over. In short, Elon Musk and DOGE are taking violent flack precisely because they are over the target.
As we have noted, former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said in an article for Harper’s Bazar, “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.”
What the anti-Tesla, anti-Musk “mostly peaceful protests” underscore is that, even for “energy transition” heroes, Statists’ admiration is conditioned on absolute ideological purity and conformity, and leadership in “energy transition” products does not absolve sins of religious apostasy. And after being ex-communicated, if one then embarks on exposing the dark corners in the leviathan administrative state to bright sunlight, even if out of sheer economic necessity for the wellbeing of the nation, well those planet-saving products just might have to go up in flames for the sake of “the cause.”
We are ambivalent about Elon Musk, and no fans of Tesla products or the company. But to his new enemies, borrowing from Queen Gertrude in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, we thinks thou dost “mostly peacefully” protest too much.
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It's funny, to me the lesson of note is that climate change is not about climate change, but about the ability to control the narrative and profit from it. but now it will be so much harder for the left to continue to cry climate change is an existential threat after they have been adding mass quantities of CO2 and other toxic gases into the atmosphere by setting them on fire. It was always about the grift.
While recognizing how extraordinary Elon's brainpower is, i was always concerned that Tesla was built on collecting government credits from the Big3. But, arguably, that was simply a smart decision to go where the money is. To me, he has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to identify and solve a problem. and those who benefit from that problem are really angry.
excellent summary
Thanks for the well written article & it is pathetic that these numerous acts of arson, destruction of personal property & violence can somehow be construed under the context as “mostly peaceful protests”.
You mentioned that one potential reason for the wrath towards Musk was he & DOGE were getting “too close to discovering things Big Government Democrats would prefer to stay hidden”. It might be more accurate to have included “Big Government Washington DC entrenched Democrats / Republican Uniparty”, since it is my guess the Washington DC Democrats / Republican Duopoly has many mutual interests in not having DOGE dig too deep into the Federal Government’s numerous & questionable appropriations of our taxpayer funds.
Thanks again for the interesting article & take care.