Reminder From Viv: Tesla Is A Global Revolution For A Better Future

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“Tesla isn’t a company. It’s a global revolution for clean energy, state-of-the-art mobility, & a better future,” a well known podcaster named Viv tweeted earlier today. I wanted to elaborate on that.

In February, I wrote an article titled “Tesla Is A Tech Company — Here’s Why.” Two months later, Jim Chanos told Bloomberg that Tesla should trade like a carmaker, not a tech company. We have a difference of opinion, but it goes beyond that.

The article led with a prediction from Chanos that Tesla would lose money, and also that he thought investors would trade the company’s stock as if was a carmaker, not a tech company. Back in 2017, he also predicted that Tesla was “headed for a brick wall.” However, showing a bit of humility, or at least admission of the well known facts, one other thing he told Bloomberg was that, “so far, [betting against Tesla] has not been the correct call, I will admit.”

The truth is that people betting against Tesla are not just betting against one company, even if that’s what they think. They are betting against a future. Those who advocate for clean energy, state-of-the-art mobility, and even a global revolution are simply not having it.

The truth is Tesla is a car company, but that’s not all it is. Tesla is also a tech company. But that’s not all it is. Recently, Tesla has also dipped its toes into the medical industry by helping Medtronic create ventilators for hospitals — for free. Tesla plans to give these away despite the fact that the company is being criticized for helping. And what many mainstream reporters are focusing on is the way Elon Musk words things rather than what he is doing to help.

Elon Musk recently wrote that, “Particulate matter from automotive exhausts has a much more serious impact on health than most people realize.” Russ Mitchell of the LA Times wanted to know where those metrics came from. More specifically, he wanted to know where Elon got the idea that most people don’t realize how bad particulate matter from auto exhausts is for humans.

https://twitter.com/russ1mitchell/status/1249011823585579008

I explained that from my perspective most people don’t think about the air they breathe every waking moment of the day. They don’t consider the fact that the air is filled with these tiny little particles. Russ asked me, “How do you know what most people think about this?” I thought that was an interesting and fair question, and it was easy to answer from my perspective. I’d had conversations with many of my friends who didn’t even know what particulate matter was. Many people, especially everyday working Americans, are focused on one thing — now more than ever — and that is the basics of surviving. They don’t dig into the science of air quality today. Of course, anecdotes aren’t scientific facts. If you wanted to learn what “most people” think about particulate matter, then you would have to survey them. We may come back to that in a future article.

In the Twitter discussion, Alan Dail also pointed out that the EPA has rolled back fuel economy standards, which gives us dirtier air. This causes — or will cause — real death, high numbers of deaths.

I replied that this was what we should be focusing on — not about who said what about “most people,” not a pedantic game of whether most people know how bad air pollution is for us or not. And that brings us back to Viv.

https://twitter.com/flcnhvy/status/1250094441622319104

What does all of this have to do with Tesla, and the reminder that the company is really a global revolution for clean energy? Everything. Whenever there is a movement, there are two sides. One side seeks to destroy the other side with every weapon they have. The fact that many in the mainstream media are refusing to focus on more important matters* than how Elon Musk phrases things speaks volumes. (*Such as the negative effects of particulate matter and what the Trump administration is doing on that topic that will cost us countless more lives.)

I mean, think about it for a moment. COVID-19 is a virus, but its effects are amplified by particulates, or by previous damage from particulates. This is one thing Tesla — and the people behind it (inside and outside the company) — work every day to stop. Car exhaust and pollution may not be as interesting and exciting to cover as COVID-19, but they are much more deadly. The time to focus on what matters is at hand. Instead of writing more articles about that, many in the media and on Twitter want to play pedantic games that serve no good purpose.

Look at the clear images of cities across the globe that were heavily polluted for years or decades before this brief pause in activity due to the pandemic. This only happened because millions of people have stayed home for weeks, but the clear skies are what Tesla fights for even when the cities are bustling with business again. Tesla is more than a car or tech company, as Viv stated. It is a global revolution pushing forward the ideas of cleaner energy and a better way to live.


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Johnna Crider

Johnna owns less than one share of $TSLA currently and supports Tesla's mission. She also gardens, collects interesting minerals and can be found on TikTok

Johnna Crider has 1996 posts and counting. See all posts by Johnna Crider