1/ I have concluded that $tsla is the ultimate manifestation of our modern culture that is focused on virtue-signalling rather than actual virtue. Layers & layers of such virtue-signalling make it a virtue-signalling pyramid scheme. @teslacharts @montana_skeptic
2/ At the top of course there is @elonmusk. $tsla is founded on real innovation - the model S was way ahead of its time, though of course Elon had about zero to do with that car. But Elon simply insists on wrapping a huge package of BS around this respectable core
3/ The climate savior who flies as short as 30 miles in a G6. The man who promises to add solar power at $tsla facilities that never appears. The "hero of the people" who treats his workers like crap. The brilliant capitalist funded by billions in government subsidies
4/ The Tony Stark genius who pushes the nonsensical hyperloop and embarrassing Boring Company. The polymath that is impressive to those without scientific education but spouts giberish when one has domain knowledge.
4b/ A million robo taxis, laser windshield wipers, full self-driving, a thousand solar roofs a week, Tesla body shops with one day repairs, windows that don't break except when they do in demos, etc. I could go on forever.
5/ And then there are the virtue-signalling politicians, who don't have the desire to really do what it takes to have a sensible climate or business development policy, but signal they care by throwing money at $tsla
6/ There are the federal EV subsidies that go mostly to rich people and pay just as much if your EV is charged by coal as by hydro. There are state ZEV credits made even larger by a faked battery swap demo. There are subsidies from Nevada & California & New York for factories..
7/ And now even more subsidies from China and Germany for more plants. And of course more EV subsidies in most western nations, subsidies without which Tesla sales have a proven history of drying up.
8/ All the stuff above about self-promoting CEO's and cronyist government officials is as old as time. But I think the new element here is the fact that many of its shareholders use their ownership of the stock, and the stock price itself, as a virtue-signalling tool.
9/ Here is a way for the modern disaffected millennial to actually participate in otherwise-hated capitalism. Now, in addition to drinking fair trade coffee, having a Greta Thunberg poster on the wall, and piling on the latest cancel outrage with my Twitter retweets....
10/ I can show the world I am a great human being by owning Tesla stock and then telling everyone I own Tesla stock and then by defending Tesla stock mindlessly against any criticism. $TSLA ownership is the veganism, or maybe homeopathy, of investing.
10b/ I saw a claim the other day that 200 million people practice homeopathy every day. You think $tslaq is brutal? Look at the weight of science and derision that bears down on homeopathy and still 200 million people practice it? hri-research.org/resources/esse…
11/ I increasingly fear that this Tesla pattern may be more stable than I thought before. With a tiny float dominated by investors who don't care about (or even understand) the financials and world politicians constantly willing to throw the company more money to keep it alive--
12/ I am not sure how its valuation ever meets reality. I thought the comeuppance of WeWork, another cult stock run by an over-rated sociopath, might be a good sign, but I see it having no effect on Tesla at all.
13/ I am wondering if it is we in $tslaq that do not understand. We joke about Musk's endless string of outrageously unbelievable promises and hype -- many of us were attracted to $tslaq for the very reason that Musk was so obviously spouting BS --
14/ BS that from any other company's CEO would be incredibly bearish. But I don't think that $tsla's investors want profits or good financials. They want the hype & the wild promises, even when these go unfulfilled, because these support the whole point of their stock ownership:
15/ Not financial, but virtue-signalling. If this is true, then what we in $Tslaq are doing is not shorting the financial performance of the company, which is and will remain terrible, but shorting Musk's ability to bullshit. And I don't think it is very smart to short that.
16/ Financial pyramid schemes eventually run out of money and have to fail. But I am not sure a virtue-signalling pyramid scheme is destined to fail in the same way. The governments who fund Tesla are pyramid schemes themselves that are a long way from failure
17/ And I am not sure Musk ever loses his ability to shameless hype ... nothing at all. Or to break laws without consequences, trading on his carefully crafted image.
I am not entirely sure where I am going with these thoughts, but as @teslacharts says, trade carefully
I am not entirely sure where I am going with these thoughts, but as @teslacharts says, trade carefully
