The Tesla Cybertruck was controversial long before it ever hit the streets. Some of that was down to the long delays ahead of production beginning, some of it was down to design, and many lay blame at the feet of Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Indeed, we’ve discussed previously that it’s virtually pointless to review the Cybertruck since so much public opinion is based on the wacky antics and politics of the company’s enigmatic founder. In any case, now the vehicle is out in the real world, Cybertruck owners have been discovering their trucks are drawing a certain level of attention. Would you believe it’s not all friendly?
If you bought a new Corolla, or even a new Mustang, you might expect a raised eyebrow or a knowing nod from a few of your colleagues. The rest of the world would not blink as you passed by. That doesn’t appear to be the case with the Cybertruck, though. No surprise, given it looks like nothing else on the road, but still—some of the stories from the community are surprising to say the least.
Drive one of these polarizing trucks, and you can apparently expect harsh words and middle fingers just about wherever you go. It might be made out of stainless steel, but the Cybertruck is a magnet for the haters — whether haters of EVs or haters of Elon Musk.
Big Metal Thing
You might cast your mind back to David Tracy’s Cybertruck review from June this year. Most notably, he received a charming unsolicited comment from the sidewalk. “Your truck is ugly!” went the cry.
So when David saw Cybertruck owner Don Turner post on an owner’s page how tough it’s been for him to deal with insults, we figured we’d look into it a bit. It turns out, it’s not just David Tracy getting harsh word on the streets of LA. Many Cybertruck owners deal with it regularly.
David found that at least one person in LA really didn’t like the design. Credit: David TracyI chatted to members of the Tesla Cybertruck Owners group on Facebook, and heard from Floridian owner Marcus Story. “I’m a day-one reservation holder for the Cybertruck with a low VIN,” he says. “As an early adopter of Tesla vehicles, I’ve experienced firsthand what it’s like to own an EV in a southern car-loving town, and it has certainly been interesting!”
“Politics and election seasons play a significant role in people’s perceptions—many instantly assume you vote a certain way just because you drive a Tesla,” Marcus explains. “I’ve encountered plenty of false information, blatant lies, and fear-driven propaganda, like claims that the truck will catch fire in a car wash, that the battery will die after two years, or that it’s worse for the environment.”
He’s had some darker experiences, too. “I’ve received late-night hate messages and threats, been flipped off, ‘coal-rolled,’ and had people deliberately slow down in front of me,” he says. “But I’m not a pushover, and I confront this behavior directly.” Ultimately, he usually knows where it’s coming from. “I know a lot of people in my town, and it’s easy to trace their comments back to some of the points I mentioned earlier,” he explains. “I’m vocal and quick to counter with facts and logic, which helps shut down any nonsense.”
Others tell similar stories. Gary Lopez of California told me that while kids are usually very into the spaceship-looking vehicle, adults have been profoundly negative. “Kids that see the truck absolutely lose it with excitement… then there are grown adults who throw tantrums at you for whatever reason,” he says. “Although negative reactions are ten percent of reactions, I had a range of thumbs down all the way to ‘go k** yourself.'” One suspects Gary missed an asterisk there, but I’ll present the quote as he wrote it. He notes that this is all happens out on the road while driving. “No one says anything to my face,” says Gary.
Say what you will about the quality of the truck, the company, or the people who made it. It’s hard to think of too many other cars that get such vile attention. One is perhaps reminded of the way Prius owners were once treated by die-hard pollution fans, or the kind of gendered insults so often levelled at the Miata community.
Meanwhile, over in Ohio, Ryan Fry says he’s seen a bit of both. “I would say it’s eighty percent positive and twenty percent negative…but the negative is really negative,” he told me. Tina Cyr agreed. “The haters are with a capital H,” she says. “Someone yelled out on a crowded street, ‘That is so ugly!'” Much the same as happened to our own David Tracy. “I wanted to shout back ‘LIKE YOUR MAMA!’ but I didn’t,” she laughs.
The Bird is usually reserved for people that can’t merge or jerks that steal your parking space. Now, though, it seems to be intimately associated with the Cybertruck based on the endless posts from owners on Facebook. “Got my first middle finger today,” said Josh Olberding on a Cybertruck owners page. “The driver that flipped me off had a Kia Soul with its bumper missing… I smiled and waved, maybe they just need some love?” Others find the attention is particularly upsetting for their family. “It’s really annoying when people give us the middle finger and our kids are in the car, or they keep pointing at our Cybertruck and then keep giving us a thumbs down,” says Sadaf Saleh. For some, these instances of negative are remarkably frequent, too. “We’ve gotten like six flip-offs and some people yelling at us,” said Ashley Sarpolis. “We’ve only had it four days, lol.”
Others have seen hate escalate to violence. Washington D.C. owner Rico Clark noted he’d had a glass bottle thrown at his vehicle. Perhaps one of the uglier responses seems to come from the diesel set, too. Numerous members of the Tesla Cybertruck Owners group reported people “rolling coal” on them, wherein a diesel truck dumps a large plume of black exhaust smoke on other cars. It’s not just offensive, it’s also illegal as per the EPA, and pretty terrible for your lungs.
As for why it happens? You could surmise that it’s people attacking something that’s different, or tearing down what some see as an ostentatious display of wealth. However, for owner Hollie Holcombe, the cause is largely down to one big personality. “Living in a place with so many progressive people around, I get a lot of hate,” she says. “I am also progressive, but some of my friends in this area don’t agree that Tesla is a good company.” A lot of it comes down to the Tesla CEO in her eyes. “They see Elon as evil,” she says. “They’re upset about the cobalt issue, which they either don’t understand or don’t believe it when Elon says they’re reducing it… I’m not sure what else they’re upset about.”
Negative perceptions around the truck’s design have come up, too. “My child’s best friend is not allowed to ride in the Cybertruck because they think it doesn’t have crumple zones,” she explains. The one benefit? She’s noticed that she’s getting less hassle from diesel drivers now than before. “Coal rollers were only an issue for me when I was driving the Model S,” she says. “They now somehow think I’m on their side because I drive a truck.”
Don Turner
Hi, it’s David Tracy. I had a chance to talk with Don Turner — the LA-based Tesla owner who works in the senior care industry and whose Facebook post inspired this article — after Lewin finished writing this piece, and I figured I’d add some notes about our chat. Turner’s post was about the mistreatment he’s received as a Tesla Cybertruck owner (that’s his truck below; he’s very proud of it).
He says there are a number of factors that make the Cybertruck a target for hate: It’s the truck’s value, it’s the fact that it’s electric, it’s the fact that it looks the way it does, and it’s Elon.
“No matter what area [I’m driving in] — it can be a very affluent area — they throw their thumbs down,” he told me over the phone while doing his daily morning walk. “Very few people say they like the truck because of Elon Musk; nobody really claims to like the guy,” Turner told me before making his thoughts on Musk clear.
“Elon Musk… that jackass — I like his technology, I like his truck — ….he doesn’t shut his freakin’ mouth. He’s a bigmouth turkey. He’s probably going to do something stupid before the election. I just don’t like Elon Musk. If he sticks to the technology and building companies, there’s no one smarter.”
“Once he gets into the political stuff, it really ruins his brand, it ruins the Tesla brand,” he told me, saying loads of folks dislike his truck specifically because of the controversial CEO.
“Thumbs up, thumbs down, middle finger — that’s normal,” he says of his experience driving his stainless steel pickup.
He says there’s definitely a class element to the hate. “I’ve had people pull up to me in beaters and they’re thumbs down,” he says. “One guy came up to me and said ‘That truck is ugly!'”
Not All Bad
As was the case with Don Turner, the owners that are getting hate out on the road are getting some nicer reactions, too. Just as the truck pulls in the haters, it catches plenty of interest thanks to its unique design. Marcus told me he’s seen a lot of positive reactions to the vehicle since he’s owned it. “The reality is that there are so many positives,” says Marcus. “I get a lot of thumbs up, and even after months of daily driving, people still comment on how cool it looks.” He says a lot of people ask questions about the truck, and that many people come around to liking it after having seen one up close in person. It’s perhaps the case that familiarity helps to temper that weird human impulse to hate on the different and unique.
Down in Texas, owner Steven Walker told me he had a lovely experience with his example. “We had someone post in our neighborhood page… she had asked if she could pay us to bring it to her son’s 10th birthday party because he loved the Cybertruck,” he says. “We absolutely did and refused money for it, lol.” It’s a charming example of spreading the car culture to the kids. At the same time, though, he admits there are some that don’t like it, and feel the need to make that known. “We definitely get more thumbs up than middle fingers,” he says. “But it is quite disappointing that people feel the need to act negatively towards a vehicle owner because of the vehicle they own.”
I dropped into the Cybertruck Owners Club forums to get their perspective, too. Ultimately, the mood was that while there are some haters, more people like the truck than despise it. “I get about one negative for every hundred or so positives,” said sgmorton. “Half the time even the negatives are curious to take a look inside or are just ignorant of the vehicle.” Similarly, Tecyber1 reports lots of thumbs up and friendly signals from other Tesla owners, and people asking lots of questions and one family asking if their son could sit in the vehicle—”Of course I let him!” Meanwhile, some stories are just funny. “I have had one negative reaction… a passenger in a Dodge Charger signaled me to roll down my window on the highway, [and] he asked ‘How much did you pay for that refrigerator?!'” said Pops. “I laughed, answered him honestly and then drove away.” Outside of that, he says the truck gets a lot of love. “Endless thumbs ups,” he muses.
As you might expect, though, it appears the public is beginning to grow familiar with the sight of the big metal triangle on the roads. Many in the Tesla Cybertruck Owners group report that while they faced a flurry of interest in the early phase of ownership, the hype has started to die down. By and large, given Tesla are making these in significant quantities, it makes sense. As more of these trucks are getting around, they’re increasingly less novel for a broader share of the public.
Here’s the thing, though. While it’s nice that Cybertruck owners are getting some thumbs up and nice comments, that doesn’t excuse the hate. Nobody should be getting middle fingers, coal rolled, or bottles thrown at them because they drive a weird truck. That’s just totally unacceptable.
In any case, there’s hope for the future. Marcus reckons it won’t always be this way. “For sure my guess is it will slow down after the election,” he says, laying the problem at the feet of political division in America. “But mechanic shops, parts stores, and die hard engine people will forever hate on the EV.” Ultimately, though, he puts it down to ingrained adult biases. Given what he’s seen from the younger generation , he reckons this attitude won’t carry forward much longer. “It is a learned behavior for sure, as I have yet to meet a kid that doesn’t like them,” he says. If Marcus is right, we’ll see the middle fingers subside in due time.
Image credits: Tesla, David Tracy, Facebook via screenshot, Wham Baam Teslacam via YouTube screenshot
Ignoring the CT drivers is the best, it is the the thing the fear the most. Dont acknowledge them, dont look at them, nothing, just treat it like a corolla.
It’s interesting how in the 21st century, we no longer (or are no longer allowed to) buy things b/c we simply like the thing. Instead, we also purchase this seeming Nietzschean gaze-into-the-abyss connection to the thing we like.
Sure, it’s always been an aspect of buying stuff, and advertising has always does its best to create it, but intriguing how now, the internet means that that connection exists in a perpetual present.
Or put another way, perhaps we’re buying more subscription services than we even realize?
You’re allowed to buy whatever you want, but you can’t insist that people ignore that Tesla is attached Elon Musk. No one cares about my decision to purchase a Honda, but CT owners willfully picked the perfect combo of an obnoxious car whose profits go to the most obnoxious dude on the planet who can’t shut up about how horrendous his beliefs and opinions are.
Nah, fuck this take. It’s the same shit argument coal-rollers spew about prius drivers, and unsurprisingly it’s motivated by the same small-dick energy manchild attitude. Treat people civilly until they give you a reason not to. Bitching about someone else’s possessions is what kids do on the playground.
Things exist in context, and details matter. What possessions someone chooses are meaningful things to judge them by if one feels the need to do so.
Details are only assigned importance when you choose them to be. Life doesn’t have to be that way…
Okay Albert Camus. I’m sure you have no opinions on anything and assign importance to nothing.
That is a very naive take.
But you know none of the context. You don’t know why they bought it, if they are actually the owner, or what kind of person they are. You dont know what they use it for and how it affects other people- maybe they use it to bring food donations to orphanages. It’s as fucking inane as thinking someone is cool because they have a Gucci t-shirt, it’s materialist bitch behavior and should be called out.
Lol you’re doing the exact same thing with your Gucci t-shirt example though, like obviously they want everyone to think they’re cool and bought the shirt for that reason, not because it’s the best shirt for shirt things, and that’s very transparent to most people. CT owners are driving the Gucci t-shirt of cars.
Or they got it at goodwill. I don’t know, and I don’t care, because I’m not a smarmy bitch who obsesses about that shit like some high school gossip girl circle. Actions are what matter, making giant assumptions based on material possessions is some true loser energy.
Ah yes, I agree. The coal rollers spend more money for an ostentatious display that’s clearly harmful and believe no one should be able to judge them for their choices, just like the CT owners spend more money on an ostentatious vehicle that profits the loudest right-wing pseudointellectual and also believe no one should be able to judge them for their choices.
Their comment did not advocate incivility. It simply said “but you can’t insist that people ignore“. You’re arguing a strawman and ironically being uncivil yourself in doing so. Not to mention the toxic body shaming.
And you have some entitled right to tell people whether they can or cannot insist on something?
Lmao what?
This is just reality Ed. I mean sure you can be delusional, you can cover your ears and scream LALALALA when people bring up the fact that your purchase of a Tesla product profits a terrible person, but no matter your insistence to that end, it won’t change the fact that people have opinions about Musk that are linked to Tesla because he profits from those products. This isn’t about entitlement on my end, it’s about acknowledging that you can’t control other people.
I blame the internet. It’s enabled personal bubbles more than anything I’ve ever seen.
You can buy and drive whatever you want, but you have to accept that some people are going to vocalize their opinions of said thing.
Cars have been a marker for class and status for as long as they’ve existed. The marque you can afford or choose has always had social implication outside of one’s likes.
I don’t think it would be unreasonable for people to express their displeasure if, for example, you stayed at Trump Tower for your vacation. In a capitalist society, purchases are a way of expressing oneself, if not the primary way.
I wouldn’t waste the energy flipping off a CyberTruck driver.
I’m surprised any of them notice enough of their surroundings to even see the middle fingers.
Elon just announced they’re adding more sheet metal for the 2025 model year to increase middle finger blindspots.
God if only the founder was enigmatic. Every day I wish I knew less about him.
This is such a good point.
It’s similar for those of us who are still members of the cult of Steve (McQueen)…it was so much easier to like him pre-internet; he was just this inscrutable, cool guy who loved vehicles and made enjoyable movies. But now, it’s impossible to ignore how much of a jerk he could be, and it makes liking him harder.
Which is why we should appreciate the performance, but don’t conflate it with the performer. They are seldom who they pretend to be on camera, in song, or in print.
Yeah, exactly how I feel about Tom Cruise – he’s in some of my favorite movies, but I completely recognize he’s personally looney toons in some ways. I chalk up my feelings there as his celebrity existing mostly in the internet era, rather than before it.
Details are only assigned importance when you choose them to be. Life doesn’t have to be that way…
You chose the importance you value.
Like how you’re only assigning importance to pasting this in response to anti-Musk comments, and not pro-Musk comments?
You chose the importance you value, indeed.
I value absolutely nothing about Musk. But because I exist in the world in the year of our gourd 2024, that means I know a lot of things about the childish, fascist boor. I wish life didn’t have to have the petulant idiot constantly haunting the margins of our existence.
We don’t exist in vacuums. Sometimes things are assigned importance because we exist in the world and are forced to assign them importance. The man has influence, and many of his political views, if enacted, would cause direct harm to many people I hold dear. He’s a dangerous bigot and the only way to set yourself apart from his influence is if you’re not either within or adjacent to someone he would harm.
He notes that this is all happens out on the road while driving. “No one says anything to my face,” says Gary.
Start wearing an ‘I drive a stupid Cybertuck’ shirt wherever you go, Gary. See if you can get that face-to-face interaction you seek.
I don’t get angry about what other people drive. I get angry when they drive like an asshole and it impacts me.
I do judge what other people drive, and I don’t have an high opinion of the Cybertruck as a choice. But that’s not something that gets shared on the road. I’ve only seen on once, it was speeding through an active school zone.
Mr Turner’s argument that it’s all defensible when you get down to brass tacks (in other words, conveniently ignore the hatemonger at the helm) still doesn’t hold up.
Musk runs Tesla like a toy he doesn’t like, he resents making cars, he shows up with bizarre edicts and demands, he leads by bullying.
Fuck Musk for who he is, fuck Tesla for what it’s become, and fuck the CyberTruck for what it is and always has been.
I would never flip off someone because of the vehicle they are driving.(seriously)
However I do have a message for Elon : ( ͡⚆ ͜ʖ ͡⚆)╭∩╮
What the heck is that suposed to be?
It’s clearly the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man flipping Elon the bird.
😉
I never knew stay-puft man’s finger was so short.
He says it just looks short.
Well, he’s 40 years old now and Arthritis has set in his fingers…..
It is becoming harder and harder to separate Musk from his products somewhat unfortunately.
Yep, especially since he bought
Twitter,X. Now he has a whole platform to spread his dreck.My mom was more curious about “What the heck is that!?” than angry when we saw one. Not sure if it was negative or positive. 😛
I’ve been coal rolled on several times, and I’ve never even been in a Cyberturk.
Now for giving thumbs down at them, the monobrow DRL is fucking annoyingly bright and right in my rearview mirror which is a huge distraction while driving, so yes the thumbs down is appropriate.
This middle finger is mostly dedicated to G37 drivers these days. I judge the Cybertruck folk but I never want to give them the attention they crave.
Attention-seekers buy the most attention-seeker vehicle possible, are shocked when not all of the attention is positive. News at 5.
The submarine sandwhich: Is it all it’s cracked up to be? Footage at 6
OceanGate says yes! Find out why tonight!
More like footlong at 6, amirite?!?!?
Here’s how it goes whenever I spot a Cybertruck:
Me: Look kids! Cybertruck in the wild!
My kids: Ew! That is so ugly! Make it go away!
Me: Actually, regardless of your opinion on its styling or the bizarre behaviors of Tesla’s founder, it is worth celebrating that someone actually designed a truck that looks profoundly different from anything else on the road, pushing the cookie-cutter boundaries of what is considered acceptable in automotive design.
My kids: Ok, now we’re sorry we even spoke up.
Normal kids: WAA…
Yah know what. Nevermind.
“it is worth celebrating that someone actually designed a truck that looks profoundly different from anything else on the road, pushing the cookie-cutter boundaries of what is considered acceptable in automotive design”
A more avant garde “cookie cutter” is not a good target for automotive design:
https://www.theautopian.com/sharp-edge-slashes-cybertruck-owners-leg-open-but-he-still-loves-the-truck/
I tell the kids that all vehicles will look like that by the time they are able to drive.
Nothing is better than the tears of children.
Tears of snowflake MAGAts & Muskovites are even more delicious than those of actual children.
What in the actual fuck is wrong with your mind? Not one bit of what you wrote is sane. You have a problem.
You should lighten the fuck up.
I don’t like Tesla (specifically because of Musk) and I really don’t like the Cybertruck’s design because it is a-functional and is huge as hell, but my dislike and disdain for the drivers of the Cybertruck remains a silent judging because I am not an asshole. It’s the same reaction I have for bro-dozers, coal rollers, straight-piped WRXs and people with dumbass mods to the cars (like pep-boys portholes). I judge, but do not say anything.
I don’t understand why people think it’s so huge. It’s smaller than an F-150 in a lot of ways.
https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/tesla-cybertruck-2023-4-door-pickup-vs-ford-f150-2014-4-door-pickup-supercrew-5.5/
It’s chunkiness and those sail pillars do it no favors. Like the shirt I’m wearing right now.
Its not huge because it’s not as huge as something even huger.
Yeah, ok. I didn’t mean to imply it wasn’t huge. Just that it isn’t any huger than a bunch of other stuff on the road. My impression seeing one on the road for the first time was that it was smaller than I thought it would be. It’s big, but so is everything anymore, so why be mad about that aspect of it?
Remember when everyone hated on the Hummer H2 because it was so huge, but now everything is huge?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ijdWPb8yUU
The F150 you compared it to is also a super crew cab, so that’s a very big boy truck!
“Remember when everyone hated on the Hummer H2”
Remember kids, “H” in H2 stands for hate!
I think it’s the profile, or maybe the prominent glowing caveman brow. The impression is huge and ugly. Mostly ugly.
I mean, it’s lower and shorter, but it’s 3″ wider than the F150 when you don’t factor in the mirrors. (your link didn’t work so I found another article comparing the R1T, CT, and F150)
Two out of three dimensions ain’t bad.
Subdivisions are smaller than an F150.
As the owner of an F150, I agree. I parked next to a CT and I was surprised that it was smaller than my truck. I think they look much better wrapped in a color of your choice. Looks less like my refrigerator.
“Looks less like my refrigerator.”
Or a prison toilet.
When a car is bigger than a standard parking space (which is usually 9×18 feet in the US), it is huge regardless of what it is compared to. The width is astronomical! That site you linked to is cool. Thanks!
Its within your rights, even responsibility to voice your dissent when they cross the line of being too loud or unsafe such that it affects your own well being.
Looks like Don Turner is making an awful lot of money off of peoples ailing grandparents. Gross.
Major red flag.
That’s actually not cool unless they actually did something to create an unsafe driving environment.
I just lol anytime I see one.
Right? Is it impossible to just have a lol? Or if you’re so annoyed at it’s presence, a grumble to oneself?
Are we referring to Elon Musk as the founder of Tesla now, like Ray Kroc was the “founder” of McDonald’s?
Hah funny you mention it, I had just put this article in a comment on TMD about Musk suing his way into the Founder title, despite quite literally not founding any part of Tesla. And yes, it is exactly like Ray Kroc. It’s important that 1- People stop thinking Musk is the genius that created the company, he’s really not what people want to believe he is, and 2- it would probably drive him crazy if people knew the truth.
The only thing Musk is good at is knowing what a good thing is. But, even that can be argued at this point.
I don’t like the Cybertruck. I don’t like Tesla. And I sure as hell don’t like Elon. I don’t know why anyone would want to buy the Cybertruck, but people buy weird shit all the time. And often people buy things not giving a rats ass about who it enriches, etc. Everyone exists on a spectrum of nebulously ethical behavior. Myself included.
But this behavior sucks. There’s just no reason to be aggressive to strangers minding their own business. And while I’m out there rolling my eyes at every Cybertruck I see, I guess I’m just not hellbent on actively trying to make people feel bad about their choices.
“He’s had some darker experiences, too. “I’ve received late-night hate messages and threats, been flipped off, ‘coal-rolled,’ and had people deliberately slow down in front of me,” ”
One of these things is not like the others.
I think I’d feel more bad for Cybertruck owners if they weren’t overwhelmingly deeply unpleasant people. As is, I’m not going to feel sorry for people whose entire purpose in life is being deplorable, antisocial jerks to the rest of society.
On the bright side Dodge and Harley Davidson core customer base now have a less auditorily annoying option.
I’m curious how many Cybertruck owners you have actually met? Is your opinion based on personal experiences or are you just making assumptions?
I have only met two Cybertruck drivers; both seemed like okay people, at least from my brief interactions.
I’ve only met one. It was at a car show. Nice guy. All he wanted to do was share his toy with others and talk about it like everyone else who brought a car to the show.
That was basically my experience. I asked both drivers about their vehicles and they were happy to tell me about them. I’m not necessarily a Cybertruck fan, but I like seeing unique vehicles.
You probably shouldn’t bring up Haitian immigrants. Or things might get dicey.
Wow. Talk about stereotyping.
Bad take. Generalizing an entire owner base is exactly why this article was written. How many real CT owners have you met? I’ve met a couple, and they weren’t “deeply unpleasant”, whatever that means.
Oh my god, dude. Some people just have a lot of money and bad taste. Quit stereotyping and give people a break.
With regards to the finger or thumbs. If you buy a vehicle with looks designed to get attention, then expect to get attention… good and bad. You have to know what you’re signing up for by now, right?
throwing and breaking stuff is not OK. And illegal.
Correction: middle fingers are fair game. The other two go beyond “speech” and are rightly prohibited under the law.
I find it interesting that people need to so vocally defend their choices a) to buy a substandard vehicle and b) to put money into the pocket of a reprehensible person.
Oh, you mean like BMW owners who are putting money in the pocket of the Quandt family, who came from Nazis who used many thousands of slave laborers?
Well you might as well add Ford to that list since that company is run by a guy so rabidly anti Semitic and anti union he was of one of Adolf Hitler’s inspirations, to the point of being complimented by name in Men Kampf:
https://www.history.com/news/henry-ford-antisemitism-worker-treatment
I don’t think that guy runs Ford anymore
Nor do the Nazis run BMW anymore. At least not literally.
I’m fine with flipping the bird to people who financially support the guy who lately has become a full on replacement theory/13% racist.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the people who have seemingly made it their life’s mission to hate this vehicle are more annoying than the minority of owners who fondle Elon’s balls on the daily.
We need the temperature turned down in this country, big time.
This 100%!
Imagine getting so mad about a car.
Lot of people in here justifying behavior they wouldn’t accept if this were any other vehicle.
Disagreeing with Elon Musk’s political views is not a reason to be antisocial and rude to a random person who buys a vehicle made by one of his companies.
Really? You don’t think ear shattering loud Dodges and straight piped Harleys, coal rolling and Carolina squatted pedestrian crushers get all the hate too?
Opinions are one thing. Exercising that opinion by being a dick to people who are doing nothing wrong other than driving a weird car is on another level.
Opinions are one thing. Exercising that opinion by being a dick to people who are doing nothing wrong other than driving a weird car is on another level.
Its not my opinion but a fact that a 6800 lb stainless steel razor blade studded battering ram is more dangerous to anyone but the driver in an urban and rural environment than a smaller, lighter vehicle.
All your examples are less defensible than just being a Cybertruck owner because they are either extra loud, polluting on purpose, or both.
But even so, I don’t condone flipping people off for no reason other than what they drive. And I certainly don’t think there’s an epidemic of people flipping off Harley riders or Dodge owners at random.
“All your examples are less defensible than just being a Cybertruck owner because they are either extra loud, polluting on purpose, or both.”
Hey look! The goalposts got moved!
“But even so, I don’t condone flipping people off for no reason other than what they drive.”
You do you. I also don’t flip people off without much greater provocation; however its clear many other people feel differently.
And I certainly don’t think there’s an epidemic of people flipping off Harley riders or Dodge owners at random.
Oh I dunno. There was a whole South Park episode centered on people flipping off Harley riders and redefining the word “fag” just for them.
https://southpark.fandom.com/wiki/The_F_Word/Script
That episode resonated with A LOT of people, far more than is typical.
The goalposts have never moved.
My position since the beginning has been that flipping the bird or being rude to someone just because of the vehicle they drive is wrong, no matter what the vehicle is or what the CEO of the company that built it believes.
If someone rolls coal on me, that’s a deliberate act; you’ve chosen to be rude to me, and I don’t feel bad being rude in return.
If someone is going about their business driving a Tesla, what possible justification do I have to be rude to them?
I still haven’t seen an article like this about a trend of rudeness toward Harley riders, South Park episode or not.
The goalposts have never moved.
Sure they have. Ear shattering loud Dodges and straight piped Harleys, coal rolling and Carolina squatted pedestrian crushers are “any other vehicle”. The posts were moved to “less defensible because they are either extra loud, polluting on purpose, or both”.
I still haven’t seen an article like this about a trend of rudeness toward Harley riders, South Park episode or not.
Do you think that episode came out of a vacuum? If it had it would have died an ironically quiet if somewhat confused death, instead it’s spawned many an internet meme.
But if you want proper articles here, enjoy:
https://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/why-do-cagers-hate-us/
https://xs650chopper.com/why-does-everyone-hate-motorcycles/
There’s even a whole website for jerkoff motorcyclists going out of their way to piss off cops:
https://www.bikesvscops.com/
And in a turn of events that will surprise no-one “A desire for a loud car with a modified muffler is predicted by being a man and higher scores on psychopathy and sadism”
https://cipp.ug.edu.pl/A-desire-for-a-loud-car-with-a-modified-muffler-is-predicted-by-being-a-man-and-higher,162006,0,2.html
What’s not to hate?
Every example you just named requires deliberate choices and actions on the part of the person driving them to be obnoxious and dangerous- judge away. A CT has none of the things you mentioned and affects everyone else far, far less. If you have a problem with the driver whom you know nothing about just because you don’t like the CEO of the company that made it, then might I suggest lessons in not being an immature little tit?
Every example you just named requires deliberate choices and actions on the part of the person driving them to be obnoxious and dangerous- judge away.
And buying an overpowered 6800lb razor edged battering ram with a motorist blinding monobrow is not a deliberate choice?
If you have a problem with the driver whom you know nothing about just because you don’t like the CEO of the company that made it, then might I suggest lessons in not being an immature little tit?
The actions of the CEO have nothing to do with my opinion. My opinion is that the Cybertruck is nothing more than an expensive prop for desperate attention seekers which puts pedestrians, cyclists and others at much greater risk of injury or death than other, safer options.
I will add that my opinion is very location dependent and focused on urban and somewhat on suburban owners, not for rural owners.
Non attention whores who want an electric truck have other options to choose from.
Lol, everything you just listed can be applied to every full size pickup and SUV on sale today. They are all far larger than cars of even a decade ago, and all of them pose a significantly increased risk to pedestrians, cyclists, and fellow motorists. The cybertruck is in no way a significant outlier for any of this (it’s actually smaller than most), and your whining about an expensive prop curiously fails to mention that GMC, Ford, and Ram all have significantly more expensive models than even the most expensive cybertruck you can buy, with about the same likelihood of being used on a job site.
U just a h8ter boi, c u later boi.
Who said my derision is limited to cybertrucks? I detest Hummers and other needlessly oversized cosplay vehicles in crowded sub/urban environments too.
Elon Musk is raising the temperature in multiple countries. So direct your ire at him and his loathsome social media company.
Oh yeah this is definitely the first time anyone has gotten mad about a car. I’m sure you or V10 have never been mad about a car ever.
I’ve certainly been mad about behavior from other drivers and told them about it accordingly, but I have never in my life flipped anyone the bird just because of the vehicle they chose to drive.
Hell, I don’t even flip off people with Packers bumper stickers.
You Minnesotans are too nice.
You gotta own a car people hate. Sure, Cybertrucks get the headlines, but this has been a problem with different cars for so many years. My 2012 Smart has been shot, paintballed (3x), egged, had soup cans thrown at it, keyed, ran off of the road, spat on, and I lost count of the middle fingers years ago.
A lot of this happened over a decade ago, too. The temps in this country do need to come down, but I highly doubt that people being jerks will ever stop.
I just don’t understand this kind of childness from people. There are cars and things I dislike but I will just mutter to myself when driving (unless a person is being an asshole then I may flip them off).
I haven’t dealt with anything this bad but I have had people flip me off when driving my Cummins (sorry for the smoke it is a 92 stick shift really hard for it not to blow smoke when shifting or getting on it to move).
Media echo chambers. When all of your inputs are telling you your opinions are valid and correct and opposing opinions are evil, it becomes really easy to justify acting like a morally correct ass-hat all of the time.
Haha I am a Bears fan and even when my blood boils when I see Packers anything I don’t flip off or give some rando shit for being a Packers fan now if I know them sure I’ll give them shit haha
Lol, are you are really unable to separate a car from the person driving it? Like, are you some sort of alien who thought Cars was a nature documentary? If you drive an even moderately popular car, I guarantee you someone who is entirely your political and ideological opposite also drives the same make, model, color, and spec. How would you feel getting mistaken for them and treated like it? Fucks sake, grow up.
Sure I’m able to, but there are dumb cars out there that shouldn’t have been brought to market or are purchased almost exclusively by assholes, and that’s a pretty normal topic of conversation on sites like this. I’d bet dollars to donuts that they’ve expressed fairly sweeping negative generalizations about certain brands and models just like everyone who’s into cars has.
No one makes any money or acrrues any power doing that, so I’m not hopeful.
After the artillery barrages the newspaper plant in Sarajevo looked like a shoebox that had been stepped on. Sarajevo had hosted the Olympics. Everyone had vacuum cleaners and dishwashers. And then the industrial-grade lying began. I wish I didn’t think about that as often as I do.
Yeah I may dislike everything about the Cybertruck, but being aggressive towards strangers minding their own business is trashy and unacceptable.
“being aggressive towards strangers minding their own business is trashy and unacceptable.”
Musk should probably stop encouraging it then.
Hey, I’m all about Musk getting his. I can’t stand the shitstain.
But I just can’t see the value in flipping other people off, throwing shit at their car, and trying to intimidate others. It’s the same shitty behavior that I think a lot of us condemn your stereotypical CT drivers for. Is stooping to the level of Tesla cultists really worth it? Is following the coal roller method of intimidate and annoy really worth it?
Musk being an irredeemable asshole sucks, but I guess I’m not a “fight fire with fire” type.
This…. people is so aggressive driving, fatal accidents around me are out of control.
Not just cars, go to the store and its the same. People lost their patience and even neighbors are big assholes and they dont care. Like my neighbor with a pitbull mix that takes his dog out with no leash, the city doesnt do anything about it, the dog almost attacked my dog once but I saw it coming from the distance.
There is a lot of division and tension, hopefully things cool down after the election.
Can’t upfist enough. I have regular conversations with people that disagree with me socially and politically. As a one on one we can almost always keep it civil and maybe even change an opinion on one subject or another. There are other people that I keep conversations with at a completely abstract level due to deep seated differences. At least we are still talking and not demonizing the other side.
The winner takes all attitude of modern politics is a poison.
It is so discouraging that people just totally demonize half the country. 99% of our lives consist of our normal day-to-day shit. Yet if you believe what you see online and in media, we are all politics-obsessed and have reduced each other to good side/bad side. It’s a bummer.
Dr. Jamil Zaki has some cool studies on this.
Comments on this article show people need to take it down a notch…. Or about a 100 notches haha