Political consultant Rick Wilson is brushing off right-wing outrage over the "Kill Tesla, Save the Country" photo he shared online, saying the reaction is just manufactured "moral panic" ... especially since they didn't bother to get context from his linked Substack piece.
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00:00The article is a public affairs and political action plan to drive down
00:06Tesla's stock price to bring the political pressure up on Elon Musk to
00:10stop the destruction that he's causing with Doge and this roughshod trip of
00:14federal arson. Nothing in the article, in fact the article explicitly says things
00:18like peaceful protests at Tesla dealerships. What this is is a bullshit
00:23right-wing moral panic. They're trying to find a headline to turn into a
00:29drama and they're gonna fail because the hard reality is I outlined a plan
00:35that would bring political pressure on Elon, had nothing to do with violence or
00:40terrorism or any of this other garbage. Way before I wrote a substack piece
00:44about that the richest man in the world had a panic attack over, the company is
00:49flailing. They've got old models that are boring and way behind the times. They're
00:53overpriced for what they are. The douche panzer is a failure. It falls apart. It
00:58catches on fire and it's not a big seller. The thing's made out of glue and
01:02not rivets and it's falling apart. The company's in deep trouble. I wonder if
01:08Elon Musk might be better off for his shareholders at Tesla and his board at
01:13Tesla putting a little more time into repairing his car company's product line
01:17and reputation and a little less time having a hissy fit about a substack post.
01:22It reminds me of two magazines which you've just said sounds like more like
01:26it sounds more like Motor Trend than it does Politico because you're talking
01:31about how bad the cars are and that may be true but the other
01:35magazine that comes to mind as I listen to you is Playboy that you know people
01:41say yeah I get it for the articles but no they get it for the pictures and in
01:46this case the picture tells a story in itself and you know
01:53you may say that in the article and kind of explain it but my
02:00takeaway looking at that picture is revolution not you know not upset over
02:08doge not peaceful protest as you say in the article say what you will about
02:12about the the photograph but the photograph is an emblematic sort of thing
02:16to talk about the Trump-Musk relationship as well it's it's got a
02:20symbolic value I didn't choose a photograph of a Tesla charging station
02:25being set on fire or a dealership being defaced or anything like that none of
02:29this none of this moral panic like I say on the right has anything to do with the
02:36reality of what the article says and I know that it's really tempting in this
02:40country to say oh the superficial tweet or the headline or whatever that's the
02:44entire content but the content is the content and my argument is that Elon
02:50Musk is vulnerable to political and social and market pressures on his car
02:55company and Elon Musk is vulnerable to to a a wide range of pressures in the
03:01market right now that stock is down 50% it had nothing to do with my article
03:06that's nothing to do with people being pissed off at me it has a lot to do with
03:10Elon's failing product and Elon's role in doge which has become something where
03:16he's become one of the most hated figures in the country suppose that
03:20before Roe was overturned some you know somebody on the right wing of the
03:26Republican Party wrote an article explaining that they felt that Roe was
03:32a bad decision because it was grounded in a privacy concept rather than equal
03:37protection and so on and so on but the picture the image they used was bombing
03:43an abortion clinic and their argument is well it's not the picture you got to
03:48read the article would you be okay with that look I look at the content of the
03:52message the message is the message the content is the content the idea that the
03:56headline defines the entire piece is is a classic sort of of logical fallacy
04:02this is about a plan a program to bring pressure on Elon Musk to stop some of
04:07the things that he's doing to reduce his ability to intimidate people politically
04:12in this country to reduce his ability to deploy his massive amount of Tesla
04:17driven money against political candidates