Fred Lambert (Electrek): I sold all my Tesla shares (TSLA), here's why
Fred Lambert (Electrek): I sold all my Tesla shares (TSLA), here's why
I fully divested from Tesla (TSLA), selling all my shares. I’m going to try to explain why. At Electrek, we...
Not to be hyperbolic, but this reminds me of when cult members describe the process of them becoming disillusioned with the leader until they finally decide to leave. I'm serious when I say that modern corporations, especially in tech, can often be quite cult like. There is often some charismatic, visionary, larger-than-life personality at the center. Many of the people who work at these companies aren't so much employees as they are disciples. They are members of the leader's cult of personality. Many investors, too. They have fully bought in to the leader's vision, and some will follow their leader seemingly no matter what.
This person even has that kind of wistful tone of a cult member who had to leave the cult because they couldn't ignore the leader's increasingly problematic behavior anymore, but still believes in their vision and wishes things could have turned out differently.
There's nothing wrong with having a vision or wanting to build a better future, but be very, very cautious about any movement centered around a single personality. In the case of Musk, the warning signs have been there for a while. I think the best representation of this was when Musk guest starred on the Simpsons almost ten years ago, and was introduced as "possibly the greatest living inventor!" It was the height of Musk propaganda.
I will never buy a Tesla, so long as the Musk cult exists. I'm sure Teslas are good cars, but I will not support the cult of Elon Musk. He is too dangerous.
I don't think Lambert was ever a member of the Elon cult (which of course very much exists). He's always been pretty critical of the guy. But a couple of years ago it was really not too far fetched to believe that Tesla actually wanted to change the world for the better.
Tesla did change the world for the better. Elon took the financial rewards and is using them to offset all of the improvements with catalyzing social issues into worse social issues.
He absolutely was. Early on, there was literally nothing Elon could say or do that would make Fred question Elon's integrity or genius. The change in Elon's relationship with Fred came when Fred finally actually owned a Tesla vehicle and realized it was a piece of shit. He had the audacity to ask Elon questions about quality problems people were reporting and Fred finally believed, on open Twitter, which got Elon to block Fred temporarily at least. What happened next in the community is the most predictable thing ever, as the True Believers turned on Fred and accused him of everything under the sun.
Having been a disciple, I mostly agree. In this case, the cult got a lot of shit done and the result (advancing electrification of cars) has been a major net positive for society. I got my Model 3 over 6 years ago, having been in the line to plunk $1000 down to reserve the car sight-unseen.
When I saw how long the line was, I immediately ran home and bought as many shares as I could. I have always treated Tesla as two entities: the company who produces the car and is the personality cult, and the stock which takes advantage of that. I grew disillusioned with Elon a few years ago, but I kept the stock because I saw the trend.
That trend is over now. It’s a shame, because Elon of 2010 is so different from the one now. He was far from perfect, but he and I desired the same future. Now, not so much.
I sold the rest of my shares when the robotaxi was announced. Any FSD owner knows that’s laughable. The stock was in a slump and this boost was my cue to exit, stage left. The company has completely lost its way and is now a piggy bank for a fascist. I couldn’t in good conscience keep this company in my portfolio.
It’s gonna sting come tax time, but that means Tesla has made me a lot of money. Thanks Tesla, we had a great thing going but you will collapse under your hubris.
I took part of my proceeds and Yolo’d it at Rivian. Like Tesla years ago, it’s a diluted stock for a company with a good bit of cash, in a battle against time to produce a mass-market desirable car. They seem to have that with the R2 (I have a reservation) and I hope they can pull off the insanely difficult task of scaling successfully. The stock will either go to the moon or zero. The bet has much more upside than downside in my opinion. Also, their CEO hasn’t turned fully evil (yet).
I sold the rest of my shares when the robotaxi was announced
Which time? Because that's been announced multiple times a year since 2014.
Fair question. I meant the most recent one, which is supposedly a purpose-built machine. Other times it was just “you’ll be able to make your Tesla earn money for you by driving around by itself”. This time I expect them to trot out some cyber-looking box with no motor, break a couple windows, and claim it’ll be on the street in a month.