Dave Rahardja<p>I recently encountered several car enthusiasts who dismiss the criticism of <a href="https://sfba.social/tags/Tesla" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Tesla</span></a> as a <a href="https://sfba.social/tags/Fascist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Fascist</span></a> car company by saying, “wait till you learn about VW”, or “do you know who Porsche was?”</p><p>First of all, two wrongs don’t make a right. The hypothetical existence of other Fascist companies does not excuse the existence of another.</p><p>Second, Volkswagen Auto Group acknowledges their past, condemns it, and work to repair their evil (<a href="https://www.volkswagen-group.com/de/historie-15914" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">volkswagen-group.com/de/histor</span><span class="invisible">ie-15914</span></a>). While Ford the car company doesn’t directly address Henry Ford’s antisemitism on their website, the head of the Ford Foundation (which owns non-voting shares of FMC) has explicitly condemned it (<a href="https://www.fordfoundation.org/news-and-stories/stories/rejecting-the-rising-tide-of-antisemitism/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">fordfoundation.org/news-and-st</span><span class="invisible">ories/stories/rejecting-the-rising-tide-of-antisemitism/</span></a>).</p><p>Their acknowledgement of past evil, and their explicit opposition to it, is an important distinction between these Hitler-era companies and Tesla today. Elon’s current embrace of <a href="https://sfba.social/tags/Fascism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Fascism</span></a> should have caused Tesla to reject and fire him on the spot, but they have not. That is materially different.</p><p><a href="https://sfba.social/tags/whataboutism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>whataboutism</span></a> <a href="https://sfba.social/tags/cars" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>cars</span></a> <a href="https://sfba.social/tags/vw" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>vw</span></a> <a href="https://sfba.social/tags/ford" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ford</span></a></p>