More Perfect Union@MorePerfectUS
Nov 13, 2022
8 tweets
We agree. Tricking people is not okay. So let’s look back at some Elon Musk history:
Like when he tricked the Department of Energy and Daimler-Chrysler in order to save Tesla. 
Elon Musk@elonmusk
Nov 11 22
View on Twitter
To be more precise, accounts doing parody impersonations. Basically, tricking people is not ok.
In 2008 when the Department of Energy opened a program to give loans to electric vehicle manufacturers, at first Tesla wasn’t a viable candidate because they didn’t have institutional support from traditional automakers.
Tesla couldn’t get support from traditional automakers because they didn’t have cash-on-hand…the kind of cash the DoE loan would provide.
So Tesla announced they got the loan before they’d even applied, as @E.W. Niedermeyer told us in this video: youtu.be/PU7QM3MZ2Vs
That announcement gave Daimler-Chrysler confidence to invest. That investment gave the government confidence to give Tesla the loan.
That loan made Tesla look good enough for an IPO, bringing in millions from individual investors.
Their SEC filing admits the loan was essential.
Years later Elon pulled the same trick. He tweeted, “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.” That wasn’t true. There was no such funding.
But before anyone found that out, Musk had caused billions in damages to shareholders.
Earlier this year it was reported that Musk admitted he lied about building the Hyperloop purely to disrupt other public transit options. twitter.com/brenttoderian/
Brent Toderian@BrentToderian
Aug 10 22
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“Elon Musk admitted to his biographer that the reason the Hyperloop was announced—even tho he had no intention of pursuing it—was to try to disrupt the California high-speed rail project to get in the way of that actually succeeding.” — @Paris Marx @Gizmodo gizmodo.com/silicon-valley
And just this month, the New York Times reports, Musk tricked the media, public, and Twitter staff into thinking there would be no layoffs. That was a lie. twitter.com/ericuman/statu
Eric Umansky@ericuman
Nov 12 22
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Two weeks ago, I tweeted that Musk reportedly planned to fire Twitter staff right before their bonuses were gonna be paid.
@Elon Musk responded, "This is false."
Today the NYT, citing 6 sources, says that was exactly Musk's plan.
nytimes.com/2022/11/11/tec
Tricking people is not okay. But Elon Musk built an empire on it.
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