Elon Musk Claims Anti-Tesla Protests Are Secretly Funded By George Soros, Actually

The people are not happy with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. All he wanted to do was buy his way into government, get rid of all those pesky regulators who care about things like safety and the environment and revel in the cheers from an adoring crowd. But apparently, when you illegally fire veterans, buddy up to the ultra-far-right and tank the economy, people get mad instead of cheering. Instead of apologizing, promising to make things right and actually following through on his promises, Musk took a page out of Republicans' playbook and decided to go with the classic, "Actually, these protests aren't real and are instead funded by George Soros."

That will probably play well on Fox News, where they've spent years telling themselves all the things they don't like are a Jewish billionaire's fault and that he also pays protesters to pretend to be mad about stuff. Normal people who don't have time to consume ultra-far-right propaganda all day, on the other hand, are probably going to be harder to convince. And if Musk is already blaming Soros, that's an encouraging sign. The protests and plummeting stock price are clearly getting to him, which means the protests are working.

As the bumper sticker says, everything looks like a conspiracy when you don't understand how anything works. And Musk's followers definitely don't know how most things work, so it isn't surprising to see him attempt to blame these protests on Republicans' favorite boogeyman and a few other people the vast majority of you will probably have to Google. In reality, no one should be surprised that multiple organizations are involved since it's a movement, not a club. Also, if you've donated to a Democratic candidate at some point in the last decade, it probably went through ActBlue because it's so widely used for fundraising and, to a certain extent, organization. Ultimately, it's more of a payment processing platform than anything else, but there's a good chance that in Musk's view, you're considered an ActBlue funder.

Musk's decision to include Herbert Sandler and Patricia Bauman on his list of people secretly funding the anti-Tesla protests has also raised a few eyebrows since they are both dead and unable to do anything. You know, because they're dead. Then again, when you're just making stuff up, why stop with Soros? Go ahead and include some dead people to make this a transdimensional conspiracy. It's not like any of his followers care about what's true in the first place anyway.

That said, it is true that ActBlue has seen several high-profile resignations recently, and Republicans have also launched a couple of investigations. But it's also important to remember that Republicans will investigate anything if they think it might help them politically. Maybe they'll find something more substantial than a few photos of the president's son's hog. Maybe they won't. Either way, it really isn't relevant to the protests. If anything, it just makes it look like he's searching for some flimsy excuse to interfere with Democratic fundraising efforts.

As Vanity Fair reports, what started as a series of small protests around the country has grown into a massive anti-Elon Musk movement. We won't know how significantly they're hurting Tesla's bottom line until we see official sales numbers, but if you look at the stock price, you can understand why Musk would be concerned. At the time of writing, Tesla is trading at about $231 a share — down nearly 15 percent in the last five days. Year-to-date, it's down an incredible 39 percent. 

A normal board at a normal company would almost definitely kick its CEO to the curb if his actions crashed the value of the stock that badly, but since Tesla's board is full of Musk loyalists, he probably doesn't have much to worry about there. What he does have to worry about, though, is the fact that as Tesla's stock price falls, so does his wealth. And he desperately needs the stock price to remain high so he can borrow money against the value of his shares. You also know it has to be killing him to watch his status as the richest person in the history of the world start to slip through his fingers as Tesla's value falls far below $1 trillion.

More than 350 people reportedly showed up outside a Tesla dealership in Manhattan on Saturday while a similar protest took place in nearby Brooklyn. As New York State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal told Vanity Fair, the protests have been happening for weeks, and every week, they get bigger. And they aren't just taking place in NYC or other cities such as Portland that are known for protests that get national attention. If Tesla has a presence in your city, there was probably a protest this weekend, whether you live in Charlotte, St. Louis or even Tucson.

While the protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful, their growing popularity means there's a greater chance some overzealous individuals will take things a little too far. It's also no secret that Republicans love to join protests in an attempt to incite violence and undermine the movement. In fact, there's a good chance that when someone tells you Black Lives Matter protests turned violent, they're either talking about violence started by right-wing bad actors or cops itching for any excuses they could find to beat someone senseless. So it isn't terribly surprising to already see reports of occasional vandalism associated with these protests. 

Considering how quickly things are escalating, it's understandable that some people might feel the urge to take bold action even if it means breaking the law, but it's also important to avoid jumping to conclusions about who is behind certain acts and what their motivations were until they've actually been identified. Republicans have a long history of doing this kind of thing, after all. Oh, and there's also a pretty good chance that new leftist friend who tries to convince you to do something violent is a fed, which is just extra motivation to keep things as peaceful as possible. If you're going to go to jail for something, don't let it be because you let an undercover FBI agent talk you into doing something blatantly illegal.

As egregious as Republicans' actions have been over the last six weeks or so, it's important to keep showing up, but it also doesn't help anyone if you end up in prison before Trump even invokes the Insurrection Act. Surely, it's just a coincidence that the 90-day time period ends on Hitler's birthday, right? Maybe Trump just wants to chill and smoke a lot of weed that day. Still, if it's getting under Musk's skin, the protests are clearly working. Even if we never manage to make Musk truly poor, at the very least, we can make sure he isn't nearly as wealthy as he was when Trump entered the White House for the second time. Still, I wouldn't complain if he did end up truly poor, though.