While Elon Musk and his acolytes go through the federal government in search of agencies to throw in the “Wood Chipper,” Fluent effort to strike the richest man in the world, where it hurts, picks up steam.
The courts are involved in controlling the actions of the Musk Department of Government Performance, but the judicial system is slow – and citizens have disgrace.
Some in the United States, who are worried about Musk’s government bloodshed, sold their Teslas, or went straight to vandalism.
But hundreds of others are now planning to protest at Tesla merchants across the country on February 15 -a movement that rapidly exploded this past week by the researcher of disinformation Joan Donovan and accelerated by a documentary filmmaker and Bill & Ted’s franchise star Alex Winter on Bluesky.
“As citizens, we have different points of a lever,” Donovan said in an interview with Techcrunch. “One talks to our representatives, but another publicly calls the attention of robbing the federal government data, and especially the way Musk works without transparency, and, it seems, also impunity.”
What started in Bluesky spread to planned protests outside Tesla shows across the country in cities such as Austin, Portland, Seattle, Kansas City and Mesa, Arizona.
Tesla and Musk did not respond to requests for comment. Techcrunch will update if Musk or the driver responds.
The encouragement for Donovan – who is also an auxiliary professor of journalism at Boston University, but said she acts in her ability as a US citizen – came when she saw the first few small protests outside Tesla stores last week.
“I was inspired by some protest in Maine, where people brought some signs to Tesla -loading station, and how this caused some conversation and allowed people to meet each other and discuss what was happening,” Donovan said.
So, earlier this week, Donovan started posting.
“If Musk thinks he can rush through DC by downloading personal data, we can definitely hit some pots and food on the sidewalks. [sic] by Tesla -merchants, ”she wrote On February 8, linking to Tesla’s own list of its shops in the United States, she added Hashtag, “#Teslatakeover.”
Winter who worked with Donovan to organize presentations of its 2022 Documentary The YouTube effect at universities, told Techcrunch that he saw the posts and reached her to help organize the effort.
“Sell your teslas, empty your stock, join the pirate lines,” winter Posted To Bluesky on 10 February. “To hurt Tesla stops Musk, and to stop Musk will help save lives and our democracy.”
After that post, Winter and Donovan encouraged people to set up their own local Tesla -taking events. On Friday afternoon, people set up 42 protest events throughout the United States, including California, Florida, Texas and New York.
Winter told Techcrunch in an interview he partnered The interrupt projectA group that offers training for people interested in massive activity. He said that hundreds of people so far have various events, and that more every day appear. Winter also said he even heard from people who plan them internationally.
The protests are more than the formation of optics and construction of a community, Winter said. Musk’s vast wealth is largely linked to his possession of about 20% of Tesla’s shares. This makes him somewhat vulnerable to large swings in the company’s stock price – twice as much as he borrowed incredible money against those shares.
While the right dollar amount is unknown, since April 2024’s regulatory registration, Musk used nearly 60% of all Tesla shares he owned at the time As a guarantee for loans. Theoretically, if Tesla’s share price were low enough, Musk’s lenders might require him to repay what is still owed, or at least make him renegotic their terms.
“The long goal is to undermine, to create a vote without confidence in the future of the company and to encourage widespread sales of shares, which would legally hurt him,” he said. “But I also see an enormous value in only the public activist education and literacy aspect of this.”
The background of winter makes him well prepared for this education endeavor. He made documentaries about the Panama papers (a project that exhibited financial crime and corruption around the globe), and the possible damage to the algorithmic feed of YouTube. He is also involved in the ”Release our currents“An initiative that is trying to build an open social media system in Bluesky’s at Protocol.
With that in mind, it’s no surprise that he said he cares about Musk’s influence on Techniko for years.
Donovan said she believes Musk “really uses the fact that many Americans are unaware of how the government actually works” while spreading this misinformation. She cares that it will lead to violence – especially since Musk and his supporters sing government workers, judges and their family members.
That’s another reason why Donovan said she wants people to go out and protest.
“I hope people come together, acting locally but thinking worldwide about these protests, and find other more local ways to resist,” Donovan said. “I think one of the things that Musk has overlooked is that power does not come from the federal government, power comes from the states, and there is much what different state agencies can do to re -teach the power of the federal government to to force responsibility.
