Posture entrepreneurs, symbolic politics, cancel culture...
Critical tones, which I also deal with alongside all the positive encouragement, are not only welcome, but essential in a democratic society.
Entrepreneurs with an attitude of gratitude?
In the circle of family entrepreneurs, we often ask ourselves how far we can venture in political discourse. I have always argued that the Weimar Republic also came to an end because the business community at the time was passive to skeptical and that democratic discourse should always be polyphonic.
Tesla exit as pure symbolic politics?
That's right! But how else can we defend ourselves against the omnipresent opinions of Elon Musk and co. that do not stop at national borders?
Cancel culture against Tesla drivers?
No! Anyone who doesn't buy a Tesla for the sake of the environment is welcome to continue doing so. I even share the opinion of Frank Thelen, who wrote to me yesterday: without Elon Musk, electric cars would probably still be a niche market and the hoped-for turnaround in transportation would be a long way off.
But it is also a fact that Elon Musk's support for Trump does not benefit climate change. The widely read US website for electromobility and sustainable energy "Electrek", which is not suspected of being anti-Musk, is inspired by my post and states:
"He sold tens of billions worth of Tesla stocks to buy Twitter, fired Tesla's charging team who built the best EV charging network in the world, killed cheaper EV programs, "fully endorsed" a candidate for US elections who has been actively working against Tesla's mission, and called for the end of EV incentives, which Tesla benefited from greatly but are now more needed for other EV startups."
The importance of prudent policies to tackle climate change is demonstrated by the EU's recently adopted methane regulation: one third of current climate change is due to methane emissions from gas pipeline leaks, for example. Someone who cancels the Paris Climate Agreement will not be much help in this regard.