I have a (much) longer -- and even more belated -- answer to this brewing but for now here's a good piece by hamilton nolan on one thing that can be done right now (as a response to the defiance of of judicial orders it may seem somewhat indirect, but as political activism it's extremely direct, with speedy and observable consequences)
"The billionaire is ready to exit [the administration] because he is tired of fielding what he views as a slew of nasty and unethical attacks from the political left"
And mind you, Tesla value tanking doesn't break my heart; here's an Associated Press story entitled "Musk’s embrace of right-wing politics risks turning off car buyers and sinking Tesla’s stock."
Nonetheless, despite my deep and extraordinary LACK of experience and savvy as a political activist, I think trying to hurt and distress something because it's available to be hurt and distressed is a terrible organizing tactic and terrible political strategy in the long run. "Potential buyers can easily be turned off by having to pass protesters calling them Nazis when they go to browse for a new car." Yes, but this is not how you build a political movement that actually achieves its goals.
Don't know whether picketing Tesla would be a good tactic or not, but this guy isn't the one to sell me on it. Never read the guy before, but he comes across as someone who likes to call people Nazis and thinks that calling them Nazis or Nazi-enablers is an effective way to change their behavior in his favor. Not only don't I think he's right, I wouldn't want to walk next to him on a picket line – though I suppose I would if the picket line really were necessary and there was no way to stay away from him. --Anyway, not only is his reasoning wrong or shaky all through (at least about the behavior of potential allies among car consumers; he might have a better bead on investors, but I wouldn't count on it), it simply disappears at the final stage. That is, even if Tesla loses three-quarters of its value, I don't see how that changes Trump's or Musk's or DOGE's political behavior, much less that of Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski [plus two players to be named later].
The blog title "How Things Work" is a turnoff, too. I suppose my calling my LVW column "The Rules Of The Game" could've been a similar turnoff, but I was exploring, wondering, questioning, discovering, while this guy thinks he knows and is going to tell us. And he's wrong. (Doesn't mean he isn't right about *something*, or doesn't have anything to teach [e.g., I didn't realize that Tesla investing is in the tulip bulb, gold, bitcoin stratosphere].)
Bcz you’re wrong here I spent days fashioning a response here to sidestep your legendary stubbornness in a way that enlightened you more than it irritated you.
But then I stepped back: why had my flibbertigibbet brane zoomed in on particular this idea at all? I mean yes, #TESLAtakedown hits Musk right in the vaporware (the unreality of his wealth) and it has international media heft and plenty of memic legibility — but those aren’t your strengths and in fact they cut across my actual first instinct.
You were asking what can you do as a writer?
My “actual first instinct”: you (you Frank Kogan) should be seeking out actions and activists and community organising local to you, in community centres, in the apartments of neighbours, in the streets even [over-romantic rhetoric klaxon], and discover how your skills (your writing, your legendary stubbornness) can adapt to their needs. And yes, start with ones you have comfortable affinity for — the point is to escape your computer screen and rediscover the physical world, standing next to the people you will be building a movement with. Which will not begin with a pre-formed hand-me-down — fair to say the juice is all out of those.
Remember that Voice piece you wrote for Chuck about Columbine? That tale-telling is a key to your gift. What isn’t perilous to reveal you can ably broadcast, filling in the spaces from an overlooked world. You can talk about their passions and their confusions, what they (and you) want and don’t want, what they (and you) know and didn’t know (until you met up and began chatting). There’s a WMS continuity here, to the sidestepping of what is (which is after all failing you) for something truer and more granular.
My sister for example does a lot of refugee-work on the coastal south-east in the UK; here she is in the middle of this crowd (two down from the central picture of the raised fist, with her glasses up on her head): https://www.therefugeebuddyproject.com . From afar I can only guess at what the equivalents will be. Constructive solidarity with local govt workers and vets (or trans kids or Palestinians), confrontational gatherings to stymie ICE raids? I don’t know what’s buzzing in Denver. You will know once you go and find out.
Adding and amplifying (since I was just chatting with her about all this): people likely to be targeted — people who deserve this solidarity — are out of a canny learned distrust extremely leery of being exposed by name on the panoptical internet, with its larger platforms so routinely eyeballed by eg the ”feds” (as even UK youngsters now call them).
I have a (much) longer -- and even more belated -- answer to this brewing but for now here's a good piece by hamilton nolan on one thing that can be done right now (as a response to the defiance of of judicial orders it may seem somewhat indirect, but as political activism it's extremely direct, with speedy and observable consequences)
https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/tesla-is-more-vulnerable-than-you
"The billionaire is ready to exit [the administration] because he is tired of fielding what he views as a slew of nasty and unethical attacks from the political left"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/04/21/doge-musk-trump-federal-employees-emails
And mind you, Tesla value tanking doesn't break my heart; here's an Associated Press story entitled "Musk’s embrace of right-wing politics risks turning off car buyers and sinking Tesla’s stock."
https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-doge-tesla-boycott-showrooms-stock-european-sales-e6459a0207f1318a1110e3d15e89956c
Nonetheless, despite my deep and extraordinary LACK of experience and savvy as a political activist, I think trying to hurt and distress something because it's available to be hurt and distressed is a terrible organizing tactic and terrible political strategy in the long run. "Potential buyers can easily be turned off by having to pass protesters calling them Nazis when they go to browse for a new car." Yes, but this is not how you build a political movement that actually achieves its goals.
Don't know whether picketing Tesla would be a good tactic or not, but this guy isn't the one to sell me on it. Never read the guy before, but he comes across as someone who likes to call people Nazis and thinks that calling them Nazis or Nazi-enablers is an effective way to change their behavior in his favor. Not only don't I think he's right, I wouldn't want to walk next to him on a picket line – though I suppose I would if the picket line really were necessary and there was no way to stay away from him. --Anyway, not only is his reasoning wrong or shaky all through (at least about the behavior of potential allies among car consumers; he might have a better bead on investors, but I wouldn't count on it), it simply disappears at the final stage. That is, even if Tesla loses three-quarters of its value, I don't see how that changes Trump's or Musk's or DOGE's political behavior, much less that of Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski [plus two players to be named later].
The blog title "How Things Work" is a turnoff, too. I suppose my calling my LVW column "The Rules Of The Game" could've been a similar turnoff, but I was exploring, wondering, questioning, discovering, while this guy thinks he knows and is going to tell us. And he's wrong. (Doesn't mean he isn't right about *something*, or doesn't have anything to teach [e.g., I didn't realize that Tesla investing is in the tulip bulb, gold, bitcoin stratosphere].)
Bcz you’re wrong here I spent days fashioning a response here to sidestep your legendary stubbornness in a way that enlightened you more than it irritated you.
But then I stepped back: why had my flibbertigibbet brane zoomed in on particular this idea at all? I mean yes, #TESLAtakedown hits Musk right in the vaporware (the unreality of his wealth) and it has international media heft and plenty of memic legibility — but those aren’t your strengths and in fact they cut across my actual first instinct.
You were asking what can you do as a writer?
My “actual first instinct”: you (you Frank Kogan) should be seeking out actions and activists and community organising local to you, in community centres, in the apartments of neighbours, in the streets even [over-romantic rhetoric klaxon], and discover how your skills (your writing, your legendary stubbornness) can adapt to their needs. And yes, start with ones you have comfortable affinity for — the point is to escape your computer screen and rediscover the physical world, standing next to the people you will be building a movement with. Which will not begin with a pre-formed hand-me-down — fair to say the juice is all out of those.
Remember that Voice piece you wrote for Chuck about Columbine? That tale-telling is a key to your gift. What isn’t perilous to reveal you can ably broadcast, filling in the spaces from an overlooked world. You can talk about their passions and their confusions, what they (and you) want and don’t want, what they (and you) know and didn’t know (until you met up and began chatting). There’s a WMS continuity here, to the sidestepping of what is (which is after all failing you) for something truer and more granular.
My sister for example does a lot of refugee-work on the coastal south-east in the UK; here she is in the middle of this crowd (two down from the central picture of the raised fist, with her glasses up on her head): https://www.therefugeebuddyproject.com . From afar I can only guess at what the equivalents will be. Constructive solidarity with local govt workers and vets (or trans kids or Palestinians), confrontational gatherings to stymie ICE raids? I don’t know what’s buzzing in Denver. You will know once you go and find out.
Adding and amplifying (since I was just chatting with her about all this): people likely to be targeted — people who deserve this solidarity — are out of a canny learned distrust extremely leery of being exposed by name on the panoptical internet, with its larger platforms so routinely eyeballed by eg the ”feds” (as even UK youngsters now call them).
Anyway this is absolutely where I’d begin.