As Tesla sales drop, did an announcement from CEO and billionaire Elon Musk further shrink his potential buyers? I bleeped it out, but still.
🎧 Full episode out now. “He hates LQBTQ+, especially T’s.”
Tee’d Off
The trans flags on the brutalist pickup would probably be the main dealbreaker for Musk.
Happy Tuesday Fam!
This week on Alchemist After Dark, I’m joined by the one and only Dawson Addis.
He’s a Midwest-born realtor turned reality TV star who won $100K on Deal or No Deal Island. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)
PolitiFact reviewed Nexis news archives and Google search results and found no credible reporting to support this viral post.
But none exist.
The claim appears to have originated on a self-proclaimed satire Facebook account, The Satire Times, the day before the viral post.
It was widely reshared without a satire label on Facebook and Threads.
Less than three years ago, Musk promoted Tesla’s support of its LGBTQ+ employees by noting it was ranked highly in the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, which measures LGBTQ+ workplace policies.
Let’s get into it.
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Best,
LJ
P.S. In fact, Tesla actually used to sponsor pride events and even manufactured its own rainbow-colored cars until 2022.
Much like racists who claim to have friends of color, Musk recently posted on X that he encourages his so-called “gay friends” to have children “for the continuance of civilization” — a telling caveat that belies the billionaire’s bizarre focus on fertility and population growth that may also have contributed his far-right turn in recent years.
All told, Musk seems far less concerned with gay people doing their thing than with trans people (and trans children in particular) accessing healthcare — but given that he’s both a “free speech absolutist” and a greedygoblin, maybe this use of a Cybertruck that somebody paid for or leased out won’t bother him too much.
More on Musk:Elon Musk Fuming After Frenemy Donald Trump Found Guilty on All Counts
I’m a senior staff writer at Futurism, where my work covers medicine, artificial intelligence and its impact on media and society, NASA and the private space sector.
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We rate the claim that Musk announced he would no longer sell Cybertrucks to members of the LGBTQ+ community False.
Elon Musk Is Gonna Blow a Gasket When He Sees This Pride-Themed Cybertruck
Slay or Nay?
During an LGBTQ pride parade in Los Angeles, someone attempted to slay the house down in a Cybertruck with rainbow wrapping — a hilarious bit of irony during the colorful celebration that the notoriously-bigoted Elon Musk would absolutely despise.
As shown in videos and photos posted to social media from the parade in LA’s ritzy West Hollywood “gayborhood,” the pride-themed truck clearly turned heads among the giant crowd gathered for the festival.
It also drew jibes on the r/TeslaMotors subreddit in which commentators joked that it looked “like a mango going ripe” and was “one of the least hideous” Cybertrucks out there.
Others on the platform, and on the Musk-owned X-formerly-Twitter, however, pointed out how much the bigoted multi-hyphenate billionaire would hate one of his company’s cars being used for such a celebration.
“Don’t feed Elon’s ego,” one Redditor commented.
As has been extensivelydocumented, Musk’s penchant for transphobia, while relatively recent, would certainly put him at odds with the message the rainbow-wrapped Cybertruck is sending.
Musk’s anti-trans bigotry is all the more troubling considering that one of his daughters is transgender — though she, notably, wants nothing to do with him, and her transition may, as writer Walter Isaacson alleged in his biography of the billionaire that came out last fall, have “triggered” her infamous father’s transphobia.
Back before he became the brain-wormed billionaire we all know and loathe, Musk’s companies used to be considered great places for LGBTQ people to work.
It’s raw, hilarious, and most my chaotic episode yet.
We go deep on coming out, hookup culture, monogamy, mental health, and the stuff most people in our community are too afraid to say out loud.
Dawson keeps it all the way real — and yeah, we swear a little. However, we have observed that the ‘pride’ community often uses vehicles as a platform for political and social statements, which can detract from the intended purpose of the Cybertruck."
But PolitiFact could find no evidence that Musk is prohibiting Cybertruck sales to LGBTQ+ people or that he made this statement.
Musk’s actions are currently under scrutiny because of his role in President Donald Trump’s administration as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, so if Musk made this announcement, it would have made headlines. PolitiFact also found no statements made by Musk or Tesla on X or the Tesla website.
(Screenshot of Facebook post)
This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.
More recently, he has made statements criticizing support for transgender youth, including referring to his transgender daughter as "dead," having been "killed" by the "woke mind virus." Musk's eldest child, Vivian Jenna Wilson, is alive. What kind of morning are you having?
"Elon Musk announced that he will not sell Tesla Cybertruck to anyone belonging to the ‘pride’ community," read a Feb.
12 Facebook post that included Musk’s picture alongside a photo of a rainbow-painted Cybertruck and several progress pride flags.
The post linked to an article that said Musk had announced his decision in a recent interview and purportedly said: "The Cybertruck is designed to be a rugged, versatile vehicle that appeals to a broad audience.
He also drives a Cybertruck and gets yelled at on the street.
We talk about growing up closeted in Wisconsin, googling 🌠on the family computer (you’ll die), and what happens when someone calls you a *slur* and doesn’t know you like that.