Unpopular Opinion
Welcome to the Unpopular Opinion community!
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Vote the opposite of the norm.
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I agree with your premise. However I think that comparing Tesla and Musk to, say, the CEO of the company where you buy you coffee or clothes is a false equivalence.
The reasons I think OPs point is a bit more valid in the case of Tesla:
I think you're right about extra scrutiny being appropriate for more valuable purchases. However, you also have to consider the fact that most people buy a car every 8-10 years or so. When you compare the money spent on one car, versus money spent on 8 years of food, I think the gap is smaller than you might expect.
To the second point, yes, I think Musk is extremely petty. It's very grating and seems very obnoxious, but I don't think it necessarily follows that being spiteful is going to be worse overall for society than doing what's best for a company's "bottom line". If you look at a company like Nestle, everything they do is for their bottom line, and they're one of the most evil entities on the planet. Kind of the whole problem with large corporations today is precisely that their "bottom line" is in direct conflict with what's best for everyone else.
Twitter's valuation has dropped precipitously since Musk got involved. We have pretty solid evidence that his assholery is directly injurious to the company. I'm not saying that it's any better or worse for society, I'm saying that makes me not want to spend $75k+ for a product from a company that is being destabilized by their fuckboy CEO. When I'm spending that kind of money I want to spend it at a company that I can rely on.
As for the food comparison, how am I supposed to consider 8-10 years' worth of food the same as I consider a single purchase? That it is the same amount of money cumulatively doesn't really matter. 8-10 years of food is thousands of individual purchases and purchasing decisions, each offering an opportunity to adjust my habits or choices. If I buy a car and the company tanks, then I'm not getting updates, I'm maybe dealing with parts availability, etc. If the food I buy spoils or the company who makes it goes out of business because their CEO wanted to own some libs then I'm out the 5 bucks I spent right then on the one item.
Oh, in that case my comment doesn't really apply. I misread the OP and thought they were talking about the moral implications of supporting destructive or unethical companies. If you're just talking about trying to maximize the personal benefit of your purchases, I don't really have any strong opinions on that.
Makes sense!