strangecosmos
Non-Member
Trent, you comments in this thread seem to me to be missing an important point, namely that much of the discussion around Tesla is not proceeding under good faith. It is not regular disagreements between individuals. You earlier post (19) contains lots of great stuff for communicating with good faith and is helpful for elevating discourse.
I think what many are struggling with is the bad faith nature of events like Dan's harrasment. ...reasoned responses are simply overwhelmed or responded to with harrassment. If the misinformation is ignored, it spreads. If it is challenged, they overwhelm or intentionally devolve to threats.
I agree that what you described does indeed happen. There are some very vocal people out there, such as Montana Skeptic, who bully, insult, and harass rather than engage in a real conversation. However, there are also folks like Professor Scott Galloway who do engage in good faith and simply present an argument backed up by financial metrics and other evidence.
Conversely, there are also Tesla fans who bully, insult, and harass folks who disagree with them, and who even target journalists like Dana Hull. My view is that this behaviour is bad, regardless of which side of the Tesla debate you happen to agree with.
I want to challenge the tribalistic narrative of “those shorts are bad, but us longs are good!” That is missing the point. We shouldn’t draw the line between pro-Tesla and anti-Tesla, or long Tesla and short Tesla, but between people who engage in respectful, good faith conversations and people who behave abusively and either aren’t able or willing to have a real dialogue.
Abuse is always bad, and never justified. Disagreement, on the other hand, is super useful because it helps you challenge your ideas. Disagreement is good and should be encouraged. Shutting down or villainizing anyone who happens to disagree with your position (as a few Tesla fans are wont to do) is dangerous and wrong. So, I think we should be pro-disagreement and anti-abuse.
We should definitely block and ignore folks like Montana Skeptic who are abusive. But we should relish the chance to hear an opposing view from someone like Professor Galloway.