Seems like that would be ripe for a prisoner's dilemma scenario.
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if this is what has been going on- "paying" billions into a short position to try to slow down the move to sustainable energy and transport is the smallest of peanuts if it works for even a year for the massive industries (each multi-trillion dollar) Tesla is working on disrupting.
The short position is helpful to the "controversializing*" of Musk, Tesla, and EVs, AND it makes Tesla's capital raises more expensive. I think both of these have bought significant cover from criticism for the global ice-makers stalling on EVs for years past and years to come (ie narratives such as "Tesla/Elon are a mess," "still can't make money on EVs," by cover for ICE incumbents' foot dragging re moving to EVs). Of course, such stalling has been and will continue to be massive benefit to the fossil fuel industry (well, their perceptions of narrow material interests).
*this is a term from Sharyl Attkisson, who quit an extremely successful career at CBS network news due to her frustration of how commercial interests (the requests of sponsors) were determining what airs and what does not air on major media outlets. what's gone on with Tesla misinformation, in accelerating fashion over the past several years comes across as almost certainly a text book example of the forces distorting media programming, and their techniques, including this concept of "controversializing."
Remember Elon's appearance on Joe Rogan? The "click bait"/"bad news sells" move would have been, "Billionaire Genius Entrepreneur Declares We Are All Going To Die at the Hands of AI" with details of how Elon described for 20 minutes, at the start of the podcast, literally going to congress and all 50 governors and no one listening to his directly warning that fact finding and a response are needed today or we will all die due to AI. Instead of such headlines, we got an epic flow of pearl clutching media efforts trying to "controversialize" Musk for taking a puff of a joint (a brief moment an hour plus into the podcast) when most American adults have no issue with marijuana (IIRC, most have smoked it), and the state of California, where this occurred, considers it legal to smoke).
here's some background on Sharyl,
"Sharyl Attkisson is a nonpartisan investigative journalist, five-time Emmy Award winner, and recipient of the Edward R. Murrow award for investigative reporting. She is author of two New York Times best sellers: “The Smear: How Shady Political Operatives and Fake News Control What You See, What You Think and How You Vote,” and “Stonewalled.” "
About | Sharyl Attkisson
Highly recommend researching Sharyl's experiences and analysis to Elon Musk, and Tesla's board (TMCers as time permits as well).
