The poll shows that public views of Musk are increasingly polarized, with Republican support of the billionaire rising while Democratic support falls.

Elon Musk’s support among Democrats has withered to a new low as he has embraced Republican politics, according to a national NBC News poll.

Only 6% of Democrats in the poll, which was conducted Sept. 13-17, said they had positive feelings about Musk, while 79% said they had negative feelings. The numbers were flipped for Republicans, with 62% having positive feelings toward him and 14% negative feelings. Independents were split, 31% to 36%.

The poll shows that views of Musk are increasingly polarized, reflecting the transformation of his public image in recent years from that of an environmentally aware automaker crusading against fossil fuels to that of a conservative activist aligned with former President Donald Trump.

  • garretble@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    “I, a genius, will alienate the group who want EVs to curry favor with the group who will never buy EVs. Genius, I say.”

    • beebarfbadger@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      The next tesla model will have a coal oven inside it. Will still run on electricity, the oven is just in there so you can do some pollution too. The main factor in making the electric part palpable to republicans will be telling them how brown people are being exploited to get the materials for the batteries out of the ground.

      • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Nah, it will be worse. Tesla will start selling a hybrid model with a generator onboard that can charge the battery as you go. That generator will be designed to be fueled by ground-up burning tires, unrecycleable plastic, and human hair. .

  • LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Fuck Elon

    Fuck Tesla

    Fuck Xitter

    Fuck Spa Sex

    Fuck Starlink

    Did I miss anyone? Oh yes, and Fuck Elon.

  • 2ugly2live@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Who. Fucking. Cares.

    (Not directed at OP, just the idea of the survey in general. Who needed to know this information? Why do they think the public needs to know how popular a random rich guy it’s.)

    • pyre@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      he’s not a random rich guy and claiming that is either disingenuous or irresponsible. though i get the frustration, just because he’s a demonic troglodyte you wish you never heard about anymore doesn’t mean you get to ignore his existence. then they get to do whatever they want.

      pushback, scrutiny and ridicule are the only tools we have against massively influential cunts. and because they’re massively influential, their popularity matters.

      • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        There’s also the fact that if people hate him enough and realise how genuinely stupid the guy is, they’ll start wondering if the economic system that allowed him to amass the wealth of a country as millions starve might be doing it wrong.

        • pyre@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          even before that, if enough people hate him, his personal brand would become toxic and his influence would hopefully shrink.

    • gt24@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Someone may want to know if you are a Democrat or Republican (for advertising, for gerrymandering, whatever). That person may not be able to ask you a direct question like that though (or may feel that you may lie about the answer to such a question anyway).

      As such, they likely carry out occasional surveys asking people who are Democrat or Republicans for their opinions on something else. Once they find something else that can strongly correlate your political affiliation with a specific opinion, they know of a new question they can ask someone. That new question should generally reveal what your political party is most likely and they can then proceed with that “most likely” answer.

      So “who cares” is those who cannot directly ask you something. They will ask you something else and use that answer to deduce the information they cannot obtain directly.

    • calcopiritus@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Considering how politically active he is, he might become a politician (even running for president?). A lot of people will care about this if suddenly Elon musk appears in American ballots.

      EDIT: I just remembered that Elon cannot run for USA president. But idk if other political positions are open.

      And seeing how trump can break every law, I don’t see what would prevent Elon from running for president.

      • repungnant_canary@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        That’s kind of a paradox - we can’t stop reporting actions of assholes like him because they do things borderline dangerous to society, but that exact reporting gives them the popularity to do all that

    • angrystego@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Money is power. Rich people are more powerful than politics. We should care much more about them than we do now. Musk is dangerous. He’s also visible and that’s a good thing. The quiet invisible ones are even more dangerous.

    • EnderMB@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Pretty much every media outlet across the world.

      The opposing party in the UK is electing leaders, and they’ve all been asked what they think of him. Like it or not, but in turning one of the biggest multi-billion dollar social media platforms into a small million dollar right-wing platform for crypto bots, he’s now got a lot of influence on politics across the world.

      What makes it funnier is that he probably doesn’t give a fuck about the Tories in the UK, but if Trump loses he’ll own a right-wing platform with zero influence on what he cares about.

    • mycodesucks@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      YOU might not. But I’m sure the politicians and bureaucrats who determine whether Musk’s businesses continue getting billions in taxpayer funded subsidies would sure like to know if the public is behind continuing to do that. I for one would consider it a bonus if say, the Democrats won control in November, looked at the numbers and decided none of their supporters are behind Musk, determined he’s been playing fast and loose using taxpayer dollars to fund pushing his own political agenda, and turned off the free ride.

        • mycodesucks@lemmy.world
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          They don’t. But if they already have it in for someone, which the Democrats in Congress almost certainly do right now, public opinion can give them a cover to act.

          It’s certainly not for our benefit, but if one group of shitlords wants to take another shitlord down a few pegs, I’m certainly going to enjoy the show.

  • WolfdadCigarette@threads.net@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    Something to avoid- standing near a parked Tesla with sentry mode enabled drains its battery significantly as it tracks you. Locating a camera and displaying a paper sign, one light enough to blow in the wind that reads “musk sucks”, would accomplish the same thing, and should also be avoided.

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      2 months ago

      While funny… I think you underestimate how big the battery in a Tesla is and also how little power the computer would pull.

      THAT said… I wonder if there is a drive somewhere that could be filled doing that?

      • WolfdadCigarette@threads.net@sh.itjust.works
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        From what I understand, it wastes an extra ~2%/hr. A tragic sum, if done repeatedly throughout the week. I think it overwrights old data as the drive fills. I can’t see utility in that, aside from mischievously scrubbing old footage.

        • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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          It’s nowhere near 2% an hour. It’s like ~300w/h to keep it all running, and they said they were going to reduce that further by 40% in the near future, so ~180w/h

          300w/h on a 62kw/h (model 3 standard range) battery is 0.48% an hour. You’d lose 3.82% for an 8h workday, and soon to be 2.29%

          And the % would decrease as the battery is larger like a long range vehicle.

          I’m not saying this is ideal, but 2%/h is just flat out wrong, and almost a whole order of magnitude after the update.

                • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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                  2 months ago

                  The battery has the power for 62,000 watts hours. Sentry mode (pretty much leaving the computer on) draws 300 watts per hour.

                  So you could leave sentry on for 62,000 / 300 hours or 206 hours before it kills the battery before the update. (Edit on a standard range model 3)

                  Edit: so ya it’s power draw, no acceleration, just power draw.

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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    62% positive isn’t really the flipside of 79% negative.
    If you combine the 6 and 62% positive and estimate they are about equal size demographics, it’s only about 34% positive combined, with 47% negative.
    I bet that when Tesla collapses, the 62% positive republicans will decline too. Republicans are only positive towards him because they think he is some sort of money guru.

    Tesla is losing marketshare hard in Europe, and probably in China too, if it isn’t happening already in USA it is probably imminent, as Tesla developments of new cars can’t keep up with the pace of the competition, and Tesla models are looking more and more outdated. Tesla is already looking like a failing company, despite they have by far the biggest marketshare in pure EV.

    • mean_bean279@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Tesla also lost a ton of the initial talent that made the model S and X such incredible feats of technology. IMO, if I buy and electric car here in the states it’s a Lucid, and if I get an SUV it’s a Rivian.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        The new Lucid air looks awesome, FFS 1234 hp and 1.9 sec 0-60 mph !! The more moderate Touring trim is $85k which comes to almost $110k here with taxes.
        That’s a bit above my pay grade, but the BMW i4 is very popular here (Denmark) and is almost half that. A way better option than any Tesla IMO.

    • Redfugee@lemmy.world
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      This isn’t reflected in the stock price. It’s one of the stocks I keep an eye on and I constantly see articles about the company in trouble and losing market share and yet the stock continues to keep ticking up. I’ll believe it’s failing when the market starts to turn on it.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        A lot of people believe Tesla isn’t a car company anymore, but an AI and energy company. And the stock value seems to be based on that.
        But those branches bring in very little revenue, and I doubt Tesla will ever succeed in those branches.
        Musk has promised for 8 years that fully autonomous driving would be available next year. But they are not even a leader like they claim.
        Musk is either nuts or a con man.

  • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Is that the 6% that are buying Tesla’s? Seriously though it’s not like the right are buying his electric cars

  • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    I mean… yeah.

    I do wonder what the reason for those 6% are,

    Not surprised there are some, but do they support some of what he is doing or are they tolerant?