{"id":1789846,"date":"2022-12-29T14:18:27","date_gmt":"2022-12-29T19:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1789846"},"modified":"2022-12-29T14:18:30","modified_gmt":"2022-12-29T19:18:30","slug":"tesla-owner-concerned-his-virtue-signaling-car-has-become-a-vice-because-elon-musk-supports-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tesla-owner-concerned-his-virtue-signaling-car-has-become-a-vice-because-elon-musk-supports-free-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Tesla Owner Concerned His Virtue-Signaling Car Has Become A Vice Because Elon Musk Supports Free Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftesla-owner-concerned-his-virtue-signaling-car-has-become-a-vice-because-elon-musk-supports-free-speech%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1789846&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Would you believe that a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/california\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Santa Monica tree hugger<\/a> who was originally peer-pressured into buying a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/tesla\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tesla<\/a> by his liberal friends is now concerned that his virtue-signaling car has become a vice due to the way <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/elon-musk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Elon Musk<\/a> is running Twitter?<\/p>\n<p>Of course you would. That\u2019s probably one of the most believable scenarios you\u2019ll hear all year.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, The Los Angeles Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/opinion\/story\/2022-12-28\/tesla-elon-musk-twitter-conservative-environment-electric-vehicles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">thought the scenario noteworthy enough<\/a> to publish a nearly 700-word screed by a former magazine editor named John Blumenthal about the latest leftist lamentations regarding free speech.<\/p>\n<p>A few years ago, Blumenthal had driven a car powered by fossil fuels \u2014 which made him a \u201chypocrite.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe car was impractical, but it had sentimental value,\u201d he explained in the story. \u201cMy environmental activist friends were not impressed by my assiduous urban composting, LED bulb installations and energy-saving appliances. I needed to do more to diminish my carbon footprint. The icebergs were melting, my friends said, and at least one polar bear was wandering around homeless and hungry because of me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So Blumenthal purchased a Tesla, which he felt was \u201cpricey but worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet now that the Tesla founder has allowed for Twitter\u2019s policies to be more in line with the First Amendment, Blumenthal is again worried about what his friends might think of his car and his moral stature.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause of the recent revelation of Elon Musk\u2019s political views \u2014 all of which I abhor \u2014 I\u2019m starting to worry about what sort of political statement the car is making,\u201d the writer fretted. \u201cWill people see me as a symbol of right-wing environmentalism, a living oxymoron?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The author says that he is \u201chorrified\u201d by Musk\u2019s political views \u2014 exactly which stances he doesn\u2019t quite say. His only argument is that Musk is allowing unseemly characters on Twitter while banning journalists.<\/p>\n<p>Blumenthal neglects to mention that Musk\u2019s recent bans of journalists were in accordance with the rules he created and is now applying equally. As Musk put it, journalists aren\u2019t \u201cspecial.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So, Blumenthal now wonders whether he should sell his Telsa as a form of\u00a0 \u201cprotest\u201d against one of the world\u2019s richest men.<\/p>\n<p>He acknowledges that the sale of the car wouldn\u2019t actually do much to deter Musk from his beliefs, but he does believe it could make him feel better.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a beautifully designed car with no carbon emission, and initially, I was proud of owning it and being seen driving a vehicle that displayed my concern for the environment,\u201d Blumenthal claimed. \u201cBut I\u2019m a liberal, and if Musk\u2019s politics don\u2019t change radically for the better, driving a Tesla will become, at least for me, as hypocritical and untenable as driving a gas guzzler was.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In other words, he admits he mostly bought it so he could be \u201cseen\u201d supporting the correct causes.<\/p>\n<p>Blumenthal\u2019s column unwittingly exposes the modern Left\u2019s unseriousness of the problems at hand.<\/p>\n<p>Far from being the individual critical thinkers they believe, they simply follow the crowd on all topics of the day.<\/p>\n<p>They often make decisions not out of any genuine concern or logic, but because a mob of people bullies them into making the \u201cright\u201d choice. In this case, Blumenthal\u2019s friends are the mob. If he wants to fit in with his California comrades, then he better dress the part and ditch the Tesla.<\/p>\n<p>First, their judgy natured pushed him toward the electric vehicle, now he\u2019s under the impression he must sell that same car to fit in with the in-crowd.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, he could just decide to be a grown man and not be concerned with what others think, but then he might lose his friends.<\/p>\n<p>The other thing is that it would appear that climate change is out as the most threatening thing in the world, and instead, a commitment to free speech has come to the surface of the latest leftist hysteria.<\/p>\n<p>So, it looks like Blumenthal may sell his Tesla so that the social justice warrior crowd doesn\u2019t associate him with Twitter\u2019s so-called fascist-in-chief \u2026 a man who stands against big government in bed with Big Tech.<\/p>\n<p>He has to broadcast his support by promoting certain symbols. It\u2019s sort of like those people online who fill their profiles with Ukrainian flags and BLM fists or put up those \u201chate has no home\u201d yard signs on their lawns. For leftists, it\u2019s always the thought and most superficial tangible sign of support that counts \u2014 not the actual outcomes certain policies and beliefs create.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, the important thing for progressives isn\u2019t that they actually create changes that help the world, no, what matters is that they signal to other liberals they\u2019re part of the same team.<\/p>\n<p>What a tiresome existence.<\/p>\n<p><em>The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Would you believe that a Santa Monica tree hugger who was originally peer-pressured into buying a Tesla by his liberal friends is now concerned that his virtue-signaling car has become a vice due to the way Elon Musk is running Twitter? Of course you would. That\u2019s probably one of the most believable scenarios you\u2019ll hear &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":326,"featured_media":1789851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[8171,4511,6202,4249,4250,6263,4554,9787,6734,5259,9493,6195],"class_list":["post-1789846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire","tag-car","tag-concerned","tag-daily","tag-elon","tag-musk","tag-owner","tag-speech","tag-supports","tag-tesla","tag-vice","tag-virtue-signaling","tag-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1789846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/326"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1789846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1789846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1789851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1789846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1789846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1789846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}