Photo: Instagram / Alyssa Milano
You always have the option of disavowing a public figure if you don’t align yourself with their beliefs and policies. But if that public figure is Elon Musk, who also happens to make electric cars at Tesla, then you can stop supporting him by refusing to buy his products anymore.
Add a larger platform to the mix, and you could have the key to getting the ball rolling on yet another cancellation. This seems to have been the reasoning for former Charmed star, actress and producer Alyssa Milano. Over the weekend, she took to Twitter to announce that she’d traded in her Tesla for an EV from a rival company because of the way Elon Musk was running Twitter. She’s now the owner of a Volkswagen ID.4.
It didn’t go as planned, as you can imagine. Even Musk himself joined in the general mockery, calling Milano a clown for the obvious ignorance she was showing in choosing a carmaker that had been founded by the Nazi – “literally,” as the kids these days say all too often.
Below is Milano’s statement. She says she ditched her Tesla because she could no longer support Musk for the way he enabled hate speech on Twitter, which he bought only some weeks ago for $44 billion and which, according to critics, is turning into an alt-right dumpster fire. Milano is one of those critics, and she used her announcement to urge advertisers to stop buying ad space on Twitter because “Publicly traded company’s products being pushed in alignment with hate and white supremacy doesn’t seem to be a winning business model.”
Musk’s supporters came out in droves to defend him and the new policies he’s already implemented at Twitter, including the amnesty over previously banned accounts. Some pointed out Milano’s former statements, others called her a cult member and mocked her recent career choices, while others pointed to a well-known historical fact: Volkswagen was founded by the Hitler regime, and hosted four concentration camps and eight forced-labor camps on its property. Saying you choose VW over Tesla because of hate speech is the very definition of irony, they said.
Musk agrees. He replied to one tweet pointing out VW’s Nazi roots, which includes the clown emoji, with the laughing emoji and “100.” Whatever rapport these two had back in 2016 when Milano took to Twitter to congratulate Musk on building such an awesome electric vehicle like the Model X, and Musk thanking her for the support, is long gone.
As the controversy turned into a personal attack, Milano refused to engage. But she did say this, also indirectly with a retweet: Volkswagen became an international marque after its new leader rejected their Nazi roots, whereas Tesla is going the other way, first becoming an internationally loved carmaker and then turning down this dangerous, hate-filled path.
It didn’t go as planned, as you can imagine. Even Musk himself joined in the general mockery, calling Milano a clown for the obvious ignorance she was showing in choosing a carmaker that had been founded by the Nazi – “literally,” as the kids these days say all too often.
Below is Milano’s statement. She says she ditched her Tesla because she could no longer support Musk for the way he enabled hate speech on Twitter, which he bought only some weeks ago for $44 billion and which, according to critics, is turning into an alt-right dumpster fire. Milano is one of those critics, and she used her announcement to urge advertisers to stop buying ad space on Twitter because “Publicly traded company’s products being pushed in alignment with hate and white supremacy doesn’t seem to be a winning business model.”
Musk’s supporters came out in droves to defend him and the new policies he’s already implemented at Twitter, including the amnesty over previously banned accounts. Some pointed out Milano’s former statements, others called her a cult member and mocked her recent career choices, while others pointed to a well-known historical fact: Volkswagen was founded by the Hitler regime, and hosted four concentration camps and eight forced-labor camps on its property. Saying you choose VW over Tesla because of hate speech is the very definition of irony, they said.
Musk agrees. He replied to one tweet pointing out VW’s Nazi roots, which includes the clown emoji, with the laughing emoji and “100.” Whatever rapport these two had back in 2016 when Milano took to Twitter to congratulate Musk on building such an awesome electric vehicle like the Model X, and Musk thanking her for the support, is long gone.
As the controversy turned into a personal attack, Milano refused to engage. But she did say this, also indirectly with a retweet: Volkswagen became an international marque after its new leader rejected their Nazi roots, whereas Tesla is going the other way, first becoming an internationally loved carmaker and then turning down this dangerous, hate-filled path.
I gave back my Tesla.
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) November 26, 2022
I bought the VW ev.
I love it.
I’m not sure how advertisers can buy space on Twitter. Publicly traded company’s products being pushed in alignment with hate and white supremacy doesn’t seem to be a winning business model.
This shouldn’t need to be said but here we are…. https://t.co/sBgcXGFq8M
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) November 27, 2022
????????
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 26, 2022
Google News