{"id":122753,"date":"2025-06-11T13:02:31","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T21:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/06\/11\/french-tesla-owners-sue-car-company-because-elon-musk-is-dragging-their-reputation-through-the-mud\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T13:02:31","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T21:02:31","slug":"french-tesla-owners-sue-car-company-because-elon-musk-is-dragging-their-reputation-through-the-mud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/06\/11\/french-tesla-owners-sue-car-company-because-elon-musk-is-dragging-their-reputation-through-the-mud\/","title":{"rendered":"French Tesla Owners Sue Car Company Because Elon Musk Is Dragging Their Reputation Through The Mud"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
(Photo by ANGELA WEISS\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s a point where every person who is a fan of Kanye West\u2019s music has to come to terms with recognizing that dude\u2019s a Nazi. For some it was when Alex Jones of all people had to tell him to chill out on the \u201cHitler had redeemable qualities\u201d claims<\/a>. For others it was the track HH<\/a> \u2014 those two Hs stand for exactly what you think they do. Playing anything that Ye has recently put out will get you side-eyed for many things, one of them likely being his Nazi sympathizing. You could play something from Graduation and earlier, but you will still get side-eyed.<\/p>\n

Which brings us to Elon Musk. There\u2019s a point where every person that owns a Tesla has to come to terms with recognizing that Elon is very comfortable with Nazis. For some it was when he cozied up with the AfD or when he sieg-gave-his-heart-out shortly after Donald Trump\u2019s re-election. Driving around in a Tesla after everything Musk has done will get you side-eyed:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

As a linguist who conducts critical discourse analysis, I\u2019m intrigued to learn people are now calling Teslas \u201cSwastikars\u201d because, well, the Tesla CEO is a Nazi.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Uju Anya (@UjuAnya) January 26, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Faced with this reality, what do you do? It\u2019s a little harder to change out your car than to take Kids See Ghosts out of the rotation. Some people are rebranding their Teslas:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Shame over owning an EV associated with the world’s richest Nazi, Elon Musk, is causing Tesla owners to do some funny shit. $TSLA<\/a> \ud83d\ude02\ud83e\udd23\ud83d\ude02\ud83e\udd23\ud83d\ude02\ud83e\udd23\ud83d\udc47 pic.twitter.com\/wxql05rzwc<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Bill Madden (@maddenifico) March 25, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Some people who bought a Tesla before Elon Musk started duck walking at the podium are having their property damaged:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\ud83d\udea8#BREAKING<\/a>: A North Carolina man, who refused to go on camera out of fear for his own safety, discovered the word “NAZI” etched into the side of his Tesla today.<\/p>\n

He says he bought the car 5 years ago and just finished paying it off this month.<\/p>\n

No arrests have yet been made\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/UGSpEHKtSV<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Matt Van Swol (@matt_vanswol) March 29, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The reputational damage Musk has been doing isn\u2019t just an American phenom. Tesla owners in France are getting their reputations hurt by Musk\u2019s actions and they want to sue Tesla over it. Reuters<\/a> has coverage: <\/p>\n

\n

\u201cTesla vehicles have become powerful political symbols and are now perceived as true far-right \u2018totems,\u2019 much to the dismay of those who purchased them solely as innovative and eco-friendly vehicles\u201d, the plaintiffs\u2019 lawyers Patrick Klugman and Ivan Terel at law firm GKA said in a statement.
\u2026
The group is seeking to terminate their lease contracts and recover legal costs at the Paris Commercial Court, citing the \u201cdirect and concrete\u201d harm caused by Musk\u2019s public behaviour after he rallied in support of Donald Trump\u2019s presidential bid and Germany\u2019s far-right AfD party.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There should be a threshold question: what model of Tesla are these litigants driving? There is some credence if they\u2019re lamenting the social value of their Model T going to shit, but any plaintiff making this argument with a Cyber Truck needs to get slapped with a summary judgment. Cyber Truck is to Alt-Right grifter as Subaru Outback is to shared homeowners that historians will describe as \u201cgood friends.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n

Umm, no you didn’t. That Kenmore refrigerator monstrosity you’re driving wasn’t released until after Elon went full nazi pic.twitter.com\/twgLMVKVc7<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Liam Nissan\u2122 (@theliamnissan) March 27, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So far 10 Tesla leaseholders are in on the suit. Gotta bump those numbers up! In the meantime, here\u2019s a picture to drive the Elon Musk and Kanye West are doing the same dumb shit point home: <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n

Twitter crop is gone so here is Kanye West and Elon Musk in Yeezys pic.twitter.com\/W4UP0ulz3P<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 ye4us (@ye4us) May 5, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While I commend the suit, they should have seen the reputational costs coming from miles away.<\/p>\n

Some French Tesla Drivers File Lawsuit Over Harm Allegedly Caused By Musk\u2019s Behaviour<\/a> [Reuters]<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post French Tesla Owners Sue Car Company Because Elon Musk Is Dragging Their Reputation Through The Mud<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(Photo by ANGELA WEISS\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s a point where every person who is a fan of Kanye West\u2019s music has to come to terms with recognizing that dude\u2019s a Nazi. For some it was when Alex Jones of all people had to tell him to chill out on the \u201cHitler had redeemable qualities\u201d claims<\/a>. For others it was the track HH<\/a> \u2014 those two Hs stand for exactly what you think they do. Playing anything that Ye has recently put out will get you side-eyed for many things, one of them likely being his Nazi sympathizing. You could play something from Graduation and earlier, but you will still get side-eyed.<\/p>\n

Which brings us to Elon Musk. There\u2019s a point where every person that owns a Tesla has to come to terms with recognizing that Elon is very comfortable with Nazis. For some it was when he cozied up with the AfD or when he sieg-gave-his-heart-out shortly after Donald Trump\u2019s re-election. Driving around in a Tesla after everything Musk has done will get you side-eyed:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

As a linguist who conducts critical discourse analysis, I\u2019m intrigued to learn people are now calling Teslas \u201cSwastikars\u201d because, well, the Tesla CEO is a Nazi.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Uju Anya (@UjuAnya) January 26, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Faced with this reality, what do you do? It\u2019s a little harder to change out your car than to take Kids See Ghosts out of the rotation. Some people are rebranding their Teslas:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Shame over owning an EV associated with the world’s richest Nazi, Elon Musk, is causing Tesla owners to do some funny shit. $TSLA<\/a> \ud83d\ude02\ud83e\udd23\ud83d\ude02\ud83e\udd23\ud83d\ude02\ud83e\udd23\ud83d\udc47 pic.twitter.com\/wxql05rzwc<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Bill Madden (@maddenifico) March 25, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Some people who bought a Tesla before Elon Musk started duck walking at the podium are having their property damaged:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\ud83d\udea8#BREAKING<\/a>: A North Carolina man, who refused to go on camera out of fear for his own safety, discovered the word “NAZI” etched into the side of his Tesla today.<\/p>\n

He says he bought the car 5 years ago and just finished paying it off this month.<\/p>\n

No arrests have yet been made\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/UGSpEHKtSV<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Matt Van Swol (@matt_vanswol) March 29, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The reputational damage Musk has been doing isn\u2019t just an American phenom. Tesla owners in France are getting their reputations hurt by Musk\u2019s actions and they want to sue Tesla over it. Reuters<\/a> has coverage: <\/p>\n

\n

\u201cTesla vehicles have become powerful political symbols and are now perceived as true far-right \u2018totems,\u2019 much to the dismay of those who purchased them solely as innovative and eco-friendly vehicles\u201d, the plaintiffs\u2019 lawyers Patrick Klugman and Ivan Terel at law firm GKA said in a statement.
\u2026
The group is seeking to terminate their lease contracts and recover legal costs at the Paris Commercial Court, citing the \u201cdirect and concrete\u201d harm caused by Musk\u2019s public behaviour after he rallied in support of Donald Trump\u2019s presidential bid and Germany\u2019s far-right AfD party.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There should be a threshold question: what model of Tesla are these litigants driving? There is some credence if they\u2019re lamenting the social value of their Model T going to shit, but any plaintiff making this argument with a Cyber Truck needs to get slapped with a summary judgment. Cyber Truck is to Alt-Right grifter as Subaru Outback is to shared homeowners that historians will describe as \u201cgood friends.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n

Umm, no you didn’t. That Kenmore refrigerator monstrosity you’re driving wasn’t released until after Elon went full nazi pic.twitter.com\/twgLMVKVc7<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Liam Nissan\u2122 (@theliamnissan) March 27, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So far 10 Tesla leaseholders are in on the suit. Gotta bump those numbers up! In the meantime, here\u2019s a picture to drive the Elon Musk and Kanye West are doing the same dumb shit point home: <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n

Twitter crop is gone so here is Kanye West and Elon Musk in Yeezys pic.twitter.com\/W4UP0ulz3P<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 ye4us (@ye4us) May 5, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While I commend the suit, they should have seen the reputational costs coming from miles away.<\/p>\n

Some French Tesla Drivers File Lawsuit Over Harm Allegedly Caused By Musk\u2019s Behaviour<\/a> [Reuters]<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post French Tesla Owners Sue Car Company Because Elon Musk Is Dragging Their Reputation Through The Mud<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Photo by ANGELA WEISS\/AFP via Getty Images) There\u2019s a point where every person who is a fan of Kanye West\u2019s music has to come to terms with recognizing that dude\u2019s a Nazi. For some it was when Alex Jones of all people had to tell him to chill out on the \u201cHitler had redeemable qualities\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":122754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Chris-Williams-2025-X8RxY4.jpeg?fit=512%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}