There’s Nothing Righteous About Vandalizing Teslas
It’s just violence.
In my neighborhood just outside of Washington, D.C., most Tesla owners I come across now have a bumper sticker with the words “I bought this before Elon went crazy.” What was once a symbol of middle-class eco-consciousness has turned into a toxic badge of political allegiance. That allegiance of course is to Elon Musk, the master of “DOGE” and destroyer of many of my neighbors’ jobs.
The huge upsurge in bumper stickers isn’t just about signaling your opposition to the world’s richest man, it’s about protecting your Tesla—and yourself—from physical harm.
There has been a huge increase in vandalism against Tesla showrooms, vehicle lots, charging stations, and privately owned cars across the country. That includes attacks on dealerships, Molotov cocktails thrown at Teslas, fires set at charging stations. There has been an increase in reports of physical confrontations with Tesla owners, and some accounts of actual violence. Someone I know was screamed at while driving her Tesla in nearby Bethesda and was concerned for her safety.
That someone was my wife.
More on that later.
Understandable Anger
I understand the anger many feel toward Musk. He’s become a symbol of everything broken in corporate capitalism—a billionaire who uses his wealth to dismantle public institutions while enriching himself. His flirtation with authoritarian politics, alliance with Donald Trump, and near-constant stream of conspiratorial rhetoric on X have only deepened the sense that he’s actively working against democracy. Musk’s vision of a future dominated by billionaires, unregulated AI, and private space colonies seems, at the moment, to be unstoppable. With Trump in power there is no accountability for him and Musk is free to enact his authoritarian fantasies.
It is easy to see why the rage has boiled over into real world acts of vandalism and violence. How else do you hit back at the world’s richest man?
But the destruction of private property—and the physical threats now facing ordinary Tesla owners—reflects something deeper and more troubling in segments of left-wing activism.
Dehumanize the Opposition
We saw a version of this mindset in the aftermath of the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The alleged killer, Luigi Mangione, has been celebrated by some on the far left as a kind of martyr, with disturbing online tributes framing the murder as a justified blow against corporate power. One set of merchandise (there are many) featured the phrase, “In this house, Luigi Mangione is a hero. End of story.” Another hot-off-the-shelves item—a T-shirt—proclaimed that Mangione was “guilty” only “of stealing my heart.” The left-wing journalist Taylor Lorenz wrote an op-ed in the aftermath of the Thompson killing entitled “Why ‘we’ want insurance executives dead.” That anyone could view a cold-blooded execution as a legitimate act of resistance speaks to a dangerous moral erosion in left-wing politics—one where violence is not just excused, but valorized, so long as the politics are correct.
We’ve seen similar dehumanization around protests against Israel’s invasion of Gaza. Many critiques of the Israeli government are fair and necessary. But in some corners of activism, the rhetoric crosses into outright bigotry—Israelis cast as white supremacist colonialists, Jews as symbols of global oppression, and “Zionists” as legitimate targets of violence. Columbia student Khymani James went so far as to say that people should be “grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.” This isn’t the language of justice. It’s the language of dehumanization.
As tempting as it is to indulge in some sort of Robin Hood narrative involving Musk, the attack on Teslas isn’t just about him. It’s a distortion of left-wing justice itself—a tradition that once prided itself on empathy, tolerance, and principled resistance. Vandalizing cars, harassing drivers, and setting dealerships on fire might feel cathartic, but it has nothing to do with activism, let alone the left’s proud tradition of civil disobedience. It’s just violence. And it betrays the very values the left claims to champion.
Tesla owners are no longer seen as individuals, with their own stories, motivations, and beliefs. They’ve been turned into a monolithic scapegoat—a stand-in for everything that’s wrong with capitalism or conservatism. But this is the same kind of moral certainty the left so often condemns on the right: the belief that any means are justified if your cause is righteous enough.
Tesla as a Symbol of Power
Tesla cars now represent political allegiance to Elon Musk and Donald Trump, and attacking them is considered fair game.
I witnessed an example of this in my hyper-liberal neighborhood, where the owner of an orange Tesla Cybertruck has been subjected to torrents of abuse on our local Facebook group. An entire thread was dedicated to shaming him after a photo of his car and his house was posted online. I found the lack of empathy or consideration for our neighbor to be quite shocking. In this context, the personal story didn’t matter at all. Perhaps the owner was a sci-fi fan who had dreamed of getting a futuristic car as a boy and was finally able to make that dream come true. Maybe he was gifted the car by a dying relative, or had saved up for decades to get himself a cool car.
Whatever the story might be, I feel that I can sympathize with it.
Long before Musk went off the deep end, I bought my Tesla after a brutal year and a half battling a chronic illness. At one point, I feared I had cancer. I promised myself that if I got through it, I’d do something just for me. When I finally got the all-clear, I bought a used, bottom-of-the-range Tesla. It’s the first nice car I’ve ever owned, and I love driving it. But now, because of who made it, that car has become a liability. Its value has plummeted. My wife was shaken after being screamed at in traffic. She worries every time she drives it. I can’t afford to replace it—and I shouldn’t have to. Why is my car considered fair game?
Is it really okay to destroy people’s property in the name of fighting capitalism? What about the people who work at Tesla? Do they deserve to go to work in fear of having Molotov cocktails thrown at their dealership? The refusal of left-wing activists to even indulge questions like this is a sign of something having gone deeply wrong in activist culture. All that matters is to be “on the side of the powerless,” to “stand with the oppressed.” And that often means taking a childish stance of failing to think through consequences, to imagine how a protest might escalate or whom it would actually end up hurting.
None of this is a defense of Elon Musk. I find much of what he says and stands for appalling. But when the left begins excusing vandalism, harassment, or even violence because they dislike the target, they lose the moral high ground they claim to stand on. The left can tell itself that this is righteous anger—that a keyed car or a slashed tire is just a small price to pay in the fight against power. But it isn’t.
The scariest part isn’t just that some protestors are willing to justify violence—it is that they’ve convinced themselves it’s virtuous. If the left wants to retain any claim to moral seriousness, it must reject political violence no matter who it’s aimed at. Because if the left only opposes violence when violence comes from the other side, the left is not defending principles, just defending their own team.
I won’t put a bumper sticker on my Tesla. I understand why others have, but on principle I won’t signal my moral opposition to Elon Musk just to keep my car from being keyed. That feels less like activism and more like yielding to intimidation. This is an intense time and it calls for difficult moral choices. That’s my moral choice. Others need to think hard and make theirs.
Ben Cohen is the editor-in-chief of The Banter Newsletter in Washington, D.C. and host of The Banter Roundtable podcast.
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Vandalizing Teslas is stupid for so many reasons:
1. It kind of invalidates the whole climate change narrative- I guess if hatred for one guy is more important than saving the planet, it's not such a crisis is it?
2. I'm guessing the majority of Tesla owners are what you could consider LIberal, Democrat, or left-leaning, which means you are destroying the property of your "fellow believers".
3. As with the above, there are probably many climate conscious investors and entities who have Tesla stock which is now in danger of bottoming out.
4. Protesting against a person, a government or a policy is perfectly reasonable and within the rights of citizens. Vandalizing, harassment and destruction of property are not, and should be punished maximally.
5. It's not going to change anything and is just going to piss a lot of people off.
It is absurd that this piece needed to be written. The next thing we know, someone will need to explain why rioting and looting are wrong.