Elon Musk’s bullying ways

Fast Company

“Tesla is not normal,” said Cale Guthrie Weissman. That was emphasized to me as I watched an interaction play out recently between a “financial writer who didn’t much care for Tesla” and a “thin-skinned billionaire.” The former had written a post online, under the pseudonym Montana Skeptic, arguing that Tesla’s stock was overrated. It so got under the very thin skin of Elon Musk that he uncovered the writer’s real-world identity and contacted his employer. Why would Tesla’s chief executive bother to target this critic? When I asked, Tesla did something very strange: It gave me the name of the writer and his employer, along with a phone number and a suggestion

that I call the writer’s bosses. “In essence, the $50 billion company wanted me to harass someone who dared criticize it.” Musk and Tesla’s response is brazen, but sadly routine. “In 2018, it’s now commonplace to see millionaires and billionaires act out as if they were victims of an oppressive system, expecting to get away with anything.” This sort of behavior starts at the top “and then it trickles down.” Rather than questioning the sanity of such a move, Musk’s press team simply barrels on. These disturbing, reckless corporate reactions are becoming more common, but they’re not normal. “And we shouldn’t allow them to be.”