Like a lot of people, I’m exhausted watching Elon Musk and other billionaire tech oligarchs use their wealth and influence to enable authoritarianism and far-right politics.
A while back, I started giving every Cybertruck I saw the finger. Then a friend of mine, who drives a pre-Musk-meltdown Tesla (back when Tesla was a brand with positive vibes), got a thumbs down and a disappointed head shake instead. I liked that approach a lot more, so I adopted it.
But I wanted to do something beyond expressing my disappointment from behind a steering wheel.
I know this isn’t the same as organizing rallies or mobilizing thousands of people, like the leaders and organizers of 50501 are doing. But it was a small way I could contribute, so last week I built this:
https://thumbsdownforelon.org
It’s a completely free, non-commercial website dedicated to calling out Musk’s behavior, sharing information, and giving people a simple way to express their opposition.
There are free sticker and decal templates you can download, print, and put on your vehicle, laptop, or wherever else you feel like making a statement.
No sales. No profits. No mailing lists. Just information, free designs, and a little DIY protest.
I’m not pretending a bumper sticker is going to bring down a “trillionaire”. But I do believe that normalizing opposition matters. Whether Tesla owners intended it or not, buying and driving a Tesla has helped support a company whose CEO is now using his wealth, influence, and platform to enable fascist and far-right politics.
That’s the point: people may not like Musk, and they may never have meant to support his politics, but their money still helped empower him.
If you’ve got a printer, some sticker paper, and a healthy dislike of fascism-enabling billionaires, have at it.
And if you’ve got suggestions for improving the site or ideas for additional designs, I’d love to hear them.
F oligarchs and F fascism.
Every act of opposition matters.
