“If OEMs stop buying parts from these unethical companies, it could encourage the companies to change their ways to gain back the business.”

This is as shocking as the statement water is wet. Companies that make profit first and making actual things second will toss out ethics for profit (see Boeing) 

When I look at Kid Rock, I see a case study in how celebrities can fail to maintain their brand over time. Their popularity dwindles along with demand for their content. Instead of trying to evolve and innovate a new persona - they double-down on controversy hoping that shock value can sustain them over time. Kid…

Well, duh. The penalties for doing so are always going to be less than the profits made with them. There is no incentive to change; that is capitalism, baby.

This guy is about the absolute lamest sellout. He became irrelevant decades ago but has found a new “ revival” in throwing his hat into the MAGAverse. Whatever. I guess he makes a lot of money so its last laugh for the ignorant dipshits who buy his stuff

Rock may have flown the Confederate flag at his shows for years, but apparently sticking one on the Cybertruck would be a bridge too far.

He moved from the suburbs to the city to be closer to Black culture and ended up appropriating Confederate culture instead.

Also, Kid Rock grew up in a Detroit suburb and moved to DJ to be closer to B-boy culture. Let that sink in:

Rich, suburban midwestern kid moved to Detroit to be closer to Black culture and ended up proudly minstrel-showing his way to riches in front of a Confederate Battle Flag.

I have a friend who’s from Detroit. He knew Kid Rock long before he became famous. He tells me that Kid (not Rock, people called him Kid, apparently) was a genuinely nice, caring guy. Maybe not all that smart, but just a lovable character who had no malice. He still thinks the fame really got the worst out of Kid Rock.

My favorite Confederate flag trivia is that it was never even the flag of The Confederacy.

That’s the part that gets me with that traitorous rag...it’s literally the symbol of traitors. Full stop.

Literally the roots of systemic racism... I remember back in 1993 visiting the Atlanta Zoo and going to the “Cylcorama” where I learned that the Civil War was really the “War of Northern Aggression” ! As a Northerner, I felt quite dirty after that hour or so presentation wherein the battle for Atlanta was sorta…

with John Schneider — Bo Duke himself — behind the wheel

I love how right wing pop culture works. Take a silver spoon kid from a tawny Detroit suburb, then dirty him up and redneck him out and the MAGA crowd loves him. Bonus points for saying tasteless and outrageous things. That demographics’ entire existence is about living in a bubble and echo chamber, they can only…

Thinking of Idiocracy yet again, and as I’m reaching middle age, I’m firmly in the camp now that life imitates art.

May all of the neo-Confederates like Rock be inflicted with the dysentery and privation that killed so many of their treasonous role models during the Civil War.

Might be the single worst combination of words I’ve ever seen. 

Musk was actually compared to Tony Stark at some point? That’s.... quite the stretch since like you said Stark actually designed his own stuff.

Honestly I don’t think he trashed his own reputation, he never really had a good one.

I’m guessing they don’t have much of a chance as it’s not explicitly written into a buying agreement, but they should have more. Companies get way too much latitude in their advertising, and Tesla takes it to the extreme. Calling their product full self drive shouldn’t be allowed to begin with.