The people boycotting Uber and Tesla over their CEOs’ roles in the Trump administration need to take a step back and realize what it is they’re asking for. It’s fine to want to protest and make their voices heard, but by boycotting Travis Kalanick and Elon Musk they really achieve the opposite. If they are genuine about protesting Trump’s actions and wanting to see changes at the federal level, perhaps they should be supporting those few voices in Trump’s inner council that actually moderate and share their views.
Elon Musk himself took to Twitter to defend his position as an advisor to the president and his thoughts sum up exactly the hypocrisy of the #DeleteUber movement and backlash against Tesla. In the tweet he said that “activists should be pushing for more moderates to advise the President, not fewer. How could having only extremists advise him [Trump] possibly be good?”
I have no problem with people exercising their right to assemble and protest for what they believe in, but it seems as if many of these people believe in getting a bump in followers rather than fighting for the rights of refugees. I have no respect for that. When it comes to Uber and Tesla, the solution that some protesters are preaching – retire from Trump’s advisory board and block off the administration – is absurdly contradictory. By boycotting everything that even goes near the president, you get a situation where, ironically, there are less people to give him rational advice and speak for your viewpoint. Seems like the exact opposite of what you should want.
Besides the political repercussions, the premise of #DeleteUber itself is pretty flawed. While many called for the movement because of Travis Kalanick’s advisory role, many others did so because the service continued to offer rides during the Taxi Blackout on January 28th and instead are urging everyone to switch to Lyft. They miss two really important points, however: 1) Lyft also continued offering rides and 2) Uber and Lyft can’t legally tell drivers not to go to work. The premise by which Uber and Lyft operate makes it so that the drivers themselves are independent contractors rather than ‘employees,’ otherwise the services wouldn’t even be legal. All they really do is connect people who provide rides to the people that need them. No legal framework backs telling someone who doesn’t work for you not to come in to work.
Go ahead and cancel your Tesla order if you really think that’s going to help, but you’re only shooting yourself in the foot. People like Travis Kalanick and Elon Musk are some of the only people in the Trump administration who actually represent your interests and aren’t part of the political apparatus. Boycotting the two is a decision just as rash as the one you protest.