So, yes, hi, I have a Tesla. It’s a long range Model 3 which I bought in 2021.

After a career spent working on open source and mission-drive projects — right now I work for a non-profit newsroom; once upon a time I built a social networking platform for education — it might shock you to learn that I am not rich. I have never had a significant tech company equity package; I have never seen the benefit of a significant exit. I own my own home but needed to move far away from the Bay Area to do it. I’ve done okay and I’m grateful for the opportunities that I’ve had, but I am not very wealthy. It would be really meaningful for me to bolster my income by another $2K a month and I’ve been thinking a lot about how to do that lately.

The Tesla has put me in a bit of a weird situation. Even before Elon Musk threw three Hitler salutes on-stage, I couldn’t really afford to own it: the monthly cost is really high for a car that I maybe drive two to three times a week. But selling it is also hard: it’s depreciated really fast, and I’ll barely be able to pay off the loan I have on it. (A lease would have been a better deal.) It actually won’t be that easy for me to get a replacement car, even with a trade-in deal. I’d prefer to keep an electric car — they’re both better environmentally and just as a car to run and own — but we’ll see if that’s possible.

But I will sell it. Hopefully this month. I don’t want to even tacitly be associated with promoting that man or bolstering his wealth. Until then, I’ve become one of those people who has disclaimered his car, so anyone who sees it is under no impression that I am in favor of anything that’s happening in this country right now.

One sticker I don’t have: the one that says I bought this before Elon went crazy. There’s no such thing. The warning signs were always there; my car situation is a prime example of how ignoring these kinds of ethical red flags lead to real losses in the long run. I brought this on myself.

I know I’m not alone. Not everyone who owns one of these things is a wealthy Musk supporter. That doesn’t mean we should be absolved — we should have seen what we were getting into, and owning a Tesla does mean continuing to pay Musk, who is clearly a fascist, money through connectivity plans and so on — but it’s worth acknowledging that, for many people, it’s not a no-brainer to take this kind of financial hit.

Anyway, that’s the deal. I guess I’m posting this out of a sense of transparency, and a little bit out of a sense of exasperation at my own past purchasing decisions and the overwhelmingly bad present situation. Many of you will be judging me for this, and I both accept and deserve that. But here I am.