Tesla Model Y Owner Takes Virtue Signaling To a New Level With Multiple Anti-Elon Stickers In a Move We Expect to See Much More - Will It Ward Off Vandalism and Road rage?

Tesla vehicles have many plusses. For more than a decade, millions of owners have purchased them because Teslas are outstanding automobiles. Along with Tesla’s best-in-class Superchargers, the Tesla brand established the benchmark for battery-only vehicles globally. However, not everyone sees EVs and EV owners in the same light. Since the modern age of EVs began, skeptics of battery-electric vehicles have accused battery-only vehicle owners of “virtue signaling.” That is to say, they see the EV owners as trying to demonstrate that they believe in a low-carbon lifestyle and support that choice with their purchase of a pricey green vehicle. There is certainly nothing wrong with walking the walk, so to speak, except that studies have shown that EV owners actually live an overall lifestyle that generates more carbon, not less. 

Virtue Signaling And Electric Vehicles
The term virtue signaling is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary in this way: “Virtue signaling is the popular modern habit of indicating that one has virtue merely by expressing disgust or favor for certain political ideas or cultural happenings.” The dictionary also says virtue signaling is defined as “An attempt to show other people that you are a good person, for example by expressing opinions that will be acceptable to them, especially on social media.”

The site lists related words and terms that include the following:

• Claim the moral high ground 
• Holier-than-thou
• Judgmental
• Pearl-clutching
• Preachiness
• Sanctimonious 
• Self-righteous 
• Superiority complex

With Elon Musk having moved from the messiah of the liberal left to being a villain, owning a Tesla is in danger of being verboten by those who feel they should decide what’s right and what’s wrong. So how can a Tesla owner who wishes to signal proper virtue reconcile this apparent contradiction? One Model Y owner we spotted in Peterboro, NH, has a perfect solution.

The Model Y we spotted had not one but two bumper stickers on the back proclaiming that they are proud Tesla owners but staunchly anti-Elon Musk. Presumably, this is the new Elon Musk, who is spending his 20-hour workdays rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer funding within the federal government.  The first sticker is the classic symbol of a circle with red line through the word “Elon.” This would be read as “No Elon.” The second sticker spells out the Tesla owner’s message more clearly for those too daft to understand what “No Elon” is intended to mean. It says in words, “Anti Elon Tesla Club.” Basically, Mr. Musk has become the “bad cop” in the new Trump administration. This has many on the liberal left in America angry at the person who has done more to promote battery-only vehicles than any other individual.

How to Buy Anti-Elon Musk Stickers

The anti-Elon stickers are not hard to find. If you are an Amazon Prime member, you can order one right now and have it on your Tesla’s rear end by tomorrow. We found stickers of all types with prices starting at under three bucks. We cannot guarantee the stickers are free-range, organically produced, or sustainably harvested, so shop accordingly. We liked the three-pack kit of Anti-Elon Musk bumper stickers the best. It includes both of the stickers we spotted in Peterbroro, plus a bonus sticker reading, “I bought this before Elon went crazy.” This three-pack has an average rating of 4.2 stars by owners. We counted over four dozen different anti-Elon Musk stickers at Amazon. Some come complete with profanity. If you swing pro-Elon, there are also stickers of that type. Including ones with an image of him smoking a blunt on Rogan, one with the word Hope over his image, and one that says “In Musk We trust.” 

If you own a Tesla and want to avoid vandalism, road rage, and being screamed at by the morality police as you drive, you may want to quickly apply a sticker package of this type. In our area of Metro Boston, all three of these actions have been observed and reported. Across the globe, morally confident vandals have destroyed property, spray-painted Superchargers, and done damage at Tesla retail locations (don’t call them dealerships; that’s akin to hate speech). 

If you own a Tesla, will you be signaling your virtue with an anti-Musk sticker, or will you risk the scorn and possible vehicle damage of liberal fellow citizens?

If you are pro-Elon, how do stickers of this type make you feel?

John Goreham is a credentialed New England Motor Press Association member and expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on Linkedin and follow his work on his personal X channel or on our X channel. Please note that stories carrying John's by-line are never AI-generated, but he does employ grammar and punctuation software when proofreading and he also uses image generation tools. 

Top of page image by John Goreham has a plate character erased to protect the privacy of the Model Y owner. Image courtesy of Amazon shows a three-pack of Anti-Elon Musk stickers.