Over the weekend, leftist actress Alyssa Milano was teased for announcing that she gave up her Tesla because of “white supremacy” and instead acquired an electric Volkswagen, a vehicle business established by Nazis.
“I gave back my Tesla. I bought the VW ev. I love it,” Milano tweeted. “I’m not sure how advertisers can buy space on Twitter. Publicly traded company’s products being pushed in alignment with hate and white supremacy doesn’t seem to be a winning business model.”
Volkswagen was founded in 1937 by the German government, controlled by the Nazi Party. The Nazi group German Labor Front ran the enterprise.
Thousands of others online slammed Milano’s comment, including Twitter CEO and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
“Volkswagen was literally founded by the Nazi’s and Hitler,” conservative political commentators The Hodge Twins responded to Milano, along with a clown emoji. Musk responded with a laughing emoji and a “100” emoji, signifying that he agreed with their response.
“Nothing says ‘I’m concerned about white supremacy’ like buying a car from a company founded by the Nazi government,” writer Mark Hemingway tweeted. “To be clear I don’t think there’s anything problematic about buying a VW in the 21st century, but if you’re virtue signaling that would be a bigger deal than buying a car from the guy who fled South Africa to avoid being conscripted in their racist army.”
“If you praise Woodrow Wilson, who held screenings of ‘The Birth of a Nation’ at the White House, then brag about buying a car from a company founded by Nazis, you really should stop virtue signaling about others aligning themselves with hate and White Supremacy,” said liberal Clifton Duncan in response to Milano.
Others cited VW’s recent emissions crisis, in which the firm deceived on diesel-emissions testing after years of marketing “Clean Diesel.” The corporation placed software on its vehicles that caused them to function in accordance with federal laws when tested for emissions, but when the vehicles were driven on the road, they created much greater pollutants. In the criminal case against individuals concerned, felony convictions have already been obtained.
Others on the internet emphasized Milano’s previous support for Musk.
“Before it became trendy to hate Elon Musk, Alyssa Milano was his greatest fan,” writer Ian Miles Cheong tweeted. “Why are people like this?”
“Good question,” Musk responded. “Seems like NPC to PC ratio is super high!”