Arlington, VA—There were fewer at Arlington Tesla boycott line Saturday but that didn’t stop Tesla Takedown die-hards from braving a cold windy weather day to draw honks and give rounds of cheers to passing motorists. Some were caught flat-footed by the brisk and stiff wind as they underdressed and suffered through the cold. But they still braved it.
The cold weather was soon forgotten because someone brought a speaker on a wagon and boomed resistance dance music to the line. Then they spontaneously did what comes naturally with good music. They joined in dance and warmed themselves by it. And this particular week the boycott line ran for two straight hours. Some had also been at the earlier Rockville Tesla Takedown drew over 200.
One can tell if a 60-year old resistance song was a trans-generational success if 20 year olds dance to the music along side 70 year olds and no body cares what moves anyone is making. The song “Stop Children What’s That Sound,” by Buffalo Springfield did just that. There were many other resistance songs in the line up that did that as well to the boycott line.
Some of the songs had no business being played on the resistance line, like “Walk The Dinosaur,” a fun full dance songfrom the 1980s that was requested by popular demand. But if it makes one feel good, why quibble over formalities like what a proper resistance song actually sounds like?
After a week with plenty of reasons not to leave the house, people still want to get out and do something that makes them feel good. The Tesla Takedown boycott lines are helping them and giving the community a chance to refresh and draw its own energy to organize while helping some get beyond the stream of earth shaking news events.
Someone brought packages of anti-Elon Tesla Club stickers and passed them to motorists who stopped. A elderly woman wore a sign strung over her shoulders reading, “Hate Won’t Make Us Great,” while holding a bubble machine. A supporter brought their favorite oatmeal chocolate cookies and passed them out. There was also a big box of chips. So why brood on the couch doom scrolling?
There were held-held percussion musical instruments many played while dancing and someone actually managed to shake a cowbell for more than two hours—finally breaking Blue Oyster Cult’s song, “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”
Dancing in the street is itself an act of resistance because an authoritarian regime cannot actually tell if its for fun or an act of resistance. That’s because regimes take themselves too seriously and can’t bear to admit they’re being made fools of.
This is what happened outside the Government Accounting Office last Wednesday during a Doge takedown pajama party. A group of 20 played music and danced to mock the Doge infiltration going on inside the key Federal finance accounting office.
As the resistance at the Tesla Takedown boycott lines slowly come to terms with the regime’s destructive nature on the civil order, Tesla Takedowns have found their weekly boycott lines as a way to process and ready themselves for what is likely to come. They hold hope for a miracle and that maybe the cavalry will ride in.
The regime is not going anywhere and neither are the resisters. But they refuse to concede. They know the future looks dark as the cherished institutions around them are one by one failing. And its not because of what cowards have done as much as it is because of what entrusted leaders have failed to do. There are far more who know the difference between right and wrong as compared to the handfuls waging nihilistic roughshod against institutions.
The question on everyone’s mind remains why are so many stakeholders obeying in advance and failing to stand up to this regime at times and places where it matters?
The cavalry isn’t going to ride in. The resistance is the cavalry. And they aren’t leaving.
