> Enlightened people could handle discussing different aspects of things without fearing that NOT mentioning the 'obviously problematic' adjacent aspect might somehow be taken as personally endorsing it.

My granddad was in the military in WWII and would always mention how strange it felt to have a Toyota now and that it and VW were very frowned on by people in the war for a long time. Probably same would be felt about Tesla the nazi salute and otherwise support even back in the 80s.

The strangeness your grandad felt was from seeing products from Enemy Countries parked in his neighbor's driveway, unrelated to Volkswagen or Toyota as companies or the behavior of their founders. I think that's understandable. His generation witnessed and survived fighting the largest World War in human history. A conflict which divided actual civilizations in an existential battle for survival, during which 70M-85M people died - 3 to 4% of all humans on the planet.

That's not an example which counters my point, in fact, it makes the point perfectly. Which is: it isn't appropriate or normal when people hyper-overreact to something as inconsequential as an erratically eccentric Tech Bro's juvenile trolling (or thoughtlessly stupid unplanned gaffe, depending on who you believe) at a level similar to, as you've pointed out, the reaction of a traumatized survivor of the biggest, most consequential and horrible single event in all of human history - people who watched their friends and families die violent, brutal deaths, and in many cases witnessed systematic genocide against their entire race at scales beyond imagining. That's the level at which some people now react to stupid, wrong, offensive words and gestures by fucking morons and trolls on Twitter and TikTok. Thank you. That's actually a much better example of my point.

I think Elon is a complete nutjob but, seriously, these are NOT remotely the same level or scope. Your granddad was a literal, fucking hero - and obviously made of much sterner stuff than (some) people today. Your grandad mentioned seeing Enemy Vehicles around town was "strange." He didn't hold candlelight vigils in front of Volkswagen and Toyota dealers, he didn't harangue VW owners in the supermarket parking lot, or need to social signal about it every, single time those countries, companies or cars were mentioned.

If he had protested and harangued, I'd understand that level of reaction and constant obsession. War zone PTSD is terrible and never goes away. Oh, and tens of millions died in, arguably, the biggest, worst thing... ever? Yeah, I'm okay if Gramps over-reacts a little. I'd thank him for his service, buy him a beer and listen to his stories from "The War." But apparently your granddad didn't think over-reacting, constantly being 'triggered' and making a fuss over THAT would be appropriate - it just felt 'strange'. My dad lied about his age to enlist at 17. The war left him physically and emotionally scarred for life. But he never made a big deal about it either.

lmao this is in no way similar. Someone being triggered at the thought of a man being Republican is not the same as feeling weird seeing the companies that made machines that blew apart your friends advertised in the neighbors’ driveways.