In March, a tweet by Berlin and Brandenburg’s public broadcaster RBB about workers at the Tesla facility in Grünheide prompted ridicule among Germany’s online left. Some climate activists calling themselves “Volcano-Group Shut Down Tesla” had set fire to an electricity pylon near the plant, stopping production there for several days and leaving thousands of homes without power for many hours. In RBB’s words, the around one thousand Tesla workers who gathered at the factory gates were “protesting in solidarity with their employer.”

The responses were scathing. Several comments suggested that employees at Tesla “suffer from Stockholm syndrome,” or were “protesting in support of their own exploitation.” True, many of the accounts concerned were small and anonymous. Yet prominent left-wing voices received widespread praise for commenting on the gathering in similarly mocking tones — and claiming that the workers were siding with their boss.

It’s perhaps understandable that a choice of words like RBB’s induces eyerolls on the Left — especially when the boss in question happens to be Elon Musk. Likewise, the suspicion that this demonstration might have been spurred on by management, and that the views of the thousand people attending it might not be representative of the now more than ten thousand Tesla employees in Grünheide, does not come out of the blue.