Why America- is- the-centre- of the -universe even when it isn’t - critiques become propaganda - this article good example of 0 fact checking. https://twitter.com/vijayprashad/status/1288225287935856645

1. Brazil produces its own lithium, it doesn’t need Bolivian lithium. Tesla was going there for that very simple and logical reason.

2. Morales signed over Uyuni to the Germans on a 70-yr contract, where lithium would not be industrialized in Bolivia. That led to his downfall with disenchanted Potosinos in the weeks leading up to his resignation.

3. Medina’s tweet (a tweet!) proposed a plant be installed in Uyuni to industrialize in Bolivia. On the surface if it were a real plan (it’s not!) could be more nationalist than what Morales signed onto to (and what was rejected by locals for not being nationalist enough!)

4. The US is a peanut player in the lithium industry- only 6% of total consumption; and majority of production also out of their hands. Need to accept US doesn’t control everything- it’s not the 90s in LA. China and Asia have much more influence.

5. Many automotive electric vehicle makers that are more important than Musk- again, Asian markets, those are the players buying up and investing in all the lithium in South America. The US is a shadow.

6. All this does is give Morales air time to avoid the serious mistakes the administration make with respect to lithium. See here: https://bit.ly/3f7Zc6V 

7. None of this refutes the idea that Musk is a capitalist imperialist thug. But all of it makes the much more propagandist claim completely oblivious to concrete reality in Bolivia and in the industry.