My read is people find reasons to hate him due to ego, they see someone running like 6+ successful companies when their lives aren't going so well, and go looking for all the moralistic things he must be doing wrong.
He’s doing cool things, it’s impossible to deny that (especially with SpaceX). But you only need to look at his Bill Gates related tweets this weekend to see why people think he’s an asshole and it’s nothing to do with jealousy. He acts like an edgy 14 year old and it’s really cringey.
I really don't care if people think he is an ass.
But what happens is that people think he is an ass and then they adopt this culture of downplaying everything and making shit up.
'Rockets landed in the 70s', 'He is just a marketing guy', 'Tesla is fake company that is doomed' blablabla
I will never disagree with people who don't like Musk, only people who then start to make dumb arguments about him.
I don't think it is all just ego or jealousy. He has made some questionable comments in the past. He keeps going on that this particular purchase is about free speech. He consciously has chosen to be very public with some of his more questionable opinions (especially regarding Covid) on his Twitter.
Yes I am very glad that he has started SpaceX and Tesla. I despise the criticisms of billionaires "Wasting" their money on Space. But that does not absolve him of criticisms of him personally outside of those companies.
I would much prefer nuclear over wind/solar/battery. But I know if I argue against wind/solar nuclear isn't magically gone happen.
So its fine if you want to argue that US shoud invest 100+ billion in public transport or bikes or whatever. Those things are not gone happen just because EVs don't happen. You are probably right, but EVs are not preventing that from happening.
EV are absoulty 100% a huge improvement over other cars and its not close. Even outside of the environment it would have eventually happened, they are just better cars.