The whole "stepping on a single nail vs. sleeping on a bed of nails" metaphor.
Would the world really be a better place if we viewed every failure as disqualifying?
The dude makes over-optimistic predictions and shitposts like crazy; we're hardly talking about Pol Pot here. The same personality holds for, what, 90% of Reddit? Maybe only 40% of the HN commenter base (we're cultured!). People hate Musk because Musk makes it so fun to hate him. And that's fine. But it leads to some pretty weird places if you let it (like "The world would be better off without Tesla or SpaceX" being discussed here).
Look, it's fine if you don't like the guy or his companies. But some of the ridiculous talking points listed elsewhere in this thread are unhinged.
And once that effect of the worthwhile mission wears off, people seem to run away. Not walk. Run.
In other words, I don't think "Musk-hatred" is an ideology.
Of course that means that Musk's contribution is in fact not so much different from your average business blowhard. "Inspiring". Musk is just better at it, although a significant portion of it is simply in the mission itself, not musk. His nerd look and talk is entirely manufactured and an act (it's fake, as opposed to Larry Page. His nerd act is not an act, a fact he spent millions trying to get away from)
Both companies were effectively started by engineers, not by Elon Musk. There are no real technical accomplishments that are his doing.
I would say he has a good bullshit filter ... but there's a hyperloop in there, along with the boring company. Ahem.