And that cultural reference is not just some words.
Basically he's got a lot of money. People will attack him no matter what he does, in an effort to redistribute his wealth. It's game theory, there are no billionaires who are liked.
What about Warren Buffett?
I may be wrong, here are my impressions from 5 minutes spent googling - he already made his fortune in past decades. He is not really in the limelight, not building revolutionary stuff or going up against govt/corporate interests. He is pretty old and has already planned to donate major portions of his wealth already. Elon has signed the giving pledge too btw.
Someone said it better than me, but a lot of HN users are smart engineers and are basically jealous of what he has achieved. The pile on hate of Elon Musk in here is hilarious to watch, and it happens like clockwork.
There's a lot of genuine things to hate on. For me it's the blatant market manipulation he has been involved in.