Article created by: Gabija Palšytė

People say a lot of stupid stuff. And we judge them for it. But every now and then, over time, enough evidence emerges to prove us all wrong and redeem even the wildest statements.

Interested in these cases, Redditor TheCheeryStranger recently asked other platform users, "What 'crazy' person in history was right the whole time?" and everyone immediately started sending in their answers.

From Ernest Hemingway talking about the FBI tailing him to Galileo Galilei being trialed by the Church for his heretic claim that the Earth revolves around the sun, here are some of the most interesting ones.

#1

"Drawing of a historical figure with short hair and a mustache, representing a 'crazy' person proven right." Giordano Bruno was (probably) the first European who proposed the possibility that not only was the universe infinite, but stars were not just points of light in the sky; they could be suns with their own planets, and that some of those planets might even host life. The Catholic Church had him tried for Heresy and had him burned at the stake and his contemporaries though he was completely insane. He had some kooky ideas, but he was absolutely right about the size of the universe and stars being suns with their own planets.

Randomcommenter550 Report

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    #2

    A historical figure in a formal suit sits in profile, embodying the theme of misunderstood genius. Charles Darwin. The religious outcry against evolution was engineered by his academic rivals more than from religious resistance. But even now, after all that politics is centuries dead, there remain people who categorically resist demonstrable fact because of it.

    Wintermute , wikipedia.org Report

    #3

    Elderly man in a suit and tie, representing those once considered "crazy" but proven right. Eisenhower. Re: The military–industrial complex "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

    going_dot_global , wikipedia.org Report

    #4

    People using smartphones in a busy area, focusing on screens amid crowd, highlighting a tech-savvy moment. All the people that said the NSA/CIA was spying on us for years. Thanks to edward Snowden we now know that was true and it was so much so that the NSA had built back doors in pretty much every single electronic device that exsists all the way down to the network switch level on cisco switches and the internet backbone through AT&T network hubs. The fact that there wasnt mass revolt after that information was released kinda blew my mind.

    thedarklord187 , ROBIN WORRALL Report

    #5

    Elderly man in a plaid shirt with a background calendar, illustrating proven right individuals. Stanislav Petrov. Though we don't see him as crazy, I'm sure his crewmates thought he was. He directly disobeyed Soviet military protocols and prevented a nuclear war.

    Rayshon1042 , wikipedia.org Report

    #6

    Person speaking into a microphone during a public event, illustrating the concept of being proven right. Rose McGowan was completely ostracized and blacklisted for talking about Weinstein too early.

    sagieday , wikipedia.org Report

    #7

    Elderly man with glasses smiling, holding plastic model eyes, proven right on scientific theories. The inventor of dialysis, Dr. Willem Kolff. Although it's hard to blame them, haha. He saw people dying of kidney disease and said "Hey, what if we take all of the blood out of your body, clean it, and put it back in?" (Cleaning your blood is the job of your kidneys, and a dialysis machine is basically an artificial kidney, on the *outside* of your body.) It was a wild idea and he started his work during WWII and had to work with basic materials like orange juice cans, sausage skins, and a washing machine. Many of the first patients died, but they were already going to die painfully. Eventually, he ironed the kinks out and started saving lives.

    Parmeisan Report

    #8

    A woman with long braided hair, proven right, wearing a black top and gold earrings, looking directly at the camera. Lisa Bonet. She was vilified for hating Cosby in the 80s. Who’s the villain now?

    jdward01 Report

    #9

    Wooden bowl filled with sugar on a rustic table, highlighting natural ingredients in food discussions. John Yudkin. The single scientist who didn't believe the sugar industry's research that demonized fats. Till his death he's adamant that fats weren't the cause of obesity and heart attacks.

    HayakuEon , Faran Raufi Report

    #10

    Person wearing a yellow outfit speaking into a microphone on stage. There was a wacko looking guy on Oprah who stopped his vanilla presentation to tell the audience that plastic causes cancer, stop using it to store food and water. Oprah cut to commercial and whisked him off the show. Dude was right. BPAs were outed that day, but it took another decade for that info to become public knowledge.

    Firethorn101 , wikipedia.org Report

    #11

    Man in a suit smiling with hand on head, representing insightful individuals proven right. Will Rogers a humorist when he invented the term "trickle-down" economics as a joke stating that this type of economy would just make the rich richer and the poor poorer. And then we actually implemented it and used the term trickle-down. And Will Rogers was right. The rent has gone though the roof and our salaries have stagnated and we can't afford "The American Dream" anymore.

    Few-Frosting-1398 , wikipedia.org Report

    #12

    Man sitting in a boat cabin, gazing thoughtfully, associated with those proven right in hindsight. Hemingway talked about the FBI following him prior to his suicide. They thought he was paranoid. Decades later some papers get released, turns out the FBI was following him.

    ArchieBellTitanUp Report

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    #13

    Man holding a microphone, wearing a red lanyard and black shirt, proven right in a public setting. Craig Ferguson having empathy for Britney Spears in his 2007 monologue.

    carissadraws , wikipedia.org Report

    #14

    Person using a blue calculator at a desk with a keyboard and plant nearby. Remember the government accountant in George W Bush’s presidency who said the war in Afghanistan would cost a billion dollars a month and he was fired? Well, he was right. It was 300 million dollars per day for 20 years.

    CategoryTurbulent114 , Towfiqu barbhuiya Report

    #15

    A webcam mounted on a computer screen, close-up shot. Anyone who covered their webcam camera.

    ironwolf6464 , Emiliano Cicero Report

    #16

    Portrait of a man in a suit and tie with glasses and a mustache, representing the concept of proving people right. Heinrich Schliemann. He 100% believed that ancient Troy had really existed. So he armed himself with a copy of the Iliad, and actually managed to find and excavate the city. He'd told everyone and their sister that Troy was a real place for 40 years before he found it, and everyone thought he was cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. Not so much, it turns out.

    ChaoticForkingGood , wikipedia.org Report

    #17

    A woman with a hairstyle and earrings smiling at an event. Martha Mitchell.. She was like part of the reason why it was discovered that Nixon was involved in Watergate. Her husband was part of the Nixon group so she got some inside details. When she wanted to tell the news about the whole scandal, her husband and Nixon men put her in a hotel and restrained her from having any contact with anyone. She was seen as an insane person her husband and Nixon's men even managed to convince the psychiatrists that she was out of her mind. Actually there's a phenomenon in psychology which was named after her a.k.a the Martha Mitchell Effect

    DelMarion67 , wikipedia.org Report

    #18

    Elderly man with a beard holding a telescope, embodying the idea of proven right. Galileo - he believed the Earth and other planets orbited the Sun, contrary to popular belief that all stars and planets orbited Earth. The Catholic Church called it heresy, and ordered him to turn himself in to the Holy Office to begin a trial for his beliefs.

    FluffyUnicorn949 , wikipedia.org Report

    #19

    A bearded man with glasses, wearing a dark suit, proven right despite being called "crazy" initially. Boltzman spend his life trying to prove his formula but ended up commiting suicide because none of his collegues believed him. Now, his formula is basically the 'amen' in thermodynamics.

    Ashweed137 Report

    #20

    Dense jungle path with dappled sunlight, illustrating inhabitants' perceptions of 'crazy' insights now validated. I don't know that guy's name but he basically from 1541-1542 travelled accross south america. The first european to do so. While he was on his journey he said he saw millions of people and large cities , with a lot of life in them , where today is the amazon rainforest.After he had finished his journey he had told the stories of those cities and about a hundred years later when explorers visited the place there was nothing , no cities , no people , just jungle. So they thought he had made all that up. But modern technology has shown that there might have accually been a lot of cities there , and that those people died out with smallpox and all cities were covered by the jungle within the course of 50 years. So basically people thought he was crazy and made everything up but in modern times its proven that he was right all along.

    softredina , Isaac Quesada Report

    #21

    Elderly professional in a suit and patterned tie, sitting at a desk, smiling confidently. Dr. Atkins. When his first book 'The New Diet Revolution' came out, he was mocked and ridiculed for thinking that refined sugars, flour, and starch caused the glycemic index to skyrocket which led to your body storing fat. When he died people thought he died from his own diet. Keto-acidosis and how you can lose weight by reducing your glycemic index was largely his research. It was later stolen and copied and called 'The Zone Diet' and 'The Caveman Diet' and 'The Paleo Diet' which were all based on his work.

    tommygunz007 Report

    #22

    A historical figure in a suit with a mustache, representing visionary ideas. Tesla. Edison is still credited with the lightbulb. His last words put it into perspective "All these years that I had spent in the service of mankind brought me nothing but insults and humiliation"

    Luke Keil , wikipedia.org Report

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