50 Historical Figures People Thought Were Nuts At The Time But Were Proven To Be Right Years Later
Throughout history, sometimes even the smallest actions have turned into pivotal moments. From innovations that led to changes to groundbreaking events that sparked movements and reshaped the entire world. But while some ideas were applauded and celebrated by society at the time, others were greeted with raised eyebrows and suspicious looks.
Many wonderful people were simply ahead of their time and got teased and ridiculed for it in every possible way. User AllofaSuddenStory decided to learn more about these historical figures and posted this question on Ask Reddit: "Who is someone that was mocked at the moment, but then proven right years later?"
Hundreds of history lovers shared their knowledge about people who thought of remarkable things yet didn’t get the recognition they deserved. Whether their suggestions were put together long before our time or in the recent past, we handpicked some of the most interesting responses to remind you not to jump to conclusions too quickly. Continue scrolling, upvote your favorite ones, and be sure to share your thoughts in the comments!
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The doctor in China, Li Wenliang, who was arrested for trying to stop the spread of Covid from the start.
Stella Liebeck, the lady who got burned with McDonald's hot coffee. The media mocked her and accused her of a frivolous lawsuit but it was an ongoing problem that McDonald's served dangerously hot coffees that had injured many others.The coffee was hot enough to cause 3rd degree burns to her pelvic region and she was hospitalized for 8 days while she had to get skin grafts, and continued medical care for 2 years related to the burns. She originally just wanted her medical bills covered but McDonald's tried giving her an insultingly low amount, so then she was forced to open a lawsuit. The courts rightfully sided with her and forced McDonald's to regulate the temperature on their hot beverages.
To find out why historical figures were sometimes dismissed for their ideas, we reached out to historian Bethany Moore who runs the blog History And Moore. She told Bored Panda that those who found themselves mocked and ridiculed were simply misunderstood by others. "This would mostly happen to scientists who were trying to get their ideas out to a wider audience, that necessarily didn’t have the right education to understand or the inclination to even listen," she added.
As an example, Moore mentioned a man called Ignaz Semmelweis. "He was an obstetrician (a doctor who specializes in childbirth) in the 1840s in Vienna and he noticed that fewer women were dying when they were inspected by a doctor who had washed their hands between examining patients." However, since he did not grasp why this was the case, others were reluctant to listen to him.
"He eventually ended up being lured to an asylum," the historian continued. "Tragically, after Semmelweis was removed from the hospital, more women started dying because they were not being examined by doctors who washed their hands. Handwashing didn’t become commonplace in medicine for at least another 30 years after Semmelweis first made the connection."
Ignác Semmelweis
First doctor to champion hand washing as a means to prevent spreading infection. Everyone made fun of him.
He worked in a city hospital for a time, that had many poor women who couldn't afford any care. His contemporary doctors would go from an autopsy of a rotting corpse* to delivering babys without washing their hands, infecting and killing tousands of women. Semmelweiss put up a bassin to wash hands saving many lives. After his dismissal death skyrocketed again.
Henry Freeman, a lifeboatman in Whitby. He tried to get the other lifeboatmen to wear cork lifejackets, but no-one would but him.
During a great storm, the lifeboat was launched several times to help struggling vessels and sailors. On their sixth launch, disaster struck and the lifeboat capsized.
Only Henry survived thanks to his cork life jacket. They became compulsory for lifeboatmen shortly after that.
Johnny Rotten
Banned from the BBC for ousting Jimmy Savile as being a horrendous pedophile.
Some 500 cases of abuse. Had his own set of keys to a psychiatric hospital where he would frequently abuse vulnerable children.
Moore suggested that the study of our past is not only about learning different dates and names. "Yes, those are an important part of the study of history, but there is so much more to the subject. The study of history teaches us the good and the bad of humanity; the developments by ancient civilizations that have led to our society being the way it is today; and gives us a better understanding of the world, to name but a few reasons."
"History, and the study of it, is one of the building blocks of a rounded education, teaching us to be more than just one person and to recognize the influence we have on the world."
Joseph Lister
First proposed that germs caused post-operative infections, and recommended that surgical instruments be sterilized between operations.
People thought he was nuts.
also Ignaz Semmelweis. Wikipedia "Described as the "saviour of mothers", Semmelweis discovered that the incidence of puerperal fever (also known as "childbed fever") could be drastically cut by the use of hand disinfection in obstetrical clinics. Puerperal fever was common in mid-19th-century hospitals and often fatal. Semmelweis proposed the practice of washing hands with chlorinated lime solutions in 1847 while working in Vienna General Hospital's First Obstetrical Clinic, where doctors' wards had three times the mortality of midwives' wards." The doctors didn't washed their hands after they performed an autopsy... this almost ruined his career
Barbara McClintock, she postulated the existence of transposons (certain types of genes) in DNA BEFORE anybody even knew what the actual structure of DNA is like, she was widely mocked by the scientific community at the time. Transposons were later confirmed to exist and she was awarded the Nobel.
Dr Bennet Omalu who found that American football players had chronic traumatic encephalopathy/ brain concussions which were slowly affecting their neurological and psychological functions. He was strongly opposed at first but then proved right. His biographic movie is named ' Concussion'.
After all, this fascinating subject is an endless source of adventure. Just think about the grand battles, significant events, and world-shaking inventions. And it’s especially interesting to learn about intriguing historical figures who were simply regular folk without an obvious connection to greatness, Moore said.
"Ordinary, everyday people like William Shakespeare who helped the English language develop into the rich tapestry it is today. People like Ada Lovelace, who is considered the first computer programmer for her work with Charles Babbage. People like Rosa Parks, who stood up to a system rigged against her. Ordinary people have become well known for a variety of reasons, and it is not unfeasible to think that any of us could have the same influences in years to come."
Greg Lemond. In 2001 he said Lance Armstrong was probably doping. He was threatened he took a huge image hit and his business opportunities suffered.
He never let up on lance despite the media campaigns, threats, damage to his reputation and business, and the recrimination of his peers in the cycling community. Until surprise surprise in 2012 it came out that lance Armstrong was doping. Who could have foreseen that? If only someone had told us.
Oh wait. Greg Lemond did. A decade ago.
Lance Armstrong had loads of corporate backers, and they didn't want some upstart upsetting their precious cash flow.
Jimmy Carter. He recognized the need for The US to become energy independent and put measures into place that would have gotten us there by now. Of course, the first thing Ronnie RayGun did was undo every f*cking one of them. Many of our problems over the last 45 years have stemmed from The Middle East and either directly or indirectly involved oil. I’m obviously simplifying things here, but in the big picture, he was spot on. Even his critics at the time have recently admitted that he was on the correct path. It’s also pretty apparent that Carter was a good man, as evidenced by how he has carried himself over half a lifetime post-presidency.
I agree! Look into how he was involved in Three Mile Island. It's cool he's stuck around because he knew something about reactors and thought he might be helpful. I can't imagine many modern presidents not heading for the hills or their private bunkers in such a situation.
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Reagan did a ton of damage yet people have immortalized him as a great. Literally most problems the US has today has been exacerbated by Reagan’s policies that have “trickled” down to us now.
It's the perspective though... people see a kind/nice man and people often think "too weak to lead the country" and so they vote for the a$$h0le thinking the a$$h0le will be a firm hand to steer the ship... without the realizing that often times they steer the ship right into an iceberg.
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Almost every problem the US has from the Republican party to the minimum wage is a direct result of "Lord" Reagan's policies, the original cult god of conservatives and still is for a lot of them.
I'm still waiting for that money to "trickle down" my direction lol
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He was treated like a hick , but he was a trained nuclear engineer who understood the consequences of nuclear warfare. And danged hero, I might add. Google Chalk River.
So many people heard the southern accent and equated it to slow.
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I'm from Europe and don't give much thought about American presidents, but from what I have seen, he's the only one I wouldn't mind meeting and talking to. And for some unknown reason, he only had one presidency.
Eisenhower is considered the last of the old school republicans. He was also a decent president. Using it in context for representation of the other side of
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Strange how republican presidents seem to make their first priority undoing all the good that the previous democratic presidents have done. Trump did the same thing.
I was ignorant enough not to appreciate the man while he was in office and afterward became such a fan and he has become one of my favorite role models.
The charity work of Mr. Carter, when he's aged and could sit back, speaks volumes.
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It's hard to have the ambition to be the president of the US and still be a good human being but Jimmy Carter has proven it's possible. Still crossing my fingers that Obama remains good and we don't hear a bunch of dirt years from now.
I liked Obama, but i still worry that something will be dug up regarding the bailouts. He seemed too intelligent to not regulate how those bailouts were used. I find it difficult to believe he was optimistic and naieve enough to not expect the money to go in pockets of the greedy.
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Reagan was the wet dream of the rich conservatives of his time. Amazingly the middle to lower class of the time and now, who make up the vast majority of the GOP constituency, lapped up the lies like it was sweet cream and actually believe that the GOP has their best interests at heart.
Where Mr. Reagan was gentle and persuasive, the Trümpenfeürer and his Trumpistas are crass, promote violence, support misogyny and white supremacists (Proud Boys, anyone?). Where Mr. Reagan forced the Soviet Union (remember them?) into collapse, the Trümpenfeürer courts Putin and his fascist agenda as an eighth grader woos a sophomore.
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An Mr Carter has also helped physically build over 100 homes for habit for humanity
I remember Reagan coming into office and removing Carter's solar panels from the White House. Probably still stored in the attic.
I was born in 1970 and he was the first President I was aware of therefore he will always be my favorite President. President R.R made us more prosperous as a country but it came at a cost. Reagan made GREED desirable, acceptable and nothing to be ashamed of as long as his party and allies got what they wanted and be damn for the rest of us.
The best modern president the U.S. has had, he's on the right side of history about most things. Naturally regarded as a commie weakling by many because all the cool countries self-harm.
Reagan had Carter's solar panels down after they had heated the water in The White House for 7 years.
Jimmy Carter was not a great President, but he is an exemplary humanitarian.
"The moral equivalent of war" is how he put our struggle to reduce oil dependency. But in the end, Americans preferred the actual equivalent of war, that being war that killed hundreds of thousands of innocent lives. "Oops, we did it again, sorry!" P.s. chill, folks, this historical reality won't be taught in Florida.
I was, regrettably, a p**n in the war for endless oil. Had an apartment in Riyadh. Lived with the suppliers, users, and gundogs that kept the flow. Mr. Carter was right. No one cared, no one cares now.
Load More Replies... I recently listened to a podcast that talked about energy independence. Specifically that the idea of it is basically a myth. We have reached the point of being energy independent on paper, meaning we produce more than we use. But there's a complicated structure of importing and exporting various energy products. The world depends on us for energy as much as we depend on other countries. Basically, the energy market is complicated. I think the podcast was Vox's The Weeds. Edited to remove a point about Texas's grid that was unrelated. See Aria's comment below.
The Texas example...you DO get that the phrase "energy independence" has nothing to do with a grid and being connected to other grids, right? It is referring to our dependence on other nations to import their oil and gas for our use. Texas' electrical grid has NOTHING to do with that concept, and that example shows nothing about the importance or lack thereof, of being energy independent. You are conversing about a topic and using phrasing you seem wholly clueless about.
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Proud to have shaken that man's hand at a campaign stop in Hagerstown, MD in 1976.
Part of the fear of dependence on oil was when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. They took out the fleet, but didn't complete the mission to disable Western forces. When the allies met with the Japanese in peace talks, the American commanders asked why they hadn't bombed a particular part of the harbor. They said they didn't deem it a vital target. That part of the harbor was the fuel depots that, had the Japanese taken it out, would have crippled American forces to the point of the war swinging in Japanese favor. Certainly the atomic bombs would have never been delivered.
I never heard anyone say Carter wasn’t a good man, just not an effective president.
Jimmy Carter is the best example of what and who an American should be.
Both of them were incorrect. There is a way to obtain electricity and other power without the use of fuel entirely. Carter did band aids, Regan changed things in the favor of the people who want you dependent on fossil fuels. The day will come when we use other, more easily obtained materials (looking at you Niobium) to power homes and cars. Cue the insults!
Just like Tramp reversed every progressive thing we gained with Obama. Two days after taking office, her vetoes a Law that had taken years to pass to make it illegal to “sore” (I:e: torture) Tennessee Walking Horses to create the artificial, and paint induced, “Big Lick” gait, where the horses throw out their front legs, trying to relieve themselves on their pain.
He warned us of the effects of greed in our society. I can't imagine why.
Ronald Reagan destroyed my generations ability to buy anything. You want to know why millennial are mad? Look at Ronald Reagans presidency... dude was a massive racist, funny how Republicans hold him up as one of the best presidents
President Carter is the only US President that as an Aussie I would actually be proud to meet
Thank you, sir. I met him as an active duty squaddie. Decades later, still in awe.
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Carter is a great man who tried to save his country from what is happening now and in the years after his Presidency. But the bad guys won.
Carter's presidency was doomed by a recession that was caused by rising oil prices due to war in the Middle East. In spite of that, the American public just wouldn't buy the argument that energy independence was important, even though the proof was right in front of them at the gas pump. It was easier to write Carter off as some kind of liberal kook who ruined our economy by trying to be "too nice." (And here we are 40 years later, on the verge of another recession, caused by - among other things - rising oil prices due to war overseas.)
" Scooby-Doo can doo doo but Jimmy Carter is smarter." - Homer Simpson
An incoming president who undid all of his predessesor's work just because the predessesor had done it whether it worked or not. Where have I heard that before...
I think in many ways that Jimmy Carter is the best US president that the US never quite realised they had.
Unfortunately, most Americans that vote prefer tyrranical narcissists in office. President Carter is an amazing role model, mentor and human being!
But Carter was a terrible president. Gas lines, double digit mortgages, inflation, Iran hostages. And he's been an apologist for despots ever since. Ronaldus Magnus did more for poor people than you ever will or Carter ever did. He knew the importance of a strong economy and got us there. And, I'm still waiting for the Global warming, climate change, whatever apocalypse... 50 years and counting!
Yeah let's post a targeted political propoganda piece then fail to point to ,or show any facts .Jimmy Carter is a good man but is still the 2 nd worst American President this far .
yes like when he certified elections in south America that were totally corrupt. wonder how bad the good citizens suffered under the corrupt regime and under trump we were oil and gas self sufficient now look were were buying Russian oil that Putin is using to finance his illegal and inhumane war
Jimmy Carter: History's greatest monster. Thank gawd for president Reagan!
Then the US finally did become energy-independent--and even an energy exporter--and Biden ended all that!
Bull s**t. We are STILL a massive energy exporter. All the oil that's produced in the US is sold to other countries. We could easily support our own energy needs, but the oil and gas companies get more from foreign countries. Blame the greedy CEO's who price gouge and make record profits off the backs of everyone else.
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I love the libtards here who are f*****g off their children and grand children with their b***h ass ideas and greed. F*****g c***s
That's about the level of intelligence and maturity everyone expects of conservatives.
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So you think it is a good idea for us to just put up oil riggs up and down the coast and anywhere else oil companies want? Sure we'd be energy independent but at what cost?
Load More Replies... I dunno. There are records of Trump going to Epstein's island. Any records of jo going any where with Epstein? I'm thinking this whole "pedo jo" thing is to distract and misdirect.
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Did you forget Nixon and Ford and their little inflation romp? Gas crisis?
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Lindy Chamberlain. A dingo really did eat her baby.
Poor woman. The loss of her child was horrendous, but almost pales in comparison to what she was put through afterwards.
John Snow in 1854 tried to tell everyone about cholera, and how it was being caused by the water supply, no one believed him until he took illegal action and saved many lives
One of the many things that makes history truly engaging is the people, the historian argued. "Studying [them] makes history far more tangible and enriching than just reeling off a collection of dates and events that happened."
"I think in the world we live in today, history continues to show how important it is as a subject and must continue to encourage those around us to study the subject. The philosopher George Santayana said in 1905 'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.' And that is certainly happening at the moment, with large and powerful countries choosing to forget the true version of the past and use their own version to justify their actions," Moore noted.
"Yes, history is the study of that which is in the past, and some would argue that the past should be left there. But I disagree. I think history and the study of it will continue to have an importance on us as people, and it is not something we should ever abandon," she concluded.
Richard Stallman. Warned us back in the 80s that if we allow corporations to rule the internet that nobody will have privacy or freedom on the web, among many other things.
Barbara Lee was the only congresswoman to vote against going to war in Afghanistan after September 11. Not going to say she was right, but at the time I remember even as a kid thinking she was crazy, and heard alot of the derisive talk much more common today, directed at her. (Not a patriot, traitor, blahblah) 20 Years later, the world seems alot less black and white, and her decision seems ferociously rational against a tide of fear and rage.
Alexander Fleming, the man who discovered Penicillin, spent almost 10 years trying to convince the medical bodies of his time that it was worth investing time and resources to experiment with it, but was basically told to pound sand despite the respect he had prior to the discovery.
Lot of good it did me, I was lucky enough to be born allergic. Happy for the rest of you at least.
Courtney Love on Weinstein.
Weinstein is an absolutely disgusting human. And his money and “influence” protected him for so long… disgusting
George Bush, in 2005 he read a book about the Spanish Flu and insisted that the United States should be prepared for a pandemic. He said "If we wait for a pandemic to appear it will be too late to prepare. And one day many lives could be needlessly lost because we failed to act today."
Johnny Depp when he tried to tell people about how Amber was abusing him.
At least this person didn't go to the "Amber abused him so he must be innocent himself" conclusion. This doesn't have to be a one good the other bad situation - they can both be abusive AHs. And judging by the testimony so far, it really does seem like that's the case (I mean, their therapist flat out said they were both abusing each other).
Al Gore.
I mean, ffs, even South Park apologized to him. And it wasnt even sarcastic.
Sherry Rowland. Discovered the effect of CFCs on ozone depletetion and received an immense level of blow back from industry. Not only that, but invited talks and collabs were rescinded within the scientific community. Poor guy was ostracized. 20 years later after his (and Molina’s) discovery, he’s finally recognized with a Nobel prize.
Industry doesn’t want to have to spend money to retool, and potentially lose their good thing. So they use profits to suppress information that proves them wrong, and discredit anyone who dares question them.
My classmate in nursing school. He made a big fuss about a “coronavirus” just noticed in China. He asked about if clinicals or classes would be changed because of it. We thought he was absolutely paranoid and insane. We laughed.
Monica Lewinsky. That poor woman was dragged through the mud and seeing everyone reassess what was done to her has been bittersweet.
ETA: Bittersweet bc more people seem to understand she was a victim (sweet), but she was really young, and decades of her life were spent being a public punching bag (bitter)
I like that she has developed a sense of humor about the whole mess - she was the winner of some sort of online competition, "What is the worst career advice you ever received?" and her response, "A White House internship would look AMAZING on your resume."
Barry Marshall. Proved that stomach ulcers were a bacterial infection (and not stress) by ingesting (edit) with Helicobacter pylori and then curing himself with an antibiotic.
Corey feldmen was ridiculed for talking about the abuse he suffered in Hollywood and it wasn’t even a shock, it was obvious that kinda sh*t was going down.
John Rae. Very skilled arctic explorer who unlike most of the rest of Europeans at the time wasn’t above learning from the Inuit. He was largely successful because of his willingness to learn from them and use their clothing and diet and techniques.
Anyway, about ten years after the Franklin Expedition was lost John Rae was out looking for clues what happened because the British Admiralty had a standing reward of £10,000 for anyone who had credible information about the expeditions fate. He found some physical remnants of the expedition and had met with Inuit who’d seen some of the last surviving members of the expedition. They related to him how they’d been taken by disease, lack of food, and how some of them finally succumbed to cannibalism.
Rae took this information back to England, where society was absolutely outraged how he dared to spin such drivel. Surely no sophisticated gentlemen of the hero’s character that would be in Sir John Franklin’s expedition would act so savagely!
John Rae never got the award. Years later someone else did who told of a story that was correct also to some degree, but less than Rae had been.
In modern times bone fragments have been found with telltale cut marks, thereby proving John Rae and the Inuit right.
I saw this apparently as It said the British aristocrats could not believe that someone they respected so much could possibly resort to cannibalism to try to save their own lives so the story was widely trashed as a fake. Crap to not believe the Inuits when that's their home and they'd obviously know better.
I would say Monika Lewinsky. I watched her TED talk and thought about it in the world we have today and honestly, can't believe how bullied she was and how much of a joke her name still is
She was in her early 20s and Clinton was in his early 50s.
I can see myself in my 20s easily falling into the trap of thinking "wow I must be so incredible, the president notices me" when in reality, that's just creepy AF
Alfred Wegener hypothesed plate tectonics in the 1920’s, but this wasn’t an accepted notion until the 50’s.
He was a meteorologist, and copped a lot of flak from the geological community at the time.
Bernie Sanders. That dude complains a lot and he may not be right every time but it sure seems like most of the time.
Ralph Nader wasn't taken seriously about automobile safety. Now we have seatbelts and laws mandating them.
The fact that we’re fed a narrative that oversight and regulation only exist in polarized extremes & are an affront to liberty & freedom is one of the largest disservices ever. Nader was seen as an extremist, liberal cook simply for his work on establishing consumer protections. Imagine if it were “buyer beware” policy when it came to all our goods and services.
Marshall Ferdinand Folk when speaking of the Treaty of Versailles. "This is not peace. It is an armistice for twenty years."
Prescience personified.
Duff Roblin, the Premier of Manitoba. After the 1950 flood, Roblin's government initiated the Red River Floodway project. The floodway diverts part of the river around the city. At the time he was mocked and a lot of people thought it was a waste of money, because "a flood like that will never happen again."
It's been estimated that it's saved $40 billion CAD in flood damages since it was completed in 1968. I was there for the '97 flood. The floodway saved my home and my in-laws' home.
OH Damn! LOL You beat me to it. I didn't think anyone was going to mention "Duffy's Ditch". Yes, there was a great flood but I heard it would have flooded the downtown and much of the communities if it wasn't for the floodway. Me and my folks were volunteering with filling sandbags and we even sandbagged at a property. There's coloured bands on one of the support beams of one of the bridges showing the peak water levels comparing the 1950's flood and the '97 flood, as well as tiles on the beams of the rotunda at The Forks. It's quite interesting and scary.
Janet Jackson
The whole nipplegate thing made her out to be something she wasn't whilst Timberlake faced no backlash
Not exactly related, but why are men forgiven when exposed to be cheaters but the other woman involved cops all the blame & hate? (Khloe Kardashian forgave Tristan and the whole extended family blamed Jordan and never spoke to her again)
The English physician, William Harvey
(A.D.1578–1657), discovered the
circulation of blood. The current
opinion in those days was that blood
oscillates in the vessels of the body.
For his views, Harvey was ridiculed
and was called “circulator”. He lost
most of his patients. However, before
he died, Harvey’s idea about
circulation was generally accepted as
a biological fact.
When I was in elementary school, we learned about the different areas of taste on the tongue: salty, bitter, sweet, and sour. In front of the class, I asked then "why do I taste the sweet all over my tongue when I eat candy?" She dismissed my question and the other kids said I was dumb. Who's dumb now?
Jack Layton -Early on in the Afghanistan war when the Taliban had been largely beaten and splintered into several small groups, many of them leaderless and wanting a way out, Jack suggested negotiating with these groups to end the war. The Conservative government of Canada labeled him Taliban Jack, and he was widely ridiculed. Had they negotiated back in 2005/2006 there would have been a lot less lives lost, and an opportunity to create a lasting change in Afghanistan.
Chris Crocker.
We all know the Leave Brittney Alone video. We all quoted it at the same and made fun of Chris.
But they turned out to be completely correct. Britney was being pushed too hard by the media, and the aggressive fans and invasive paparazzi were (in part) to blame for her break down. We know now that she was controlled by her family for years, and we really shouldnt have mocked someone trying to draw attention to it. I think part of the mockery came because the breakdown is "funny", but also because society did - and still does - think that celebrities deserve whatever happens to them, so the paparazzi and the fans aren't responsible for how their actions hurt celebrities.
This one wasn't so much the point of the message, but they way it was done. At the time it was well known that Britney was being hounded by the paparazzi, and the pressure the constant attention on celebrities was having (for example, watch the episode south park did about her). The mockery came from crying and screaming about a celebrity online
Lady Gaga. She was bullied and there were Facebook groups dedicated to ridiculing her and telling her she'd never be famous. Guess they were wrong.
Karen Carpenter, the singer. Everyone back when they were popular (myself included) mocked and sneered at how uncool The Carpenters were. But time told us she had one of the best singing voices ever. It’s a timeless voice of incredible beauty.
The “Alvarez hypothesis” two guys who 30 years before anyone had indisputable proof of it hypothesesed the dinosaurs died because of an asteroid. Well they were f*cking right on with that one.
They very recently found the impact site that proves the theory. *EDIT* Not a body dump as I thought but a geographical anomaly.
Marie Curie
Discovered polonium and radium and was laughed at for suggesting that radiation could be used to view the human body in ways we couldn't see.
It's because of her that we have x-rays. It's also because of her that we learned that unchecked radiation could also cause cancer.
111
Barry Marshall
Helped discover h. Pylori bacteria and the link between it and ulcers. He and his research partner Robin Warren were knocked by the medical community for their beliefs in those link.
Marshall drank a cocktail containing h.pylori, willingly gave himself bacterial induced gastritis, then used antibiotics to cure himself just to prove he was right.
*sigh* Marie Curie was avarded with Nobel prize of physics only 5 years after she found Polonium and Radium. And no. It was not due her that we have X-rays. First X-ray photo thru human tissues were taken by Wilhem Röntgen at 1895. Marie Skodolwskaja-Curie newertheless contributed a lot on developing mobile X-ray units but due the urgent need of field hospitals of WW-I no one definetly laughed..
Richard jewel he’s why we should all know to not listen to talking heads on tv.
The way he was treated was deplorable. It was pure cynicism on the part of law enforcement that he was even a suspect.
Gregor Mendel. In the 1860s, he came up with the Principles of Segregation and Independent Assortment, saying that genetic factors are expressed via segregating alleles and different genes.
For about a good 40-ish years, everyone thought he was crazy and didn't receive much credibility from his peers. However, in the early 1900s, people began to build off of his knowledge and work. Now, he's known as the father of genetics.
Mendel wasn't ridiculed. He was a complete unknown. This happens often in science, where a publication from 20 or more years before is discovered when the effect they described suddenly becomes well known.
Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis . In 1847 he discovered that doctors washing their hands before delivery led to fewer deaths in women. He hypothesized germ theory, but was ridiculed and mocked by the academic establishment. He ended up having a nervous breakdown and later died in a mental institution. Probably from injuries sustained from beatings he received from the guards. (RIP)
Jose Canseco, when he claimed in his book that steroid use was rampant in Major League Baseball.
No, Mark McGuire and Barry Bonds simply had great personal trainers, ate lots of chicken, and spent all of their non-baseball playing time working out at the gym. No PED's here.
Prince Charles. Banged on about the environment/organic foods and everyone took the piss mercilessly. To me, he was right about architecture too, but that’s subjective
Certainly agree about architecture. Buildings made of stone and even brick have survived for centuries and are aesthetically pleasing. Today, they actually put a shelf life on buildings. Like, it will last twenty years or so. And they are SO ugly. All this metal and glass is horrendous.
J Harlen Bretz. He spent his life's work proving that the channeled scablands were formed by an absolutely biblical level flood. No one took him seriously because by that point geologists weren't really too keen on the biblical events type geology and were more in favor of gradual change hypothesis for how things came to be.
As soon as satellite photography became a thing his hypothesis was pretty quickly accepted because it's really obvious from above that its massive flood tracts. Funny enough even the famous explorers Lewis and Clark realized it was caused by floods and even wrote about it because they recognized the rippling hills and flood deposits like you'd see in a river just hundreds of times bigger.
If your interested google Missoula floods.
Chelsey ”Sully” Sullenberger - the pilot of US Airways flight 1549 that landed his plane in the Hudson river.
Damn, he was mangled before finally being aquitted of the charges and told he did a great job and the made all the right decisions.
I have a feeling this person watched the movie Sully and nothing else because their recollection is so ridiculously off. Landing a plane into the Hudson without breaking it apart was seen as an impressive feat and Sully was well known in the aviation community already having been a part of several highly focused NTSB investigations so he knew how the process would go. When people found out he was the pilot, they agreed he's the one they'd want in that situation and were not shocked by his calm demeanor or ability. There was of course an NTSB investigation but there always is, they were curious if he could have gotten to another airport (LaGuardia was in reach, but didn't take into several factors and they agreed ditching was the best hope and saved countless), and was not some sort of police interrogation with bright lights. Tom Hanks noted that Sully wasn't a fan of how the movie portrayed the NTSB making sure real names were not used. Another example to give you how celebrated he was? The Hudson landing happened on January 15 and the dude was at the Presidential inauguration for Obama on January 20, hardly being lambasted.
Arsene Wenger. In 2002 he said his team could go a whole season unbeaten. He was roundly mocked, as it had occurred once in the 100+ year history of English football.
Two years later, they did it.
megan fox being shouted down and criticised for how she spoke about the way she was treated on the transformers set.
Megan Fox apologized later because she said it wasn't as bad as she made it seem and she was way out of line and should have handled the situation better and if she had she could have solved her issue and kept her job?
Note: this post originally had 61 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
In 1992 Sinead O'Connor tore up a picture of the pope on SNL to bring attention to the sexual abuse of children. The derision and career hit were swift and relentless. We owe her an apology. Better... We owe her thanks.
To me, Susan Boyle´s such a great representation of this. In her first audition on BGT, she was mocked and laughed at for her appearance and age, but now she is a successful singer and constantly gives back to the community. I admire how humble and down to earth she is.
The change on Simon Cowell's face when she started singing...
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How is Tesla not on here. 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"
it's so easy shushing and shutting someone who is right : these people eventually got proven right and now we know their names; a lot of (right) people didn't get that far and were just shushed
... which is why we need to stay curious and ask questions when someone says something contrary to popular opinion. one huge error in Trumpism, that has spread in our culture, is mockery and silencing of anything we don't understand.
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Sindead O'Connor. Tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on live TV in 1992, to call attention to the Catholic church's rampant sexual abuse of children. O'Connor was heavily shunned at the time... 20 years later, the church's sex abuse scandal became so widespread, it made Pope Benedict say "Good God, I'm too old for this sh*t..."
I posted here, on BP, that antibiotics were being used to treat the covid virus. I got 15 down votes and some mean replies. I then posted the actual study showing that some antibiotics have anti viral properties. Thank you to the Panda's that took back downvotes. Science is an ongoing pursuit, what you learned yesterday may not be true today.
How could people downvote that? I'm allergic to almost all antibiotics (except the newer one, thanks scientists!) You can't count the number of people who didn't die because antibiotics saved them.
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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.
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.
They fell off the evolutionary ladders some species ago. The level of a fungus, perhaps.
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I think a lot of these people have not quite reached "historical" status
From this - I see a thread that is a struggle... and that is the seeming inability to balance out rationale. It's like there's just this overwhelming faith that if someone (or a corporation) has more money and fame than the whistleblower/victim that they automatically are 100% correct and virtually NO creedence is given to the complaint REGARDLESS of the evidence provided. It's disproportionately difficult to get it looked into. If one person simply angry tweets with no backup info? sure... I can understand that... if that one person pipes up, shows transcripts, police reports, hospital reports, etc, apparently that's still okay to ignore, mock and bury? That it takes something like a class action lawsuit and decades, wherein some of the originally wronged people are DEAD by that time, for things to get noticed... and that is just absolute crap.
The Australian government bought Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles painting in the 70s for over a million, copped plenty of flak. Worth 100-350 million today,.
I am not sure on that one, sure it is worth more now, but spending 1million on art instead of doing something with the money, I can understand why people would be annoyed and if they sold it now, they still would not do something with the money it would get tied up in something or other instead
Load More Replies... Well, not really surprising that all these people were brushed off, because every disaster movie starts with the government ignoring a scientist.
I've got a photo of that saying on a sign in front of a fast-food place. Sorry I don't have the link.
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How can you possibly leave Harry Markopolos off this list? He outed Bernie Madoff for almost a decade before the whole scam imploded.
Great post. I wonder how many people reading are going to apologize to J. K. Rowling in a few years.
Yeah, but she's not the only author that got laughed at.
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He's already on the "worst presidents ever" list. Several of them, actually.
Load More Replies... In 1992 Sinead O'Connor tore up a picture of the pope on SNL to bring attention to the sexual abuse of children. The derision and career hit were swift and relentless. We owe her an apology. Better... We owe her thanks.
To me, Susan Boyle´s such a great representation of this. In her first audition on BGT, she was mocked and laughed at for her appearance and age, but now she is a successful singer and constantly gives back to the community. I admire how humble and down to earth she is.
The change on Simon Cowell's face when she started singing...
Load More Replies... How is Tesla not on here. 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"
it's so easy shushing and shutting someone who is right : these people eventually got proven right and now we know their names; a lot of (right) people didn't get that far and were just shushed
... which is why we need to stay curious and ask questions when someone says something contrary to popular opinion. one huge error in Trumpism, that has spread in our culture, is mockery and silencing of anything we don't understand.
Load More Replies... Sindead O'Connor. Tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on live TV in 1992, to call attention to the Catholic church's rampant sexual abuse of children. O'Connor was heavily shunned at the time... 20 years later, the church's sex abuse scandal became so widespread, it made Pope Benedict say "Good God, I'm too old for this sh*t..."
I posted here, on BP, that antibiotics were being used to treat the covid virus. I got 15 down votes and some mean replies. I then posted the actual study showing that some antibiotics have anti viral properties. Thank you to the Panda's that took back downvotes. Science is an ongoing pursuit, what you learned yesterday may not be true today.
How could people downvote that? I'm allergic to almost all antibiotics (except the newer one, thanks scientists!) You can't count the number of people who didn't die because antibiotics saved them.
Load More Replies... 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.
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.
They fell off the evolutionary ladders some species ago. The level of a fungus, perhaps.
Load More Replies... I think a lot of these people have not quite reached "historical" status
From this - I see a thread that is a struggle... and that is the seeming inability to balance out rationale. It's like there's just this overwhelming faith that if someone (or a corporation) has more money and fame than the whistleblower/victim that they automatically are 100% correct and virtually NO creedence is given to the complaint REGARDLESS of the evidence provided. It's disproportionately difficult to get it looked into. If one person simply angry tweets with no backup info? sure... I can understand that... if that one person pipes up, shows transcripts, police reports, hospital reports, etc, apparently that's still okay to ignore, mock and bury? That it takes something like a class action lawsuit and decades, wherein some of the originally wronged people are DEAD by that time, for things to get noticed... and that is just absolute crap.
The Australian government bought Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles painting in the 70s for over a million, copped plenty of flak. Worth 100-350 million today,.
I am not sure on that one, sure it is worth more now, but spending 1million on art instead of doing something with the money, I can understand why people would be annoyed and if they sold it now, they still would not do something with the money it would get tied up in something or other instead
Load More Replies... Well, not really surprising that all these people were brushed off, because every disaster movie starts with the government ignoring a scientist.
I've got a photo of that saying on a sign in front of a fast-food place. Sorry I don't have the link.
Load More Replies... How can you possibly leave Harry Markopolos off this list? He outed Bernie Madoff for almost a decade before the whole scam imploded.
Great post. I wonder how many people reading are going to apologize to J. K. Rowling in a few years.
Yeah, but she's not the only author that got laughed at.
Load More Replies... He's already on the "worst presidents ever" list. Several of them, actually.
Load More Replies...