Remember “The dingo ate my baby” story? For those unaware, let me give you a short summary. In 1982, a woman named Lindy Chamberlain was falsely convicted for the murder of her daughter and spent three years in jail. Her phrase “A dingo ate my baby,” which was indeed a desperate cry for help, turned into a global punchline. Although the mother was later released, it took another 32 years to prove that the baby was snatched by the wild dogs.
Very often, we disregard the unpopular, the least believable opinion. We might think the person is delusional, crazy even. Yet, time is the ultimate teller of truth. And oh, how the tables can turn sometimes. Some statements, even the wildest ones, sometimes deserve the benefit of the doubt.
A Reddit user TheCheeryStranger recently asked fellow platform users, “What ‘Crazy’ Person is history was right the whole time?” Almost 10k upvotes and 6k comments later, the user got the answers they waited for. Loads of them. Continue with the post to see the people whose statements should have been taken at face value.
More info: Reddit
#1
Image source: sagieday, wikipedia.org
Rose McGowan was completely ostracized and blacklisted for talking about Weinstein too early.
#2
Image source: ArchieBellTitanUp
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.
#3
Image source: JustAbel, Yuri Levchenko
During the plague in Moscow, there was a priest (or something) discouraging people [from] kissing the statue of Maria, as to stop the spreading of the virus.
The poor man was burned alive for blasphemy.
#4
Image source: HayakuEon, Faran Raufi
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.
#5
Image source: tommygunz007
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.
#6
Image source: Rayshon1042, wikipedia.org
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.
#7
Image source: carissadraws, wikipedia.org
Craig Ferguson having empathy for Britney Spears in his 2007 monologue.
#8
Image source: 77kloklo77
Sinead O’Connor – she was vilified for ripping up a photo of the pope to protest child abuse within the Catholic Church. Spoiler alert – the Catholic Church was covering up child abuse.
#9
Image source: CategoryTurbulent114, Towfiqu barbhuiya
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.
#10
Image source: ironwolf6464, Emiliano Cicero
Anyone who covered their webcam camera.
#11
Image source: going_dot_global, wikipedia.org
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.”
#12
Image source: jdward01
Lisa Bonet. She was vilified for hating Cosby in the 80s. Who’s the villain now?
#13
Image source: Wintermute, wikipedia.org
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.
#14
Image source: Few-Frosting-1398, wikipedia.org
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 [through] the roof and our salaries have stagnated and we can’t afford “The American Dream” anymore.
#15
Image source: Parmeisan
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.
#16
Image source: Luke Keil, wikipedia.org
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”
#17
Image source: Ashweed137
Boltzman spent his life trying to prove his formula but ended up committing suicide because none of his colleagues believed him. Now, his formula is basically the ‘amen’ in thermodynamics.
#18
Image source: Sudden-Lettuce2317
Clair Patterson-he was made out to be crazy by giant oil companies bc he tested ice cores in the Arctic and figured out that the amount of lead in the atmosphere, the water, and our bodies was extremely high and caused by leaded gasoline. He petitioned Congress for years to make it illegal to add lead to gasoline, but the corporations kept getting him shut down because they used lead as an anti-knock agent for internal combustion engines. Ironically, lead was causing everyone else to go crazy because it is shaped like a neurotransmitter and blocks receptors causing insanity, similarly to what mercury does, and many employees of the oil companies had gone mad. After decades of battling the oil companies, he finally got his way, and lead was removed from gasoline. Since then, the amount of lead in the atmosphere and I’m living things has decreased dramatically. Clair Patterson… a f**king hero.
He also created the first truly “clean room.”
#19
Image source: ChaoticForkingGood, wikipedia.org
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.
#20
Image source: FluffyUnicorn949, wikipedia.org
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.
