"What the herd hates most is the one who thinks differently; it is not so much the opinion itself, but the audacity of wanting to think for themselves, something that they do not know how to do."
— Arthur Schopenhauer
"Just remember how people who made the first big discoveries were branded as crazy, incompetent or even stupid — even in science communities."
— Some dope on the Interwebz
Ah, yes, the tiresome trope that every crank and charlatan invokes—the notion that being ridiculed or dismissed is somehow proof of their genius. Let's be clear: skepticism is the lifeblood of scientific progress, not its enemy. Those who made genuine breakthroughs—Darwin, Einstein, Pasteur—were not merely scoffed at; they demonstrated their ideas with rigor, evidence, and intellectual courage. Most of those decrying the 'closed-mindedness' of the scientific community are not persecuted visionaries—they're simply mistaken. Or worse, frauds who demand recognition without doing the work. Most dismissed theories weren't ahead of their time—they were just wrong.