People Explain Which Historical Figures Seemed Crazy Until They Were Proven Right All Along

Ludwig Knows

Ludwig Boltzmann

His equations and formulas explained the physical properties of matter, but as it went against the then accepted Laws of Physics, he was ridiculed and ignored for years while fighting for atom theory to be accepted.

He took his own life just 3 years before Ernest Rutherford discovered the nucleus of an atom, proving Boltzmann's theory.

cpsutcliffe

Ernie's Concern...

Hemingway, before he took his life he became extremely paranoid the FBI was following him. His wife and people around him just thought he was mentally ill and grew deeply concerned. Hemingway went as far as getting electrotherapy at a psychiatric hospital to try and help with the perceived delusions. Turns out the FBI had been following and bugging him for years according to declassified files.

WhoIsTurdFerguson

No One Would Listen

Harry Markopolos spent ten years trying to convince everyone (investors, journalists, regulatory agencies, etc.) that Bernie Madoff was a fraud, based on forensic accounting. Madoff was one of the most respected names on Wall Street and despite the overwhelming evidence, no one was willing to entertain the thought he might be running a Ponzi scheme. Harry's book, No One Would Listen is a pretty great account of financial detective work and just the abject frustration of being absolutely certain you're right but no one believes you.

EDIT: If you want to see Congressman Ackerman absolutely destroy the SEC right after Markopolous's testimony, here you go.

Inri137

The Drifter...

In 1912 the meteorologist Alfred Wegener described what he called continental drift, an idea that culminated fifty years later in the modern theory of plate tectonics.[40]

Wegener expanded his theory in his 1915 book The Origin of Continents and Oceans.[41] Starting from the idea (also expressed by his forerunners) that the present continents once formed a single land mass (later called Pangea), Wegener suggested that these separated and drifted apart, likening them to "icebergs" of low density granite floating on a sea of denser basalt.

[42] Supporting evidence for the idea came from the dove-tailing outlines of South America's east coast and Africa's west coast, and from the matching of the rock formations along these edges. Confirmation of their previous contiguous nature also came from the fossil plants Glossopteris and Gangamopteris, and the therapsid or mammal-like reptile Lystrosaurus, all widely distributed over South America, Africa, Antarctica, India, and Australia. The evidence for such an erstwhile joining of these continents was patent to field geologists working in the southern hemisphere. The South African Alex du Toit put together a mass of such information in his 1937 publication Our Wandering Continents, and went further than Wegener in recognising the strong links between the Gondwana fragments.

Wegener's work was initially not widely accepted, in part due to a lack of detailed evidence. The Earth might have a solid crust and mantle and a liquid core, but there seemed to be no way that portions of the crust could move around. Distinguished scientists, such as Harold Jeffreys and Charles Schuchert, were outspoken critics of continental drift.

Scrolling2Oblivian

So many have pleaded with us through science and fact. More often than not science can sound like fiction but reality is far stranger than fiction. It may seem odd that a plague is coming, or that certain aspects of the human body cause breakdowns and pain, because we don't initially understand the specifics. Sure, some truths feel too simple and others too vague, but rest assured plenty of people have known.

Dr. Fauci?

That dude who suggested that it might be a good idea to wash your hands before performing surgery.

Roland_T_Flakfeizer

The Death

Semmelweis supposedly suffered a nervous breakdown and was committed to an asylum by his colleagues. He died 14 days later after being beaten by the guards, from a gangrenous wound on his right hand which might have been caused by the beating. Semmelweis's practice earned widespread acceptance only years after his death, when Louis Pasteur confirmed the germ theory.

dannycolaco14

Super Barry

For a very long time the medical community thought that stomach ulcers were caused by stress.

A doctor in Australia called Barry Marshall claimed they were wrong and that they were caused by an excess of certain bacteria, and the cure was simple antibiotics. The medical community ridiculed him and nearly ended his career. He eventually decided the only way to prove he was right was to infect himself, develop the ulcers and cure himself.

In curing himself he was proved right and won the Nobel prize for his efforts, and now stomach ulcers are very easily treatable (they previously affected 1 in 10 people).

full story here

graeuk

"The Great Missoula Flood"

J Harlan Bretz

He was a geologist that in the 1920s came up with a theory about why the Dry Falls and surrounding scablands of Eastern Washington state were so sharp and abrupt, instead of smooth as should be with the general understanding of erosion. Especially since the falls have no real river to speak of to create erosion.

His theory was that a giant flood, created by an even more massive lake, ripped through the region millions of years ago, reshaping the landscape in a matter of days. He was laughed at and discredited in the geology community for almost 50 years. Until someone discovered evidence in the 1950s of an ancient and massive lake that started just north of Montana that stretched all the way to southern Utah.

The lake was believed to have been created by glacial dams (ice walls) during the last ice age. It would fill up over thousands of years and then hit a point where a glacial dam broke and the lake water would fire out the break like a water cannon, drain the lake, and reshape an entire region over several days as the water flowed toward the ocean. This happened several times.

Since the flood that carved the Dry Falls likely started from the Lake Missoula area in modern day Montana, it was named the "The Great Missoula Flood". Bretz was given an award in 1979 for his contribution to geology when he was 96 years old. He joked "All my enemies are dead, so I have no one to gloat over."

Arrow_to_the_knee1

Never underestimate the people who seem like they're just spreading gossip. Within every lie, there is truth. And gossip has to be born from somewhere, it's sort of a parody of truth. And don't negate facts that seem so outlandish they can only be a masterwork of creativity. The wildest tales are never made up.

Drunk Martha

Martha Mitchell, she was the wife of Nixon's AG, John Mitchell. She was outspoken in the extreme and was one of the first to talk openly about what really happened re:Watergate. Since she was also known to love her martinis, she was widely written off as a drunk, crazy woman. Behind the scenes, a White House doctor began heavily sedating her and her husband locked her away from the press. No one believed her until Nixon resigned and the story came out. To this day, most people only remember her as that loud-mouth, Martha Mitchell.

feliciates

Sherman's Truth

When the Civil War broke out, everyone on both sides thought it would be a quick victory. However Sherman kept saying it would be a bloodbath that would drag on for years. His superiors decided he was insane and sent him out west to fight Native Americans just to get rid of him.

After it all came true and they needed some better generals, they said "Maybe we should bring back that Sherman guy."

RealisticDelusions77

John Knows

John Snow (yes, that's his name) was laughed at for believing that the multiple cholera outbreaks could be traced back to a specific source and that it was due to contaminated water. Essentially, making him one of the fathers of epidemiology. He has a fascinating life that went beyond that as well!

CaptainHedgehog

Mother's Know

The "dingo ate my baby!" lady. Got made fun of constantly, most notably in Seinfeld and I believe went to jail because nobody believed her. Turns out a dingo ate her baby. She is still made fun of.

Threash78

Phil Knows

There was a sci-fi writer Philip K Dick who was convinced the FBI was monitoring him so he kept sending demand letters that they release his file.

His daughter was interviewed years after he passed (extras on Scanner Darkly dvd iirc):

"I heard you've actually seen your father's FBI file and it is quite large"

"Yes it's rather large, but the only thing in there are copies of his demand letters".

RealisticDelusions77

Radium

The Radium Girls.

When Radium had just come to the US and was being marketed on dials for war and watches, girls used their lips to fix the paintbrushes to make their numbers and dials perfect. Eventually they started suffering horrible, painful experiences due to the radium.

These girls fought for YEARS to figure out A) what was wrong with them, B) who was responsible, and C) how they were going to pay their bills/support their families.

It's a horrible injustice. These girls needed support and validation that they weren't crazy, that it WAS radium; and it took far too long and too many deaths for it to happen.

Thr0wAway4M3sh3ll

Hey Ladies...

When I was in Boy Scout camp we had this counselor named Don. He was kind of odd, he knew everything about trees and only really talked about trees.

We had just gotten back from a hike that Don was on with us and we were just sitting around talking and he suddenly goes "You know, they're gonna let girls into Boy Scouts soon". We were all like, "yeah okay Don". But sure enough less than 3 years later, they did it.

Trainkid9

Mr. Burry gets it...

Michael Burry. The first guy to predict the 2008 housing market crash. He was a hedge fund manager for Scion Capital at the time and basically bet his entire funds liquidity (all the money the fund had) that there would be a crash.

No one believed him except a few other people who also bet against the market. Several of his clients sued him for tying their money up in what they considered to be a foolish bet all to have him be right in the end. He made his fund something like $1.3 billion and the value increased about 489%.

The movie the Big Short is about him and the few other people who were wise enough to bet against the market at the time. I've watched the movie like 5 times in order to try to understand exactly what happened but still don't fully get it. I recommend it to anyone who's interested

Fun fact: Michael Burry was also ahead of the curve* in the recent GameStop surge. I think he had something like 1.2 million shares of GameStop months before the price shot up (might need to fact check myself).

SirGrayHat

Rotted to the Core

Johnny Rotten said in an interview that he knew Jimmy Savile was into all kinds of "seediness". People dismissed it as typical Johnny Rotten anti establishment talk (for which he is famous). As it turned out, he was right.

Yeah, I know, Piers Morgan...

zerbey

Pity Me Partyboy...

Me. About my (now disowned) cousin.

He kept stealing things from me which my family felt was no big deal. But it escalated. It went from stealing candy, to my things, to cash, and after that I asked them how much longer they would support him and call me "selfish" for "not sharing." The line was finally crossed when he stole our grandmothers credit cards and her car.

She finally wrote him off.

This was AFTER he had stolen all of her jewelry, including the last present (anniversary ring) my grandfather was ever to give her.

Oh, but he tried to say that our family kicked him out because he's gay. No. None of us cared about that, it was because he's a thief.

His "friends" have bailed him out of jail and then dropped him when he steals from them.

But he claims the world is "just unfair" to him.

Now he tells his pity story and milks the "my family disowned me because I'm gay" to everyone he begs from. I learned this when he tried to do it to one of my friends.

Spazztastic85

You're Sane

The ex-husband of my ex-girlfriend . Turns out he wasn't the crazy one after all. He kept trying to tell me and if I would have listened from the beginning I could have saved 4 years of my life.

Topher3037

Th Wardens

The people who discovered prions. All the other biologists thought they were crazy to suggest one protein could be an infectious agent. Nope those biologists were wrong and Nobel prizes were awarded.

thatonewhitejamaican

The Tortured

The people who were tortured as a part of MK Ultra. Imagine trying to convince the people around you that the government is trying to make you crazy with mind control, only years later to find out that not only was it true, but you wouldn't get compensation for it. And you were subject to illegal human experimentation.

heathert7900

Don't Tell Me

The classic example, of course, is Cassandra; in Greek mythology she was cursed to know the future, but for no one to believe her when she told them.

DukeMaximum

It just seems like eternal human error to constantly repeat bad patterns and already lived through cycles -which is the definition of insanity by the way- so that lessons are never learned. When will believe those that are trying to warn us for our greater good, the first few hundred times they tell us? Wash your hands, wear your mask and prepare to combat climate change. You've been warned... A LOT!!