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45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them
HistorySEP 1, 2023

45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them

Gabija Saveiskyte
Justin Sandberg
Gabija Saveiskyte and Justin Sandberg
166
11
A lot of things that we take for granted were not really received with open arms when they were suggested. Even worse, many scientists, inventors, or thinkers, whom we now revere as visionaries, were actually mocked, discredited, and even punished just for their ideas. 
So one netizen wanted to hear about historical figures that were unfairly vilified, only to be vindicated later. From being imprisoned for suggesting that doctors wash their hands, to excommunication over saying the Earth actually orbits the Sun, here are the most interesting examples gathered by the internet. 

#1

45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them
Ignaz Semmelweis. The world didn’t know about germs yet, but he saw that way fewer women were dying from childbirth when midwives attended the births than when doctors did (doctors were coming from autopsies and wrecking women’s s**t). Ignaz suggested they start washing their hands, and people lost their f*****g minds. Doctors ridiculed him and everyone hated him. He had a “nervous breakdown,” was committed to an insane asylum, beaten by the guards, and died from a gangrenous wound as a result of the beating.
glamourcrow: 
He didn't discover it, he was told by midwives over and over and over until he looked into it.
Midwives at the hospital observed that when doctors delivered babies, mothers were at a higher risk. Any housewife knew that food would spoil faster if handled with dirty hands and they always used vinegar solutions to clean their hands, tools, and surfaces. Any housewife would do this and midwives did it because mothers and their babies are more important than pumpkin preserves. Only doctors never washed their grubby hands while it was a deeply ingrained habit in most midwives.
Semmelweis listened to women. No wonder they locked him away.
AhemExcuseMeSir, József Borsos
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334points

#2

45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them
Sinéad O'Connor. Was villified when she ripped up a picture of the Pope on SNL for child abuse and criticizing the Catholic Church.
Over the following decades we realized how devastatingly right she was about the whole thing.
Theartofdumbingdown, oconnor.sinead
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305points

#3

45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them
Kotaku Wamura, mayor of a town in Japan who spent decades of taxpayer money developing a seawall to defend against tsunamis. During his whole career he was ridiculed for the expenditure and he died before it ever payed off. Then in 2011 it saved the whole town. 
DrDragun
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282points

While more contemporary thinkers and scientists might face a bit of ridicule for novel ideas, the scientific minds of the past risked a lot worse. Both Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilei were threatened by the Catholic church for daring to suggest that, in fact, the Earth was not the center of the universe. Now they have both been completely vindicated by the scientific community. 

Ironically, this “I told you so” story is perhaps the reason why we still know them today. As you can imagine, there were not really that many astronomers in 15th-century Europe. Both Galileo and Copernicus were brought back into more mainstream discussions by 19th-century Protestant writers, who used their stories as examples of the suppressive nature of the Catholic church. 

#4

45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them
Marie Tharp, who drew a map that would help validate the theory of plate tectonics in 1953. Her colleague dismissed it as “girl talk” for over a year. But when the evidence seemed to point to the map being correct, he published the map under his own name and Tharp’s contribution was ignored by both Columbia University (where she worked) and the greater geological community.
ephemeratea
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275points

#5

45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them
Dominique Moceanu - Dominque came forward in 2008 revealing abuse in USA gymnastics before the 2016 sexual abuse scandal. She was accused of being bitter, lying, and seeking attention. She was blacklisted by gymnastics coaches and received threatening e-mails accusing her of basically being a traitor. John Geddert was one of the USA National Team coaches who sent her the following e-mail in 2008: "Dom, Although I am waiting to see the final product, initial quotes and coverage from your Brian Gumble interview have me wondering how you can stab this sport in the back..."John Geddert would later commit s*icide following federal charges of child exploitation and child trafficking of his former gymnasts.
redman9000, St Poe
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262points

#6

45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them
Jimmy Carter. He was right about promoting energy independence and transitioning from usage away from fossil fuels to cleaner forms of energy (and he was a former nuclear engineer as well). His stance back in the '70s holds up extremely well, especially in this day and age.
Lazer5i8er, Naval Photographic Center
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258points

More tragically, it was not until the 19th century that people started to realize just how much disease and infections are carried by dirty hands. Joseph Lister, a British surgeon was the first to recommend that doctors do the bare minimum of hygiene, like washing their hands and maybe wearing gloves when interacting with a corpse. His critics mocked his ideas and “The Lancet,” the leading medical journal of the time, even issued warnings against his ideas. 

#7

45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them
Stella Liebeck - The woman who sued McDonald's after being burned by hot coffee. Was vilified as the poster child for frivolous lawsuits. After she died pictures of her burns were published and they are graphic.
Tortuga_Jake
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254points

#8

45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them
Alan Turing, the British mathematician and computer scientist was persecuted and prosecuted for his homosexuality, which was considered illegal at the time. Turing's work in breaking the Enigma code during World War II was pivotal in Allied victory. He is now celebrated for his contributions to computing and artificial intelligence.
KimParker69, Tomipelegrin
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232points

#9

45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them
Patricia Stallings comes to mind.
Convicted of poisoning her first child, gave birth in prison (kid got taken away) and the kid also dies. Instead of poisoning it was now found it was a genetic defect that had similar effects as poisoning with antifreeze.
Wisely_0904, IMDb
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229points

We should all, collectively, thank a number of other medical thinkers of the time who went against the grain and decided to give Joseph Lister’s ideas a shot. Marcus Beck, a consultant surgeon at University College Hospital, made sure to include his ideas in newer editions of medical textbooks.

#10

45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them
Stanislav Petrov. More people need to know his name, he literally, like quite literally saved the world.
Saved the world from nuclear ruin, simply because he was stubborn and refused to believe the computing error. He went against his position orders, and was consequently sacked by the USSR and lived an isolated life. Not necessarily vilified by all, but vilified by the USSR and ignored by the west. Put some respect on his name.
And he didn't even win a Nobel peace prize, died in 2017. Recommend watching 'Stanislav Petrov, the man who saved the world'.
Weebla, Stanislav Petrov
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225points

#11

45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them
Monica Lewinsky. She was a 20-y-o White House intern who got taken advantage of. Then the media crucified her for it.
slappy_mcslapenstein, Helene C. Stikkel
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218points

#12

45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them
Courtney Love. I’m referring specifically to the fact that she called out Harvey Weinstein publicly long before what we know now, and everyone kind of just dismissed her.
violentfemme17, Manfred Werner
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215points

It doesn't take a genius to realize that a surgeon with clean hands will leave more patients alive. So if you ever think about how romantic it would be to travel to the past, just remember, your doctor would have probably handled a corpse, stitched a wound, eaten lunch, delivered a baby, and who knows what else, before they get around to assisting you. 

#13

45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them
Dixie Chicks. They were against the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and publicly said so. They were effectively cancelled by the right as a result. Turns out they were correct, there were no weapons of mass destruction. The invasion was concocted so Bush could be seen as striking back for 9/11, which won him re-election in 2004.
dare978devil, Wasted Time R
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199points

#14

45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them
Doctor Clair Cameron Patterson not only discovered the true age of the Earth with his research in Lead-dating, but during this process he accidentally discovered the dangers of lead contamination. Then he went “wait, we’re putting this s**t in gasoline, cans, paint, etc.” He then began campaigning against lead in everyday products. In particular, he targeted the gasoline industry. *You can imagine how that went in the courtroom*. He was vilified, excluded, and slandered against but kept pushing for lead to be removed from gasoline. Took decades, but obviously lead was removed from gasoline almost entirely by 1990
honeybeebryce
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193points

#15

45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them
Rose McGowan for calling out Harvey Weinstein.
infjwritermom, Rhododendrites
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193points

Unfortunately, most of the examples here never got to experience vindication and would probably be surprised by just how important their work really was. Stephen Hawking, in “A Brief History of Time,” wrote that Galileo Galilei could be considered one of the most important contributors to modern science of all time. So if you want to commemorate other great minds that were ignored in their time, check out Bored Panda’s other article on “crazy” people who ended up being right all along. 

#16

45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them
Lindy Chamberlain
The 'A Dingo Killed My Baby' lady.
She was vilifed, mocked and ridiculed across the world.
She then spent three years in prison, before it turned out she was actually telling the truth the whole time, and a dingo did, in fact kill her baby.
-Some__Random-, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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187points

#17

45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them
Barry Marshall (and also Robin Warren his co-researcher). Forever, the cause of peptic ulcers was believed to be stress, spicy food and too much acid production. They believed it was actually of bacterial origin. No one believed them, they were ridiculed because the belief was that bacteria couldn't survive in the acidic environment of the stomach. Not until Barry took a cocktail of H. pylori bacteria, which caused him to have massive inflammation of the stomach which was found to be colonized with the bacteria, but a course of antibiotics later and it was gone. One Nobel prize later and now the treatment of peptic ulcers is turned on its head and instead of months or years of discomfort it can often be sorted with a week or two course of anti-biotics. 
Djinjja-Ninja, WikiEdtingProfile2021
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179points

#18

45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them
Pearl Jam war with Ticket master.
In 1994, American rock band Pearl Jam filed a complaint with the antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice, claiming that Ticketmaster has a "virtually absolute monopoly on the distribution of tickets to concerts" and attempted to book its tour only at venues that did not use Ticketmaster. However, no action was taken on Ticketmaster.
Sensitive-Whereas574, GabboT
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178points

#19

45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them
The Deep-sea exploration community warning OceanGate against ocean tourism. OceanGate basically told them to mind their business.
redman9000, Jholman
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169points

#20

45 People Who Were Right All Along But No One Believed Them
John Snow. He tried to remove the handle of a water pump in London that was drawing its water downstream from a sewage pipe People who drew water from the pump caught cholera.
PsychologyStock8353, Originally from en.wikipedia
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159points
166
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