People Who Were Vilified for Trying to Warn the World

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People Who Were Vilified for Trying to Warn the World

There are many historical figures who we respect and appreciate today for their sacrifice to science, technology, and politics, however, there was a time when those same people were seen as martyrs and liars for their discoveries.

By RustyBuckler

Published 1 year ago in Wow

At r/AskReddit they discussed the people in history who were not believed during the time of their research and outspoken views on the world, but later became celebrated for those same facts.

1
Nan Briton had an affair with US president Warren G. Harding in the early 1920s. Harding died of a heart attack in 1923, and Briton tried to sue for child support. She was ridiculed in court. In 2015, Ancestry.com did a DNA analysis on Harding's and Briton's descendants. Nan was telling the truth. u/archfapper

2
Johnny Lyden when he said on the radio that Jimmy Saville was dodgy. u/Infrared_Herring

3
Remember when people thought Marie Curie's work was 'too dangerous'? Now we can't imagine medicine and technology without her discoveries. u/eminent_mowing

4
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. u/-Some_Random-

5
The McDonald’s coffee burn incident. Stella Liebeck didn’t want it to be a spectacle, she just wanted her medical bills paid. She wanted her medical bills paid because she had 3rd degree burns on her skin. Coffee shouldn’t be that hot It was ultimately the lawyers and the jury that determined the payout, she had no say in any of it. u/redditor420_69

6
Sinead 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. u/Theartofdumbingdown

7
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. u/redman9000

8
Ignaz Semmelweis. The world didn’t know about germs yet, but he saw that way less women were dying from childbirth when midwives attended the births than when doctors did (doctors were coming from autopsies and wrecking women). Ignaz suggested they start washing their hands, and people lost their 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. u/AhemExcuseMeSir

9
Nicolaus Copernicus, theorized that the planets actually circled the sun instead of the other way around. The church initially accepted heliocentricacy but banned his views in 1600s. u/buckmaster86

10
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. u/Wisely_0904

11
I would say the UN Chief Inspector, Hans Blix, who said in a 2003 report that the UN investigation team had found no evidence of WMD in Iraq. Completely torn apart by the American government, public, and press. And yet… no WMD were ever found in Iraq. u/Strong-Persimmon7071

12
Monica Lewinsky. She was a 20-y-o White House intern who got taken advantage of. Then the media crucified her for it. u/slappy_mcslapenstein

13
Alan Turing It crushes my soul just thinking about how much he changed computer science and computation only to have such a horrible end of life. Without him WW2 would have lasted far longer and cost so many more lives. u/IgnatusFordon

14
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 collera. u/PsychologyStock8353

15
Richard Jewell - A security guard who found a bomb in a bag at the Olympics. But, for some reason local police told the media that he was a suspect and the press absolutely roasted him for months. Turned out, he was not the bomber. He was in fact a real life hero who possibly saved many lives. But his life was absolutely ruined. The press quickly squashed the story of the real bomber b/c they would have to admit how wrong they were about Richard Jewell first. Years later he couldn't get work because even after the real bomber was caught people still thought he did it. u/Richard Jewell