Galileo Syndrome

The Galileo Syndrome is also called the Galileo Fallacy, and is best known for its use by conspiracy theorists and anti-vax adherents.

The Galileo Syndrome is a logical fallacy that asserts that if your ideas provoke the establishment to supposedly vilify or threaten you, then you must be right — "everyone says I am wrong, therefore I am right."

It is not known if Galileo Galileo (1564-1642) actually expressed those words in Latin (Omnes, inquit, Fallor, ergo recte). Better known is his E pur si muove ('and yet it moves') uttered in 1633 after being forced to recant his claims that the Earth moves around the Sun, rather than the opposite.

Stupid people use this argument too often in response to serious criticisms on their views on a subject that they simply don't understand. What proponents of this fallacy fail to understand is that not all people who challenge the mainstream scientific consensus are martyrs or revolutionaries: in most cases, they are just simply idiots.

Another, closely related quote is 'First They Ignore You, Then They Ridicule You, Then They Fight You, Then You Win'.

This quote is invariably misattributed to Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) and proudly repeated like a mantra by complete idiots who think that their idea of science must be more true than that of a scientist who spent his entire working life to understand his chosen field.

Delving deep into history we find the first version of this misattributed quote in 1914 in a speech by the American labour union leader Nicholas Klein when he says 'And, my friends, in this story you have a history of this entire movement. First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you. And that, is what is going to happen to the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America'.